I Ran 36 Miles Across London in a Day. Here's What I Learned

Every year as the days reach their shortest and Christmas is almost upon us, I pick a challenge and set off for a long run. Partly to try something new, and partly to bank some miles before the overindulgence of the holidays, my rules are simple – it has to push me and be fun at the same time.

In the past I’ve run the London Underround (a marathon you run solo which takes in the platforms of 42 underground stations … and the steps up and down to get there), and the Thames Path from City Hall to Twickenham.  

This year I chose to run the 36 miles distance of the District line. That meant starting at Upminster and running the route between every station on the line to Richmond.

On a cold day four weeks ago I set off at 5am on the two hour trip to my start line. 

There are plenty of tales I can tell about the run itself. I carried three different maps (you can’t rely on phone batteries to last for the whole distance on these runs), I had unscheduled stops at shops (Vaseline) and toilets (application of Vaseline), I got lost, it rained, and at several times I was close to tears. When I left in the morning Jose Mourinho was still the Utd manager, and I knew little about some of the less travelled parts of London. When I finished in the dark that evening, both Mourinho and my ignorance were goners.

There were many things I thought about that day, and when you’re running for six and half hours you have plenty of time to think. Here are the main things I learned:

1.  London is Not Equal

Everyone expects that prime Central London properties will out-price those in East London. But when you see the glaring differences in a single day, it’s striking. The average house price in Barking and Dagenham is ￡307,971 (the least in London), whereas it’s ￡2,570,950 in Kensington and Chelsea (the most). Both these boroughs were on my run. 

Around Dagenham Heathway and Becontree there is street after street of 1960s houses. Most are kept beautifully, but the roads are peppered with wheelie bins (no spacious front gardens to hide them), some front doors were behind bars, and large satellite dishes and aerials stick-out of every other house. It can feel cluttered as space is a premium. So windows are mostly covered with net curtains or material; people want to live here, but also want their own little private piece of London to themselves. Black cabs are parked on driveways, and tradesmen’s vans are in the street.

By the time I had got to Eaton Square everything had flipped. Tradesmen were working on the mansions, black cabs ferried people to their houses, and windows were covered to stop tourists gawping. Security was tight, but instead of bars across the windows, Eaton Square has four full time security men who patrol in waistcoats. One flat I ran past was on the market for ￡7.9 million and it's only a 3-bedder.

2.      Londoners are a great bunch

One of my pet hates is when those from outside London complain that we don’t all talk to each other on the tube. I lived in Yorkshire for 7 years and it is NO different. We don’t talk on the tube in the same way we don’t talk in the library. It’s a time to be on your own. Yorkshire has no tube, but believe me, the buses are just as full of smart-phone zombies as down here.

From Hornchurch to Hammersmith everyone I ran past was great. Dog walkers stopped to make space for me to pass, white van men stopped the traffic to let me cross the road without breaking stride, the lady serving me in Superdrug (see above re. Vaseline!) didn’t even complain that I was sweating over her counter!  

In the whole day of running I honestly didn’t see one altercation. No road-rage, no arguments, and hardly any police. And this is a City which swells to over 8 million people during the day, and I ran right through the middle of it during both rush-hours.

3. London is open for business

In one small stretch of road I came across a parade of shops which epitomises London. There was a Turkish hairdressers, a Nigerian money transfer shop, an American burger take-away, a Bangladeshi restaurant, a firm of accountants, and a Co-op. I ran past gleaming sky scrapers, and road-side food stalls. I saw shopkeepers chatting and laughing on the pavement, and City workers chatting and laughing in bars. I saw plumbers who wouldn’t know a fixed asset from dividend. I saw accountants who wouldn’t know a faucet from a u-bend. 

There are niches everywhere and businesses slot in to fill these gaps. London is skilled, and above all it’s entrepreneurial. No matter if you’re a lawyer in Temple, or a carer in Upney, you’re a valued part of this City. I saw all of this.

If you ever doubt how great London is, just imagine someone from Leeds, or Manchester, or Glasgow, or anywhere else, telling you we’re all miserable and hate each other? Challenge them to get out and see the place properly.