With my booked flight in the afternoon I had hoped to be able to still have time to check in at the hotel and then go to the runners’ expo before they closed to get the entire pickup over with before the crowds would arrive on the last days before the run.
My flight was at 1500 with an arrival time of 1600 2 hours later. Despite being almost half an hour late taking off we still made the landing on time. A short taxi to the gate and reaching immigration, apart from staff, only me and two others from the flight was present, so that was the fastest automatic immigration process ever! Following a long walk to the Heathrow Express I had an uneventful ride to Paddington where I changed to a local train. The train here was halted as another further ahead had stalled at a station and they were waiting for a crew to sort it out before we could continue. At home that could easily take 10-20 minutes, and I was prepared to wait for that, but only a few minutes later they had solved the issue and we were off. Reaching my destination there was a 5 minutes’ walk from the train to the hotel and I was checked in and in my room at 1710.
I thought that was pretty impressive considering the size of the airport and the chaos that sometimes ensues. I grabbed the necessary stuff and returned to the train that I then took out to the expo where I spent an hour or so wandering around looking at the booths after getting my bib and pack.
I took the train back but got off a few stations before the one at my hotel to have a walk and see the darkening city. I ended up walking along the Themes taking in the London Skyline, especially with Tower Bridge and London Tower (naturally). A few hours later I was back at the hotel after a surprising chilly walk.
The following day I took a slow morning and grabbed breakfast at the hotel. I have always considered it an unwritten rule that if you leave your keycard at the table it indicates you haven’t left but just up and grabbing more food. Not here, apparently; returning from the buffet with some bread rolls my table was cleared including my card. I grabbed hold of the waiter and pointed at the table but before I got to say anything he reassured me it was unoccupied. I pointed out that it had been occupied by me, leaving my card to signal that, and now it was all gone. He huffed, almost rolled his eyes (from me being a difficult guest or from an overeager colleague I can’t say), ruffled through the table with dirty dishes and returned my card when I came back with more drinks to replace my lost glasses. I might bring a jacket tomorrow so I don’t get the same treatment. Then again; they might just think someone have forgotten it and remove that, too.
After this a bit too interesting breakfast I returned to my room, grabbed my stuff and went out to have a walk without any set purpose. I got all the way to outside the hotel doors until I had my first break: it was absolutely pouring down so I felt it was best to wait until it dried up a bit more – just like everyone else standing around, waiting. Only a few moments later I was able to get on with my day.
Passing through – well, around as they were doing renovations – Trafalgar Square I continued on towards Buckingham Palace which required a small detour as they were already preparing for the marathon and the Mall – the main street going up to the palace – is the finishing area for the run. Going through the park there were pigeons, geese, squirrels and ducks as you’d expect from a city park, but to my surprise there were also parakeets which were being fed by passerbys. I did not expect to see them here, I would have thought that parakeets preferred better (warmer, dryer) weather than what you’d get in London, but apparently not.
From there I circled west through more parks until I reached the Themes across from the Battersea Power Station, probably best know for being on the cover of Pink Floyd’s album Animals. From there I trotted along the river until reaching Parliament and Big Ben, an area which was hard to get through as Extinction Rebellion and other similar groups were protesting with stages, booths and what have you. Managing to get through I continued, ending up away from the river, getting a late lunch consisting of fish & chips. One of the advantages of travelling alone is when you are in a queue waiting for a table, and they suddenly have a small table available you get to skip numerous larger groups in front of you.
After lunch I trotted a bit around before returning to the hotel for a break before leaving again in the evening for dinner. I ended up at a nice Italian place with quick service and good food – and it turned out it was only 10 minutes from the hotel, something I hadn’t realized when arriving due to the random walking and zigzagging getting me there.
Saturday morning the travel group met up at 0700 to go for a short morning run. We ran to the starting area 2-ish km away and back again. As it was just us the way there wasn’t blocked off so we had to adhere to the traffic lights on the way, and combined with a couple of stops where we were briefed on tomorrow it ended up being a very relaxing almost 1-hour 5km run.
Following a shower and breakfast I left on a short walk to not to be holed up in the small hotel room all day. Ending up being almost 3 hours I ended up walking east past Spitalfields market, St. Katherine Docks Marina, Tower Bridge and London Tower before heading back.
For dinner there was a pasta buffet at the hotel. With a major part of the travel group having signed up we got our own section of the restaurant for ourselves. Unfortunately, despite not being able to hear the other groups in the restaurant, the acoustics of the room was absolutely horrendous so as soon as someone started talking, you could barely hear what the person next to you was saying. But the pasta – and desserts – were good.
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