It certainly feels funny calling it a ‘tourist run’. After all, I was born and raised in the west end of London, Ontario, Canada. Byron, to be exact. I spent a lot of time running and biking through Springbank Park and Greenway Park along the Thames River.
However, when I visited a week or so ago, it was the first time I’d been in the park in the better part of a decade. Probably three decades had passed since I’d ran the parkways. Heck, it had been over five years since I’d been in the actual city of London.
The Run
I parked in a place I was most familiar with, at the far west end of Springbank Park, across from the Metro (formerly A & P) grocery store where I’d worked so long ago. It was just past 7am and already getting hot and humid, especially for May 31. Funny thing is, I almost pulled up lame not a kilometre into the run because I had a twinge in my right quad.
However, by the time I got to Animal Hill (I believe that’s what the slight incline beside Storybook Gardens is called), all was fine and off I was. I passed through the no-man’s land between Springbank and Greenway Park and went past Wonderland Gardens. The building that housed my high school graduation no longer stands, destroyed by a fire years ago. But, the area still brings back fond memories.
Passing through Greenway Park and the infamous sewage plant also brought back memories. Just, not quite as fond. The stink was the same and the swarms of bugs were the same. I sped up a bit for this section.
Something new for me was a pedestrian tunnel under the CN tracks at the end of Greenway Park. This allowed to do an extra loop up to Wharncliffe Road before circling back towards Springbank.
Arriving back at the main Springbank Park, I did a double loop of this section just to get my mileage in. I was almost shocked at how much of a non-hill ‘Dam Hill’ was. In the day, it was a legendary. After living beside the Niagara Escarpment and Bruce Trail for nearly 30 years, I hardly noticed the incline.
I finished up with just under 20km in the books. It was a nice run and I achieved my ultimate goal for every outing: to finish up injury free. Over the two or so hours of running, I recalled never having actually run this far at this location. In fact, I was really pushing it to put in two laps of just Springbank (which would be just less than 10km, I believe. It’s been 30 years, but I have this feeling that the 20km route I did would have been considered a decent bike ride for me, back in the day.
Future Running Plans In This Area
I plan to return to London for some running events further on in 2022. The Forest City Road Races have a half marathon on September 18. If this date doesn’t conflict with our planned Maritimes vacation, I’m in.
An almost ‘for sure’ is the Phoenix Trail Races on October 15. This is a double loop of Fanshawe Lake for a total of 50km on some pretty flat trail. Many years ago, I ran in an earlier version when it went under a different name. That time, I ran just the single loop 25km.
Too late to prepare for this year, I am already making plans for the 2023 version of the Persistence Back Yard Ultra. The event takes place just to the northeast of London on July 29. An official ‘back yard’ event, you need to run 6.706 km each hour on the hour. The time left over each hour is yours to recover. This event carries on until there is just one person left who hasn’t either dropped out or failed to complete the distance in the hour’s time.
Another London Tourist Run?
If I have a chance to return for just a personal run, I would simply extend what I did last week. Parkways travel along the Thames for the length of the city. Carrying water and fuel in a running pack would allow for a pretty lengthy run through London. In fact, you wouldn’t even need to carry much water. The parks have added public washrooms with drinking water refilling stations and there’s not a whole lot of distance between.