DISTRICT LINE: Victoria to Wimbledon

We were back together again this week, tackling the District Line. Now, anyone who has ever caught the District line (surely a contender for the worst line in London?!) will probably agree that this was probably our best chance of actually beating a tube. In a bizarre turn of events though, it seemed there were no engineering works, leaves on the line or missing members of train staff today and we think the train might have JUST beaten us. We probably had more fun though.

It was back in the carnage of Victoria station that we began our journey. The mixture of confused tourists and considerable construction works causing chaos as per usual. But we found the right exit and nipped up along Elizabeth Street past well dressed west Londoners enjoying a leisurely brunch.

Sloane Square is really not very far from Victoria, in fact that was going to be a theme of the first half of this run. I propose a vote to help TfL close at least a third of these pointless stations, like people living in Sloane Square use the tube anyway...



Running along the Kings Road we felt as out of place as we had on Bond Street a couple of weeks previously, though at least here we had the Lululemon store suggesting that exercise is an acceptable pursuit, although obviously only if wearing insanely priced designer gear. Which of course, neither of us were. We were both in our rejection jumpers again- the cool matching look.


Looking back South Ken, Gloucester Road and Earl's Court are all a blur of beautiful houses, stunning station facades and people better dressed than us. I hate to be repetitive but I cannot emphasise enough how close these stations are; we hadn't even run 2 miles and yet had visited 5 already.

As we were stood outside Earl's Court trying to perfect our selfie (clearly a failure), we finally had some drama as the announcement rang out, "owing to a security incident please evacuate the station". As the crowds flooded out, we wondered if we should offer to escort people along our running tube to their final destinations. It would probably be quicker than waiting for the problem to be solved.


Next we were heading to West Brompton, in fact very close to the theatre where we'll be having our next Starling (choir) show - 1st and 2nd April 2017, be there or be square.

You'll notice our picture here isn't a selfie. This is because we were being chatted up by some absolutely charming builders who offered to take it for us. Apparently, we're beautiful. I mean, I think we'll leave that there.


We got a little bit lost trying to wiggle through the streets avoiding dead ends in order to get to Fulham, but somehow managed it. It's a real mixed bag around this area, the grandeur of West London giving way briefly to the pound shops of North End Road and then back to Whole Foods at Fulham Broadway. London.

I knew this area pretty well from my Tesco days when I did a couple of Boris bike days visiting the copious Tesco Express stores in the vicinity of Fulham so getting to Parsons Green and then Putney Bridge was an absolute doddle.

Running across the footbridge from Putney Bridge to East Putney was a real treat. The sun was still shining down on us and the river looked serene at low tide. Whilst it was still bitingly cold we were filled with gratitude at being outside enjoying our city and getting in a bit of vitamin D! Who needs supplements when you can run!

East Putney was a crouching station. Impossible to get the sign and us in otherwise. Anna thinks we should probably keep a note of crouching stations to support all of you reading this who will almost certainly be inspired to follow in our footsteps! So here's that note, just for you.


For the first time in this run, we finally had a chunky section before our next station. We also had a couple of hills. It was almost like we were doing this for the exercise rather than just to get comedy photos (with the ultimate aim of creating an epic tube map of our faces!). So it was a little bit tired out that we reached Southfields station.

We were on the home stretch now. We'd run 8 miles, and knew it would only be another one before we could get a hot drink and have a well earned rest. Wimbledon Park came pretty quickly and we watched from the bridge as a train rattled out of the station towards our final destination.

And then we went wrong. It was only a matter of time before I led us astray, geography degree or no geography degree. Frankly, its a miracle we'd made it this far without taking a wrong turning, particularly as West London is not my specialist subject. But of course I did it when we were on tired legs, so close to our final station. Thankfully it wasn't a critical failure of direction and we were able to revert to our course quite easily, though not without tackling a brutal, and unnecessary, hill!


As we reached Wimbledon we were really quite chilly in spite of the exercise. Our wrists and boobs were particularly cold, so if anyone has any tips for keeping these warm in the future please do let us know!

Clutching hot drinks, we said our goodbyes after another quality run. We'd taken it quite easy as I had a 10km race the next day and Anna was recording her music video (watch this space) but the point remains that we did it. We ran over 9 miles, explored a little more of our city above ground and coloured in a tiny bit more of our progress map!

Thanks for your support: www.virginmoneygiving.com/jessford www.virginmoneygiving.com/annashields



VICTORIA LINE: Brixton to Oxford Circus (Jess' Perspective)

Hi guys, so we’ve been at it again. Running when we could have just caught the tube all in the name of training! This week though unfortunately we couldn’t quite match up our busy schedules so had to take on the southern half of the Victoria line separately.

For those of you musically inclined, I wanted to make this blog a bit like The Last Five Years, without the emotional trauma, given that we ran in opposite directions and Anna lived my journey backwards… Unfortunately, Jason Robert Brown is a genius, and writing like that is impossible. So you’ll have to make do with a bog standard blog post (musical score potentially to follow in future, eh Anna?!).

I managed to tie this particular tube leg up with a visit to my new flat. So it was on the soon to be home turf of Brixton that I took my first selfie, before going to check out progress on site. Then it was dreaming of furniture purchases that I took off up to Stockwell.

I can pretty categorically say I was having one of the worst working weeks of my career and I probably set off a bit hard for the first couple of miles dealing with that stress. But running past the joyful memories of The Swan (sarcasm), looking like a complete dickhead taking a selfie in front of Stockwell Station and the slightly rebellious feeling of not being in the office at 2pm on a Wednesday was pretty cathartic.

In my newfound zen state, I reached Vauxhall very quickly. I went for a crouch in the selfie here- when sweaty, wearing running gear and getting drizzled on, the angle of the photo becomes even more important, believe me I’m becoming an expert!

Then it was across the river. I love running over bridges in London partly because of the space that suddenly opens up around you revealing a panorama of the city. This was the next stage in my de-stress, literally running over the healing water of The Thames. If I could run over a bridge every day I think my life would be better. If you’ve never done it…trust me you won’t regret it! Try and get multiple crossings into a run if you’re really in need of cheering up!

So it turns out Pimlico is practically on top of the river. I mean, I knew this, but it hadn’t really registered with me just how close. Weird given I sit outside The Gallery (shout out to the Picpoul de Pinet crowd) pretty much every week, less than 500m from the river! And you all know how I feel about the river now…

Victoria was just a short hop away but an absolute nightmare to navigate. I somehow avoided being hit by a bus and then was off up Grosvenor Place. By this point my pace had slowed a fair bit as my legs started to protest at the slight incline and the idea of returning to the litany of problems I had in the office!

Nevertheless, as I rounded onto Piccadilly past Green Park and onto Old Burlington Street, I had another of my favourite running feelings, I call it owning the city! Ladies, if you’ve ever been out without a handbag, with just your Oystercard or phone in London, you might know what I mean. When you’re such a ‘local’ that you don’t need to prepare for eventualities, you’re just popping out in your city and you get a bit of a buzz from it! No, just me?! Well as I weaved amongst the tourists onto Regent Street and towards Oxford Circus, it didn’t matter how many people I was sharing the pavements with, the West End felt like mine, and I was ready to take it by storm back in the office. Don’t try and stop me, I’m a runner.

Thanks for reading everyone! Here's where we're at....preparing for some pretty epic legs over the next couple of weeks so watch this space!

Jess x

www.virginmoneygiving.com/jessford

VICTORIA LINE: Green Park to Brixton (Anna's Perspective)

Today I've learned three things:

1- always buy the Pret Christmas sandwich when you see them in stock

2- running with a backpack is hard work

3- taking selfies outside tube stations is weird when you're on your own

Jess and I had to run our latest leg of the Tube Map independently this week because, well, we modern girls who want it all can't necessarily have it all when it comes to running schedules coordinating.

So, Oxford Circus - Brixton on the Victoria Line was the route of choice.

It's been a slightly upside down week, not least because of the US Election result... Having spent most of my day inside a windowless room teaching singing, my lunch break was met with the horror that Pret had run out of their Christmas sandwich. When I'd walked past earlier to the sight of a long queue I'd thought, "That'll have died down by the time I take my break." I was right, but so had the number of Christmas sandwiches. They'd died done to zero. Nothing. Nadda. Anyone who knows me well will know that, aside from the Pret chocolate croissant, their Christmas sandwich is my favourite thing. In fact, the two together make for a heavenly meal in my book. Anyway, all this meant that when leaving my teaching spot just off Piccadilly Circus, the thought of running up to Oxford Circus only to run back down to Piccadilly did not appeal. Sometimes not having the sandwich you want can really alter your day. So, I'm afraid I only ran Green Park - Brixton on this occasion; I'll make up the missing stop when I've had my sandwich fix.

Piccadilly Circus was heaving as you’d expect at 6.45pm on a Friday and the volume of people didn’t die down much as I gently jogged down to Green Park. I immediately felt the weight of my backpack a burden and realised I need to invest in something lighter weight. Much of this Tube Map Training project will involve running back from things, so it’s inevitable that a bag of ‘stuff’ will be in tow. I got to Green Park, which we’d visited on Sunday’s run too, and realised that taking selfies outside stations, especially when it’s obvious you’re a runner and not a tourist, is slightly awkward in the absence of friends. But a cheesy smile and a click later and I was on my way and free of the crowds. 

Passing the Bomber Command Memorial at the nose of Green Park was especially poignant considering its Remembrance Day. A tribute to the 55,573 Bomber Command Crew who lost their lives in WWII, it got me thinking about the pain of conflict and the senselessness of war. The political cloud of this week hanging over my head made the statues seem even more haunting as they were lit up against the evening sky, surrounded by poppy wreaths. 

Turning into Grosvenor Place I was sure I could smell horses in the air. You can take the girl out of Devon… I like to the think the Queen was mucking out the Buckingham Palace stables in the crisp evening air, but if she had any sense (and if she was home…) she’d have been indoors, feet up with a Domino’s.

Coming down to Victoria, which has been something of a maze the last couple of years as it undergoes regeneration, I weaved my way in and out of people, buses and taxis to get through to Vauxhall Bridge Rd, a quick snap of the station facade and the emerald signs of Wicked on the Apollo Victoria theatre nestled in the background. Following the scent of the fish stained streets of Tachbrook Market, I had reached Pimlico before I knew it. Running two choirs in this area means that for me Pimlico is something of a ‘choral stomping ground’. For almost seven years I’ve been coming here at least twice a week, but I’ve never run here, or taken a selfie outside the station… 

I am a lover of London bridges, so had to stop for a quick snap of the moon shining over the many glass-walled developments of Vauxhall. A quick station photo and it was off down South Lambeth Rd to get to Stockwell. I was beginning to get cold by this point, my bag heavy and my stomach hungry, so was grateful I didn’t have much further to go. 

As I entered Stockwell Rd, I noticed it had been shut off by police following an earlier car accident. A Mini that didn’t look in the best of shape sat alone in the middle of a police-taped quadrangle with lots of people looking on. I ran quickly past it all towards my Brixton destination, the glorious diversity of London never more present than in the various restaurants and bars en route. The Stockwell Skatepark looked like a melted Soviet plot, moodily lit by street lamps reflecting off its graffiti-clad ramps. I love London for these changing landscapes. To pass The Ritz, a Royal Palace, MI6, a car wreck and a skatepark in just 4.5 miles of road is what makes London London. As I was bombarded by the hordes of people on Brixton Road, I had reached my finish point. Freezing cold once I’d stopped, I’ll admit that I hopped in a cab home, where I quickly wolfed down a take away (just like the Queen…) 

So much for marathon nutrition.


www.virginmoneygiving.com/annashields

JUBILEE LINE: Canada Water to Baker Street

Today we tackled our first tube line. Now don't go reading too much into the Jubilee line being the first, I try not to have favourites (other than the Victoria, Vicky you know I love you).


Anna and I live in South London, amusingly in the context of this challenge not on the tube, so I tried to find a reasonably straightforward start point and an exciting route. We plumped for Canada Water and met at 11am on the Overground (not included).


The weather could not have been kinder to us with clear blue skies albeit very cold. But we both had our marathon 'rejection jumpers' to counter the chill as we snapped our first pic, got our bearings and set off.

Unsurprisingly, given the glorious weather the runners were out in force and the first leg of our journey saw us running alongside a group of dads and their running pushchair. We had a lot of love for the running dads.


To be honest with you, Canada Water and Bermondsey are really very close together! I'd only just put my phone away before I had to get it out again to snap this action shot of Anna passing Bermondsey.

Look at the colour of that sky. The sun was shining, the sky was cobalt blue and we were navigating ourselves by the Shard. Totally the point I made in my first post, about the everyday beauty that we shouldn't take for granted and the reason I think the work of the RNIB is so important.


London Bridge (where we got chatted up...did he think we had time to stop?!), Southwark and Waterloo were all a bit of blur next. We took a bit of a detour trying to find Southwark station, but were both feeling really motivated and chatting our way round so the extra mile or so wasn't an issue.

We did think to ourselves when we popped into some of the stations to get the requisite selfies, that someone cynical out there will probably think we just caught the tube between all of these! We can assure you, however, we did not...that is authentic sweat you can see in these lovely pics!


Things got very busy between Waterloo and Westminster, in spite of us avoiding the South Bank. We did have a good laugh at all of the tourists taking photos of the Houses of Parliament as they got in our way on Westminster Bridge, wondering why they'd want pictures of Parliament when they could have one of a tube station....

I felt like I was almost back on home turf as we ran up Birdcage Walk, into St James's Park, across my favourite bridge and up to Buckingham Palace, the highlight of my run to work. We did realise around this point though, that we should have definitely done this route the other way, as this 5th mile was particularly uphill. But we powered on up and sprinted the last bit of the hill to Green Park station.

At this point we were still both feeling great! Breaking the route up into stops and running with a friend just makes the whole thing so much easier and more enjoyable! We certainly didn't break our PBs, but our pace was still decent and it was mainly about covering the miles.


Running up Bond Street, we will admit we felt slightly underdressed. Anna wished she'd put on her diamond encrusted trainers, don't you hate it when you leave the house without any sparkle on for a run! As we turned onto Oxford Street we found the road was closed for the Christmas light switch on! *UPDATE We discovered Craig David and Sadiq Khan were there, if we'd known at the time we obviously we have hung around as apparently we looked "beautiful ladies" in our kit!* Instead, after quick stop and asking a tourist to take a snap of us by Bond Street station (she clearly thought we were mad!) we sprinted off along Europe's most famous shopping street (oops, work mode!) and weaved our way up through Manchester Square and Chiltern Street on our final stretch.

As we approached Baker Street, I wished we'd been slightly more ambitious with our inaugural run! We covered the right miles for our training plans, but were feeling good still and the experience had been great! Still, we're 9 stations down of the total 26 on the Jubilee, and I'm pretty excited about the next leg of our great tube map adventure!


From us squinting at Baker Street, goodbye!
www.virginmoneygiving.com/jessford
www.virginmoneygiving.com/annashields

If you're still not convinced of the scale of the challenge, or feel we're cop outs for only doing zone 1-3, check out this progress map (kindly provided by Anna Shields!).

A concept of distance

So I'm running the London marathon for RNIB....

Yes, 26.2 miles is a long way...but it's not the day I'm worried about. It is the miles and miles of training to squeeze in between now and April 23rd.


Part of the reason I am putting myself through this is to raise money for the RNIB who offer advice and support to people who are blind or partially sighted. The work they do to help people come to terms with losing their sight, offering practical advice on day to day life and campaigning to raise awareness of common causes of sight loss is invaluable. Any money you can give to support this would be hugely appreciated via www.virginmoneygiving.com/jessford THANKYOU!


So why the blog? Well I've had friends who have run the marathon before and we've all seen the social media posts when the famous 20 mile training run inevitably has to be done when the weather looks like something from the Day After Tomorrow. Impressive and you finally 'get' what they've been putting themselves through in training.


But it's not just one training run. I've got a plan and it is hideous. At least 4 runs a week, sprints sessions, hills sessions, cross training, long run, short run, easy run, yoga, foam roller, strength and conditioning. And I thought to myself, wouldn't it be interesting to keep track of just how far I run in training?


Now I love a stat as much as the next person, but if I said to most non-runners, I've run 13 miles this week down from 18 miles the week before (I blame Halloween..) they'd defriend me if not immediately, for sure by April next year. But they also probably wouldn't have a concept of that distance. How far is 13 miles? I mean, it sounds a reasonable effort but can be hard to relate.


So to try and give it some context I thought I'd borrow an idea from a friend who recently did a tube map relay for charity, taking a leg each and running the London Underground. But is that achievable? How far is the Underground in total?! Well, it's 250 miles , including the bit all the way out to Amersham (shout out to zone 9!). And I can pretty categorically say, barring injury or stupidity, I will be running 250 miles between now (November 1st) and April 23rd and I thought what better way of injecting some variety into those runs than making a tube map attempt.


For now I'm starting with zones 1-3. I've got my friend Anna who is running the Brighton Marathon for four incredible charities (www.virginmoneygiving.com/annashields) joining me, particularly for the ropey bits of the District Line (you know where I mean) and we're starting this Sunday with the Jubilee line from Canada Water to Baker Street.


Keep reading for updates, to find out my favourite line from above the ground and to watch as our colour-in tube map gradually turns from monochrome.


Thanks for your support and for reading! 
Jess, Marathon Trainee x