Running the Parks of London

Everyone kept telling me running in London is awesome. From my memories of studying abroad in London over 6 year ago, this is in fact true. There’s an abundance of parks to run in. And since my last long-stay in London, I’ve become a long distance runner, so the number of parks have become more important. I usually just stuck to 3-5 mile runs in Regent’s Park back in 2004. Now, things are a bit different. On my 12 mile run last weekend, I made my way through Camden Town, Regent’s Park, down to Oxford Circus, did a loop of Hyde Park, where I saw Kensington Palace, and made my way back to the apt. I had been running in Hampstead Heath previously, so I changed it up a bit for the longer run to see more of London’s parks.

When this trip to London was becoming finalized, I realized I wasn’t going to be running a ½ marathon this month. My sisters and a few lucky NYC’ers ran the NYC ½ last weekend with Kara Goucher. I was amongst the unlucky runners who didn’t get into the lottery (plus 1 million of my runner friends). So our options were the National ½ in DC and a ½ in Wilmington, Delaware. Since I’m about 3,400 miles away, these races weren’t happening for me. But my friends who did run this past weekend did awesome.

Next option, find a race in either England or somewhere in Europe. There were a few options, but going outside of England was going to be too difficult to plan when I had so much work going on. I looked at nearby places in England, but all the good ones sold out. So my options kept decreasing. Luckily I found one within the city of London! So I decided to run the Waltham Forest Borough ½ in North London. The post code is E4, so it seems close, but in fact it wasn’t (it was practically in Scotland). I think whomever came up with the post codes mixed it up with E14, which is in Central London.

You can see a theme with a few recent posts. Yup, travel issues. And man did that come to fruition on Sunday. The night before was British Summer Time, so we skipped ahead an hour. I lost an hour of sleep. Yay. I attempted to register online for this race a couple of weeks ago, but it wouldn’t let me. My plan was to arrive to the race start by 8am to give plenty of time to register before the 9am start. Yeah, that didn’t happen. Lovely http://www.tfl.gov.uk/ totally was wrong in their “Trip Planner” option. I missed the first bus by mere seconds. I had to wait another 15 minutes. The transfer bus apparently doesn’t exist. Great. After wondering around trying to find it, I finally got on a bus that was going in the direction I wanted. I had been looking out for cabs, but in North London they are sparse, especially early on a Sunday morning. At the next stop there were some cabs! I had to negotiate a £10 cab ride to the start. Luckily he took me.

I arrived at the start right as the race was beginning. I had to hurry up and register, strip down to my running clothes, and drop off my bag. I started about 5 minutes after the start. Normally this isn’t a huge issue when there are thousands of runners, but there were about 200 people running this race. I played catch up for a few miles. Of course I’m running on adrenaline and eventually had to slow down. AND all these hills kept coming out of nowhere. This “London is flat” mantra is not true from my perspective.

Considering I only had about 4 long runs, ranging from 6-12 miles over the last couple of months, I’m glad I finished with a half-way decent time. I of course stalked the website all day yesterday to get my official results and yup, I’m not on the list. Somehow my chip didn’t register or I wasn’t included due to my tardiness. No worries, I reach out to them and hopefully they will add me. I mean, I did fork over £30 for this race.

Now if I was on the list, it would have gone like this: My official time was 1:52:38 and I placed 89 out of 234. Not too shabby. I got a cool yellow comfy tee, my medal and a Cadbury egg. Yeah, getting ready for Easter! I then made my way back to Camden, where I had lunch with my cousin to celebrate. Hopefully the next international ½ goes smoother…

Jour à Paris

I had been in London for over 2 weeks and barely left the Camden and Covent Garden areas. Until this past Tuesday! Where I went to Paris for the day for a pitch meeting. I took the eurostar for the first time from St. Pancras to Gare du Nord. We arrived to a gorgeous Parisian day. If only we could find a café, have a glass of wine and a croissant. But alas, we had to get to our hotel to practice.

We all arrived in Paris with no euros. I had about £10 and $10. No euros. We had to make sure we found a taxi that took credit cards. Luckily we had someone in our group from Montreal who speaks French.

We made it to the gorgeous hotel where we had the run around. We didn’t know whether we were eating lunch or practicing in meeting room. Nonetheless I kept asking “Parlez-vous anglais?” a lot to get clarification. It's nice to see something from high school French stuck.

We had two taxis picking us up at the hotel to go the client. Obviously only one showed up. I had the presentation and got in the cab that was there. Fifteen minutes later, we all made it to the client, where we pulled off a pretty good presentation.

It was now late in the afternoon (still amazing outside) and we had to head back to Gare du Nord. A minivan was supposed to come and pick us up. Of course I had to call them numerous times since they were late. We got a little French sun, but we were stressing about getting back to the station for our train. The taxi showed up and we made our way to the station via the Arc de Triomphe and some Parisian side streets. I fork over €70 (about $100) for the cab ride. I didn’t realize I was going to the French countryside.

We get to Gare du Nord and apparently there was a suspicious package. Of course, all trains were delayed. It was hard to tell with the language barrier and their thick accents, but it sounds like this happens often. We decide to get a drink. Well the track number wasn’t showing up and no one seemed to be boarding our train, so we got food. We made some friends who were also watching out for the departure of the train.

All of a sudden someone tells us we have to get on the train. Oh jeez. I grab the 2^nd half of my sandwich and take one last sip of my wine and run to the train. Of course we had to go through customs. The Brits got through with no problem. I get through with no problem. Unfortunately our other two American colleagues got questioned—a lot. The big sister in me had to wait for them. We were a little nervous. Are they going to make it?? However the worst that could happen is they—slash me—get stuck in Paris for the night. There are worst things.

Luckily we all make it and run to the very beginning of the train—WAY down the platform. We get to our seats, drop off our belongings, and immediately make our way to the drinks car.

Our day of transportation was apparently typical of Paris, but man it was stressful. It helped that I was half asleep.

London Buses

My blog is evolving slightly. More and more about various experiences and what not. As you know, I’m in London for the rest of the month. Besides getting familiar with the pubs, the running paths in the various parks, and the British English language, I’ve been learning on how to get myself around London. And, as a resident of NYC for almost 6 years, I’m pretty familiar with public transport. But, boy was this past week taking London transport not ideal. Who would have though I’d miss my beloved 7 train?

The last time I took a bus on a consistent basis was when I first moved to NYC. I took the Q46 to the E, and then took the 6 downtown to Murray Hill. I definitely don’t miss the bus. For a number of reasons. So riding the bus every day to work is not what I exactly want to do.

So there have been a number of days where I’ve had to get up a bit early to get into the office by 8am. Yeah, not fun. The commute is about a similar amount of time as in NYC, but could be much less. Hopstop says that Bus 29 is the way to go. I get on it right down the street and practically drops me off at the office. Sounds pretty ideal, right? For the most part, yes. Except when the bus is super crowded, it shows up late, passes your stop, or tells you to get off. Yeah, not fun then.

I will tell you a bit more about 2 of my mornings experiencing London transport. Both of them this week. Monday morning I make my way to the bus stop. The little electronic timetable says we have two minutes until the 29 shows up. Score! Except it just rolls on by. And so did the next one. The 243 also comes by, but this one doesn’t take me to the office. But doesn’t matter since that doesn’t stop either. Well after abut 20 minutes of no stopping by either bus, I decide I’ll just get on the next bus that’ll stop. As long as I can get closer to London center. So yeah, Buses 29 and 243 just keep driving by. Awesome. Now anyone who deals with public transport is most likely having an internal dilemma. Do I find an alternate route or should I wait (because you know the next one will be the one to take you to your destination). Well I decide to wait. The 243 finally stops (after 30 minutes of waiting). This means I have to get off at

Camden Road

and get on the tube there. I had no option but to get on the Northern line and hope that takes me close to the office. And luckily it did. About an hour later, I finally get to the office. Yay.

Now Wednesday was just as fun, but definitely not as time-consuming. I walk out the apt and notice there seems to be a lot of traffic on

Camden Road

. Well I automatically think it must be because I was getting a late start. Now my late start was leaving at 8:20am to get to the office by 9am. So not really late if you know what I mean. I should’ve known something was up. The 29 shows up pretty quickly. I get on the bus, scan my Oyster card and find a spot to read my Kindle. I think we go 10 feet and suddenly there’s an announcement that there’s traffic/an accident ahead. Perfect. I don’t move immediately. I want to see if it’s worth it to wait. I overhear a girl spout off directions to the tube. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the Camden Town stop. I got onto Google maps and sure enough there was a tube stop not too far away, about ½ mile. So I decide to go find it. With my trusty Blackberry and google Maps app, I was on my way. Now I haven’t given up my NYC walk (super fast—and try to keep up with me, I dare you) and It’s even more apparent when I’m running late. I made my way to the tube, got on a super crowded Picadilly line and got to the office in record time. Sweating. And a little flustered.

Today was also interesting. I walked around London a lot, and towards the end of the day, I make my way from

Trafalgar Square

back home. Obviously it’s crowded in this particular area since it’s a touristy spot. But also, it was a Saturday AND the weather was gorgeous today. Of course everyone was out and about. Now I don’t know if this is normal or maybe it was a fluke, but I pretty much had to elbow my way to get to the tube entrance to scan my card. Way too many people for my liking. And of course, I was THAT person who had to turn around since my Oyster card wasn’t working. I bought a weekly pass last weekend that should’ve have worked until tomorrow. I’m convinced the London Transport just stole money from me. I get on the Northern line and make it to Camden Town. Where I then had to elbow my way onto the bus. Argh. I'm usually outspoken on the any MTA transport if people aren't moving when there's space. Come one people, subway etiquette? I've been quiet here since I don't want to be the rude American. But not today. I spoke up. And of course no one moved, so I did.

It can only get better and still can’t be worse then being underground in NYC on a subway with no air-conditioning in the middle of July. At least not yet….

March in London

My 4-week stint in London has gotten off to a good start. I arrived last Sunday and will be working out of our London office until the beginning of April. I’m helping out on the brand I work on and get to spend some time in Britain while I do it! This post contains the highlights from the past week. Fun times.

Day 1

I had a pretty smooth trip from my apt in Queens to my temporary apt in Camden Sunday morning. Now with any red eye flight, I didn’t get much sleep. The only way to try to attempt to get over jet lag is to stay up. So that was my mission on Sunday and boy did I stay up. I arrived, checked out the apt, unpacked a little bit and dug out my running clothes. I decided to wake up a bit by going on a 4.5 mile run to Regent’s Park and up Primrose Hill. Now since I ran 9 miles the day before, trying to conquer Primrose Hill may not have been the best idea, but the view was amazing (in it’s typical London dreariness).

After a quick shower, my friend (and coworker) Leia and I wandered around Camden Town to check out the markets, and eventually made ourselves to an English pub. We quickly learned that American girls are a novelty and we may get more attention than we expected. Well if Prince William (or Harry) comes along, I’m fine with that.

After a couple of pints, we decided we needed to stock our temporary kitchens with wine and sustenance. We headed to Sainsbury’s and wandered up and down the aisles to familiarize ourselves with British grocery brands (I was keeping an eye for the McVities caramel digestives). Good thing we didn’t stay at the pub for a couple more pints—apparently grocery stores in London close by 5:30 on Sundays. 5:30?! A fact that I will have to remember on errand Sunday.

Day 2

Monday was my first day in the London office for the month. It’s in a prime location near Covent Garden (next to the Lego building). Good spot to wonder around at lunchtime. When I have time, which I did have that day. Luckily the weather was nice. Not only was the sun shining in my window, I have a great view of the gym’s swimming pool. This pool is outdoors and it’s March. And yet somehow there are people swimming in it, without wetsuits. My only guess is that it must be heated. Why else would you jump into an outdoor pool during the winter in London?

After a longer day than I had hoped, I prepared to leave the office. Well apparently the front doors are locked by 9pm and I had to exit via the car park. Well that was interesting. I was hoping the British doorman wasn’t going to kidnap me as he led me on a long journey through the depths of the building. We passed some rat traps, and I left by the huge sliding door. I hope the front door gets fixed soon…

Day 3

You know that scene in Love Actually where the sandwich guy comes into an office and tries to pick up a girl? Well that didn’t happen to me, but the sandwich guys exist! He came in and dropped off a bunch of sandwiches that people had ordered. Next thing I know, this guy is going to make his way to Wisconsin with the intention of meeting hot, American girls.

We had another sunny day! So I wandered around Covent Garden and made my way to Nike. Of course I inquired about a running group and sure enough there is one! I will hopefully make it to one of the weekly runs this month.

After lunch, I realized that I was still jet-lagged. Wanna know why? I noticed my shirt was on backwards. Yup. My shirt was on backwards for most of the day. Awesome.

Day 4

Another day at work. Woop woop. The usual, except a group of us went out to dinner out at Christopher’s in Covent Garden that evening. I started off with a delicious Thai Spicy martini and had some yummy halibut and spinach. Portions were definitely smaller than in the States (or America?). I was still a bit hungry; luckily dessert came.

Day 5

I went for another run on Thursday and got my first British cat call. Now I was listening to my shuffle, so I didn’t quite hear what the guy in the bright yellow jacket and funny looking vehicle yelled. But I’ll assume he was cheering on my awesome running form.

Now my apt is equipped with a nice TV (nicer than the one I have back in Queens). It’s large (I have no idea what inch), flat-screen LG. A great TV to watch shows on, right? Except it looks as if I only get one channel—BBC One. Yeah, so that’s the only station I’ve been watching. Luckily I get the news and some humorous British shows.

Day 6

Friday finally came. It was kind of a long week, especially being jet lagged. Our London co-workers welcomed the Americans in the office by going out to a British pub nearby. Typical American fashion, we were late to our own party since we were busy at work. During this month, I will be doing my best to adopt the British working habits. We did have a couple of pints before last call. However, last call wasn’t at 4am, it was at 11pm. Yeah, 11pm! I guess this is intended so people don’t get ridiculously wasted and get in trouble. The Brits have a habit of doing that.

Day 7

Leia and I decided to check out Notting Hill with our boss. However, we didn’t actually see much of the neighborhood. We headed The Ladbroke Arms and proceeded to have a 4-hour lunch. We were entertained by the stories of our boss and her friend. After a few bottles of wine, we made our way back to our apt. We made dinner plans and then headed to Islington, a fun, young neighborhood. Lots of restaurants and bars. Good spot to hang out I’m thinking.

This was a lot to read, but a lot of new and different things happened this past week. As I go into week 2, I have to figure out how to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit.

Flash Mob

#25

Doing a flash mob was another goal that I didn’t have on my original list. It actually had gotten cut out from the much longer list but then added back in the last second. My copywriter said cleaning out my closet was too boring. So I figured I’d grab my friend Sandra (who’s idea it was) and try do one this year. After adding it, I decided it was definitely a good idea. I mean, I love to dance and I love musicals. So why not participate in a flash mob?

You may ask what exactly is a flash mob? According to Wikipedia a flash mob is:

a term coined in 2003 to denote a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and sometimes seemingly pointless act for a brief time, then disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment and/or satire

So kind of unusual and pointless act did I want to do? Dance around to a catchy song of course. Sounds fun, right? There are lots of famous flash mobs. Mostly in train stations or other such public places. My aunts did one recently on Main Street in Nantucket before Christmas. You may have seen the one that aired on Modern Family. And I’m pretty sure everyone has seen the one that the Black Eyed Peas surprised Oprah with.

So onto the flash mob that I participated in. Well my friend Pam’s coworker Danielle passed along an email chain from The Hom Store in Bay Ridge. Well they were working with The Green Spa and a local dance company to do a flash mob. Of course I immediately recruited my friend Sandra to participate.

On Saturday afternoon, we practiced for a couple of hours to "Dog Days are Over" by Florence and the Machine. When I say practice, we kind of danced around (well at least me, since Sandra is a legit dancer) and watched other flash mobs. Fun stuff.

The flash mob was to occur Sunday morning in Bay Ridge. If you know where I live in NYC, it’s like HOURS away! So I stayed overnight in Brooklyn (after some dinner and birthday partying). Needless to say, when our alarm went off at 6:45am, we were not too pleased. Way too early AND way too many beers the night before.

We get sustenance (bagels) and practiced with the group a little bit. Mostly stood around and watched. Well I was a bit unclear on the process since I’ve never done this before. I didn’t realize we would be practicing in public, which you figured you want to avoid until the actual performance... They were putting together a video that may or may not be on the O network. We shall see…

Well here’s the video (compliments of Danielle’s boyfriend Jeremiah):

Now as you can see from that video, I was about 1 second behind everyone else. Guess I needed to practice more and not drink the night before. Either way. I would love to do another one in a more public place and definitely have the element of surprise. Everyone knew what were doing on 3^rd Avenue in Bay Ridge. Next time Grand Central…