I retraced my steps on public transport to Stoke Newington and picked up the route again. The weather was much nicer today – no rain, cold except for when the sun revealed itself at which point it became very warm, so warm, I had to remove a layer. Fortunately, the sun only did this for about 20 minutes all told.
This was a much more straightforward route, although I still managed to get quite cross with both plotaroute map and Capital Ring signs. The plotaroute guy was clearly on a bike, so I excuse some of his route choices (and often, they’re very sensible). The signs are very mischievous – sometimes they’ll point off to the right, but if you ignore that and carry on, before you know it, they’re telling you you’re going the right way after all, like the first one was just a test of faith, or something. Lesson from this: do your own research beforehand!
Running alongside the Lee Canal was very pleasant, I love running next to canals.
Always some interesting things to see, and people living quite different lives (which of course, I can relate to more effectively now!). And nice to see what’s changed at the Olympic Park, as I haven’t been there since, er, the Olympics. How is that SEVEN YEARS AGO?!?
After the Olympic Park is the Greenway, which goes a very long way indeed. Apparently it dates from the Nineties and was originally called “Sewerbank”, as it was built on top of the Northern Outfall Sewer. Lovely. The Capital Ring signs couldn’t seem to decide if it was following the Greenway or not (causing some degree of swearing, I don’t mind telling you).
However, while an impressive thoroughfare in terms of distance and directness, God it is boring. Better on a bike, I reckon. Anyway, I was glad to bid goodbye to it and jiggle and jink down through Beckton District Park to the station. After no running for about 3 weeks, two 10 mile runs on consecutive days will mean my legs are pretty achy tomorrow. Two days off before leg 3!
Timsformational 