It’s Week 2 of the LSE’s final Summer School intake and the group made their way out on a running tour to explore London.

A bumper group turned out this evening with 15 runners ready to take on the London summer heat (hurray!) and learn a few of the local historical and modern spots of interests.

First up was Lincoln Inn Field for the warm up and a chance to test out the runners and their capabilities - coach report was that this was a high performing group who would easily deal with the planned 6km route!

Just to the North of Lincoln Inn a few minutes brisk running away is a special place for many people - Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital - the UKs first dedicated childrens hospital which opened in 1852 which we whizzed past en route our first stop. For those interested check out the link between JM Barrie and his famous creation Peter Pan and the hospital.

Our second destination was just a short hop away on Doughty Street - the Charles Dickens museum! His former home where he wrote some of his most memorable novels and now a museum designed to look like it did when he lived there. More quiz action for the team and it was to guess the names of novels written at the house, lots of good guesses but with points aplenty this round. (Answers include the Pickwick Papers, Nicholas Nickleby and of course Oliver Twist).

On we ran to Coram’s Fields and the Foundling museum, designed to resemble Thomas Coram’s original foundling hospital (opened in 1739 after 17 years of petitioning!) - another first of its’ kind in the UK. Plenty of quiz questions this round with runners scoring more hits. A fitting place for us to get a team snap to remember the achievements of this fantastic place.

Our final destination was Coal Drops Yard and the Regents Canal but we had to make a quick detour via Kings Cross and Platform 9 and 3/4 for the Harry Potter fans out there. And just like that we were at the canal, taking in Granary Square, the huge choice of shops, bars and restaurants and the movie screen on the water (which had been removed this week....) normally watched in deck chairs under the setting sun by happy Londoners.

With the site visits in the bag it was a loop back to the LSE and the end of our time together. One final question once we got back to settle on tonight's winner - when was the LSE set up? The answer was 1895 and while no one got the answer it meant everyone was the winner! In the end we ran just shy of 6kms and we ran for exactly 60 minutes!!

Thanks to all the students for being good sports and running with me I hope to see many of you on a future run!

16 runners from the London School of Economics joined Area Activator Simon for lovely sightseeing run around Central London this evening.

We started with a traditional Goodgym count off outside the LSE Student Union in Holborn- each member of our team recited their name, number and whether they owned any pets. Most popular animals were dogs 🐕 and rabbits 🐰 (with a few cats 🐈 , fish 🐟 and tortoises 🐢 in the mix too!). From here, we jogged together towards Lincoln's Inn Fields for a group warm up with additional dynamic stretches to raise the heart rate- ready for about of hour of running.

We started our journey by running down Bell Yard (passing The Seven Stars pub, a tiny boozer for lawyers dating back to 1602), and on to Middle Temple Lane, an Elizabethan terrace that survived the Great Fire of London. This cobbled slope has been used as a filming location for films like Sherlock Holmes, Shakespeare in Love, A Christmas Carol and Mary Poppins Returns, due to its unique period centric appearance. Turning left at the Thames, we ran together along the Embankment and though Victoria Embankment Gardens, passing multiple war memorials and green public spaces on route.

After jogging past Somerset House, we turning towards the Cabinet Rooms and on to Horse Guards Parade, a beautiful arch leading to Green Park. Following the Serpentine (a lake running through the Royal Parks), we enjoyed some bird watching on route (loads of ducks, swans, geese, herons and even friendly parakeets hanging out with humans in the park). The main pathway took us to our official half way point- Buckingham Palace!

Buckingham Palace is best known as the administrative HQ of the British monarchy, and residence for the Royal Family. It was also the primary hub for the recent Royal Jubilee celebrations, a national holiday dedicated to the rare occurrence of a monarch's 90th birthday. You can also witness the "changing of the guard" in the courtyard.

On our return trip, we made our way down "The Mall", a long straight avenue best known as the finishing section of the London Marathon. We ran our original route back to the Embankment, and made an alternative turn back to Aldwych and Covent Garden by climbing up the slope on Savoy Street (by the super famous Savoy Hotel- featured in the iconic Bob Dylan video for "Subterranean Homesick Blues"). After a few wiggles down parallel streets, we arrived back at the Saw Swee Hock Building after covering almost 5 miles of consistent running between us. Great work everyone!

Here is the Strava data I recorded from the run:

https://strava.app.link/BWUVos2tcsb

We will be back again, same time, same place, next week. See you then!