London is a better running city than its reputation suggests, and the reason is that almost none of the good running is on the streets. Between the royal parks, the river, the canals and the enormous outer commons, you can run for hours inside the M25 without waiting at a junction.
The parks
The obvious starting point, and the reason central London works at all as a place to train.
- Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens — about 630 acres together, and the standard central London long run. A lap of the outer path is roughly 7km.
- Regent's Park — the Outer Circle is 4.45km almost exactly, which makes it the default interval and tempo venue for half of central London. Flat, well lit, and busy at 6am for exactly that reason.
- Richmond Park — 2,500 acres, the largest of the royal parks and the best running in the city. The Tamsin Trail is a 7.3-mile perimeter loop on gravel, and there are deer.
- Bushy Park — where parkrun was invented in 2004, with thirteen runners. Now a global institution.
- Hampstead Heath — the hilliest running in inner London and the closest thing to a trail run inside zone 2. Parliament Hill is the only real climb in central London and it hosts national cross country.
The river and the canals
The Thames Path runs the full width of London and well beyond it in both directions, almost entirely traffic-free. Westward from the centre it goes through Putney, Hammersmith, Richmond and on towards Windsor; eastward through Greenwich to the Thames Barrier.
The canals are the underrated half. Regent's Canal runs from Little Venice through Camden and the Olympic Park to Limehouse, and the network connects onwards to the Grand Union, which you can follow out of London entirely. This is not theoretical: Country to Capital, the 43-mile ultra that opens the British season every January, runs from Wendover into London on exactly this towpath, finishing at Little Venice.
The best long run in London
Follow the Thames Path west from Putney to Richmond and take the Tamsin Trail around Richmond Park before coming back. Around 20 miles, almost entirely off-road, and you can bail onto a District Line station at several points.
The outer edges
Beyond the parks, London has genuine trail running on its boundary. Epping Forest is 6,000 acres of ancient woodland reachable by tube, and carries the London Epping Forest 50K each October — the closest real trail ultra to the centre of any major city in Britain. Wimbledon Common, the Lee Valley and the Thames marshes east of Greenwich all give proper off-road mileage.
The North Downs Way starts at Farnham, an hour out, and the Chilterns begin at Chesham on the Metropolitan line — which means London runners can reach a national trail on public transport in about ninety minutes.
The races
London carries the densest race calendar of any British region — 38 on this site alone, more than any county.
The marathon
The London Marathon in April is the largest in the country and the hardest to enter, with ballot odds well past twenty to one. Good For Age and Championship standards are a separate and under-used route in, and charity places are the third.
The halves
The Big Half in September runs from Tower Bridge through Rotherhithe and Bermondsey. Hackney Half in May is the loudest race in the city. The Royal Parks Half in October links Hyde Park, Green Park, St James's and Kensington Gardens on closed roads, and is the prettiest. London Landmarks in April runs the tourist route deliberately.
The shorter stuff
Victoria Park Half, the Great North 10K's southern equivalents, Eltham Park 5, Dulwich Park 10 Mile and a dense club calendar. RunThrough alone put on races in the royal parks most months of the year.
parkrun, where it started
Bushy Park, 2 October 2004, thirteen runners and a stopwatch. It is now the largest weekly participation event of any kind in Britain, with 889 5K events and 521 junior events nationally. London alone has 65 of the 5Ks and 48 junior events, and Bushy itself regularly takes well over a thousand runners on a Saturday morning.
Practical
- Air quality is a real consideration on main roads at rush hour, and a genuine reason to run in the parks rather than to them.
- The parks close at dusk — Richmond and Bushy have gate times that catch people out in winter.
- Almost everything is reachable by tube or Overground, which makes point-to-point runs easy: run out, get the train back.
- Towpaths are shared with cyclists and are narrow. Regent's Canal at commuter times is not a session venue.