A half marathon on Wormwood Scrubs

I ran 25K, just over a half marathon, on the Scrubs this morning. It is a fantastic and under used place, but in places sadly under resourced too.  You really should try it if you haven't already. This morning was really quite beautiful, the ground laced with frost which was melting so quickly I could notice it every time I plodded around, and only a very very few people to share this wide open space with.

I first posted about the place here in December 08, and got a couple of comments about it being some kind of gay cruising spot which may well be the case at night but in the mornings you see none of that. What you do see are birds flitting around, especially in the nature reserve area, together with squirrels and even a fox gambolling through the woods which ring the playing fields. Personally the place holds a special connection for me since our kids were born at Queen Charlotte's Hospital which dominates the view along with the prison - I would imagine that's also the case for many other W12ers.

On the down side I saw a couple of the dog owners freely letting their animals leave poo on the ground, which in my book makes the owners more of an animal than the dogs themselves, at least the canines have no sense of how disgusting that is - the humans obviously just don't care which says a lot about them.

But all in all it was a couple of hours really well spent, somewhere beautiful at that time of the morning on our doorsteps and perfect for clearing your head and thinking ahead to the new year. Highly recommended.

And if you'd like to sponsor my marathon efforts, I would be immensely grateful. I'm running the Brighton Marathon both in memory and in support of some people very close to me who have suffered or are currently enduring cancer - a truly terrible disease. Please give what you can here - every penny helps. And I say that from my bed after a well earned hot shower - if my knees could talk they would be very foul mouthed at the moment.