Monopoly Run Take 2! 30 miles, 22.01.2021

After last week's Monopoly run, it felt like another adventure needed. There was also a major flaw with the Monopoly Run - whilst we have collected all the places on the London Monopoly board, we have not yet collected any playing pieces. Actually, there was another flaw too - doing long runs in London is difficult because there is no jumping behind a tree for a wee when you need one, which is tricky. Oh, and actually, whilst we're focussing on the negatives, it's too busy in the daytime really to do long runs in London, too many people about.

But, unlike winning at Monopoly, here is a problem that I can solve, in one simple solution! Run another Monopoly themed run to collect the playing pieces, run at night when it is quiet, and run in loops around the house (which serves as a luxury checkpoint/loo stop)! So, Andrew and me planned a 30 mile run, and set off just before 8pm on Friday night. 

My quest for learning what the Monopoly playing pieces (tokens) are was quite brief, once I aborted my research quite early on, after I realised there have been literally hundreds of different tokens over the years and versions of Monopoly, and I got quite overwhelmed by it all and gave up. I settled on a list of 11, for reasons I am not 100% sure of, but I chose the ones I remembered from when I've played it (the dog, boot, hat, battleship, car, and iron) and some others that I read had been part of the game at various key points in it's history (rocking horse, purse, money bag, lantern, and thimble).

Armed with a list, a route and a plan, and a headtorch, we set off. 

On our first loop "The River Loop", we set off down the Regents Canal towards Limehouse Basin, collecting a ROCKING HORSE on the way. 

And further the canal we came across our first LANTERN. It being night time, and in a city, our lantern collection grew quite big as the evening went on. 

Running along the canal in the dark towards Canary Wharf was very lovely.

Soon we made it to Limehouse Basin which was also looking fine.

From here, we headed East along the Thames for a couple of miles. So magical down by the water with all the lights twinkling!

5 miles in, we turned around and did the route in reverse, back to the house for checkpoint #1, a celebrated wee stop, and luxury trainer change. 

Loop 2 "The Bridge Loop" started by heading towards Old Street to collect some tokens. First up was THE THIMBLE (London has a distinct lack of thimble related things! But I guess you could get a thimble here!)

Then on to City Road to collect THE DOG. I had been fortunate to find him in the week on my rounds at work, so was confident this would be an easy find. But disaster almost struck! City Road was being tarmacked overnight - there were lorries and steamrollers and floodlights all the way up it. The dog statue was on the other side, behind some extra large lorries and a crowd of workmen! Narrowly avoiding being steamrollered, we sneaked across and got a cheeky photo.

From here we headed south, past THE TOP HAT.

And the made it down to the London Bridge and to the river to collect THE BATTLESHIP.

It was beautiful down by the river. London looks so much better at night time! 

From here, we did a little bit east along the south bank, then back, to do a loop over Tower Bridge and London Bridge, then back over Tower Bridge again to admire the Tower of London.

From here, we headed up through Shoreditch back home for luxury checkpoint #2. 20 miles done, and about midnight, it was time to set off on loop 3, "The St Paul's Loop". I was looking forward to this one the most, as running in the early hours is always exciting and I love St Paul's at the moment, I run here all the time. As it turned out, walking about 10 miles in the day and getting up before 7 meant I felt a bit sleepy by the time it got to this point and it was a bit hard, but still magic none the less! And there were still a lot of tokens to collect, so best crack on!

Ran down to Bank, to collect THE MONEY BAG first of all.

Just across from Bank is a statue of the Duke of Wellington, known as THE IRON duke.

Such a great spot!

Also collected an EXTRA THIMBLE!

Then, it was along towards St Paul's to collect THE PURSE.

St Paul's was looking even more splendid than usual.

Just down the road from here, we collected THE CAR.

And from here it was a short run along Fleet Street, to collect the last token, THE SHOE.

We were a bit short on miles still, so made some of these up around the Aldwych.

Then Andrew was starting to get cross, so we headed home, taking a wiggly route to make up the miles.

Best Friday night of Lockdown so far! Thanks Andrew for a great run, and for all the photos!

Monopoly Run! 23 miles, 16.01.2021

Adventures have been limited since Lockdown began. Running around the City, whilst it's always fun and provides endless new things to discover, can get a bit monotonous with no new adventures to follow. This is no good! So Andrew and I devised a game, to run around all the places on the original UK Monopoly board. We didn't do it in order, but ticked off all the things the following way...

 

We set off from home in Hackney, and as it was Sunday, we soon found some FREE PARKING.

And it must have been our lucky day, as soon a CHANCE came along!

On the way to our first stop on the board, we paid a quick visit to THE BANK.

And about 4.5 miles from home, we made it to the Old Kent Road which is the only location on the board which is south of the river.

From there, we headed back north to cross back over the river, and up to Fenchurch Street Station 🚂.

Then, not far to Whitechapel Road via a stop to pick up coffee!

Started heading west, to pick up Liverpool Street Station 🚂.

And then north, via Old Street and up City Road (and past my new, temporary work base!) to The Angel, Islington.

Pentonville Road had quite an exciting occupant.

Who maybe had escaped from HMP PENTONVILLE JAIL just up the road.

Luckily, as we had already collected our CHANCE card earlier on, we could skip jail, and headed back south to pick up Kings Cross Station 🚂

Then headed west along Euston Road.

To reach Marylebone Station 🚂.

Then we headed south down towards Marble Arch, to start to collect some of the fancier locations on the board, starting with Park Lane (which, interestingly, has an American Candy store on the corner now, which is open, so apparently American Candy is classed as essential item).

Then it was along to Bond Street. Bond Street the street no longer exists, but the station is still here. 

And there is a New Bond Street, so we collected that one too just to be sure.

From here, we carried on along Oxford Street.

Before collecting Marlborough Street. Marlborough Street no longer actually exists, but Great Marlborough Street is still around.

It's just off Regent Street so we collected that one too whilst we were there. 

And remembered to pass GO on the way (no one gave me £200, sadly).

The it was west towards Green Park to pick up Mayfair Place.

Before heading back the way we came, to find Vine Street.

From here it was a short run to Piccadilly.

Then Coventry Street.

And Leicester Square. All the yellow properties are very close together! 

Next we cut down to Pall Mall (I used to always want to collect the pink ones, for no reason other than they are pink -  I can see where I have gone wrong with property investment).

Then on to Trafalgar Square.

Which I thought could count as the WATERWORKS as well.

One of the roads off Trafalgar Square is Whitehall.

And sneaking down a couple of streets, we found Northumberland Avenue.

Then back up on to the Strand.

Before running along the Strand, to Somerset House, to collect our INCOME TAX and SUPERTAX cards (Somerset House used to be a tax office).

Then it was up to Theatre Land (all deserted and sad) to collect Bow Street.

And then back down to Fleet Street.

From here, it was time to head East, back home, passing St Pauls, and picking up a COMMUNITY CHEST card on the way.

And the final card, the ELECTRIC COMPANY!

And very finally, just to make sure, we passed GO again, in the hope that £200 might appear. Alas, no, but it was excellent fun none the less!