Cluedo Run! 13 miles, 06.02.2021

Now officially bored of Lockdown in London (things feel a bit LIL, not LOL). Time for another random run? Yes! This time, the greatest game of all - CLUEDO!

Set off in the gathering late afternoon gloom, with the company of the pouring rain and howling winds of the Return of The Beast From the East/ Storm Darcy/ whichever version of bad weather it is that is kicking around at the moment. Perfect conditions for a murder mystery!

Frist off, run south to Whitechapel to pick up a GUN at the Worshipful Company of Gunmakers (one of London's 110 livery companies - London's ancient and modern trade associations and guilds).

Next, it was down to the river, across Tower Bridge to the south, to find PROFESSOR PLUM. As a plum is a stone fruit, I thought this granite sculpture "Exotic Cargo" by Peter Randall-Page would fit the bill.

Conveniently, this is located right by the Pool of London (the name given to the stretch of the Thames from London Bridge down to Limehouse) - which was a link, even if a little tenuous, to the BILLIARD ROOM.

Next, we turned West, to find the HALL - a random find, Baluchi Indian restaurant in the the Great Hall, just behind City Hall. 

Then, it was on to find COL. MUSTARD, down on Great Suffolk Street, near the Elephant and Castle. 

And suspiciously (maybe they are in on it together) also found DR. ORCHID hanging out on the opposite side of the street.

Nearby we found the Passmore Centre LIBRARY on Borough Road.

Before heading back up to Blackfriars Bridge, to cross back over to the north bank. From here, we headed west along the Embankment, before cutting up towards the Aldwych, for a fine dining checkpoint experience (crisps and a humbug) outside THE DINING ROOM.

Just around the corner, we tracked down the DAGGER (on one of four sculptures of seated women on the Prime Minister William Gladstone statue - I think this is the sculpture representing Courage).

As we were now in theatre land, a few more finds came quickly. First up, a dancer who needs a BALLROOM (the Young Ballerina statue by Enzo Plazzotta, opposite the Royal Opera House). 

Then the Royal Opera House itself has a rather splendid CONSERVATORY.

Quick hop over the Strand Underpass to Portugal Street and MRS PEACOCK at her theatre.

Also on Portugal Street, is the London School of Economics, with many a fine STUDY.

Was a bit tricky to find MISS SCARLETT, but eventually we tracked down the Old Red Cow (I'm sorry, but I'm sure many a victim murdered by her in the *select room* with the *select weapon* would feel the same), near Smithfield Market in Farringdon.

Down past St Pauls to the Bread Street KITCHEN.

Along to Cannon Street, to find a SPANNER.

And then back up to Cheapside to find a LEAD PIPE (the Great Conduit was a man-made underground channel, which brought water from the River Tyburn to the City, and it's pipes were made of lead).

Along Gresham Street to collect the CANDLESTICK from the Wax Chandlers Hall (another of the City's livery companies, one of the oldest).

Then we headed back north towards home, but not before remembering to find the LOUNGE on Angel Court by Bank.

The ROPE was found nearby.

Then we had a quick detour to Spitalfields Market to collect DINNER FROM LEON (which is on the special "running a half marathon in the cold and rain" edition of the Cluedo board, before collecting the final thing on the actual board, REV. GREEN.

And there, the Cluedo board is complete! 

Running around London collecting random themes of things might seem strange, and I'll give it to you, yes, it probably is. But deep into Lockdown #3, being trapped in the City, running on concrete all the time, and jumping in and out of the road to avoid everyone is starting to wear a bit thin. I am missing being able to run on trails, and read maps, and see new places, and whatnot! So I guess sometimes you have to create your own adventures, even if they are a bit odd. But then, what isn't odd these days, anyway? 

So, until the next adventure! 

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!