Needed: an 18 mile off road route in SW London

[Deleted User]

Having done twice round Richmond on Sunday and planning 3 times round in 3 weeks, I really need somewhere else to do my 18 miler.

Do you have any suggestions?

I'll be running in day time and on my own.

cougie

Do you know anyone with a reeeally big garden ?

Jose.

is not 100% off road but you can go from wimbledon common-putney heath to the river, then river path to kew gardens and back

i'll try to find the link for you

it is in windmilers.org.uk

[Deleted User]

I have seen that path Jose.

I'll have a look on the Windmilers site.

Jose.

sorry, there is not explained route over there

"The Thames towpath from Putney to Richmond, and on to Kingston, is where our marathoners tend to do their longer training runs."

but as i said if you go from Cannizaro House through Wimbledon Common to {utney Heath then to Putney Bridge and take there the Thames towpath.

Around Wimbledon Common you can make up a 6-7 miles lap, including a bit of Putney Heath.

[Deleted User]

Have a look on the Serpie site, there are routes listed up to 18 miles which mostly follow the thames, not all off road though!!

[Deleted User]

There is a river path that joins the Thames at putney. How far from Putney round to Kingston?

And is it safe?

Jose.

I did it once from the windmill down to Putney and from there to kew gardens (+ or -) and back (16 miles approx.)

we were 2 people and it was a sunny day with lots of people around biking or running, so it looked safe all the way although i wouldn't go on my own maybe

[Deleted User]

Serpie Site is excellent.

The River runs don't score too highly on safety tho.

[Deleted User]

You can link up Clapham Common, Wandsworth Common and Tooting Bec and the other park in Tooting quite easily (can't remember its name but it's on the west side of Tooting and has a lovely adventure playground .. or did), so not all off-road but only a couple of miles (or less) between each. I guess if you ran the perimeter of each, and the distance between them, that would be at least 18 miles.

Used to run round and through them by myself on spring/summer evenings, but that was in the mid 1990s, so don't know about safety now, but I never had any problems then.

[Deleted User]

Or there's the lovely National Trust place in Morden. Might need to do about four or five circuits to make it up to 18 miles though. But I would imagine that it's pretty safe.

[Deleted User]

Lizzy

The nation Trust place is one of my normal running areas, don't know if I could manage 5 or 6 times round :-)

Dutch Johnny

Josie

You can run from Wandsworth to Croydon (11 Miles) following the Wandle Trail (link attached) Simply run from Start to 9 miles and turn back to make up distance, should be fairly safe, mostly tow path but not to far away from roads houses

http://www.curator.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/common.htg/frame.htm

[Deleted User]

The Wandle was one I thought of and I have a brilliant map covering the whole distance.

I am advertising on FLM for a weekday running buddy so hopefully I won't be alone

[Deleted User]

I'd vouch for the Wandle Josie, but run with a friend because it does get a bit desolate in places. I've never ever had any trouble there, so am sure it is safe, but there are a few sections that seem quite distant from civilistaion (which is what makes it such a good run).

There are a few runs that you can spur off from Richmond Park if you are close:
Out of Robin Hood gate onto Wimbledon Common, where getting lost will take you to 18 miles.
Out of ParkGate through Petersham and along the Thames towpath up to Kew is a good run also.

Suffolk Punch

What about running along the towpath of the Grand Union Canal? Starts in Brentford, you can follow this out to Harefield if you wnated to... Gets a bit grotty in places, so wouldn't recommend it on your own.

XFR Bear

My club has a route from Carshalton along the Wandle if you don't mind starting in Carshalton (nice car park) or you could start somewhere along the route as it's a loop.

Quite complex though - I'd need to show you on a map or something.

XFR Bear

There's another one starting there that heads up towards Epsom Downs and loops back, I'll email you tonight when I have an A-Z in front of me and can name roads )

ip(FeS2)

I've run alone south side of the river from putney to richmond, and north side of the river from kew bridge to blackfriars.-

I've never had any trouble:- There are bits which are very quiet (especially at 6am ) and *IF* some nutter decided to wait there, you'd have problems, but no bits where it feels really really "rough".

IF you can face running through richmond park rather than round it.- Then there's a reasonable route along the river to richmond, up to the park ( now that's a hill to do hill training on), through the middle of the park and a bit of road work to Barnes bridge (I think theres a route to come out further east as well ).

[Deleted User]

I run the river route quite often, at least i did last summer, from Putney to Kew Gardens and back, and there was always loads of people about, although I dont run early in the morning.