Watch the London marathon

Website: http://www.virginlondonmarathon.com

Yesterday was the 2010 London Marathon. This 26.2 mile race has been held in London every year since the first one in 1981. Even though I've lived in London for almost 8 years I'd never made it down to the marathon on race day to cheer along the runners - that is, until yesterday...

Before setting off we looked up the race course on the website. It starts in Greenwich and follows a circuitous route through London before arriving along the Embankment, through Parliament Square and to the finish line on the Mall in front of Buckingham Palace. ABJ and I decided to visit the last part of the race.

We arrived at around 3.30pm and the race had already been going for over 6 hours. The best runner had finished in 2 hours 5 minutes but there were still plenty of people running along the Embankment when we arrived.

All along the running course there were members of the public cheering the runners or looking out for their friend/family member who was running the race. Many people get sponsored to run the race and along the route there were small teams from the many charities that were there to support the people running for them.

We saw quite a few people in fancy dress - there were people dressed as bears, mice, superheroes, Wizard of Oz characters, firemen, rhinos... There were also tough-looking men wearing a full army backpack marching along stridently.

Every mile was marked with a huge archway which had a digital clock showing your current time:The racers could also grab a free bottle of water as they went:but this led to lots of litter on the track:At last ABJ and I walked up to Parliament Square, intending to see the finish line. To get to St James Park we had to cross the running course - something that was achieved by a sophisticated system which involved a kind of queuing island in the middle of the race lane. The runners were diverted along one side of the island while the public were urged onto the island. When it was full the runners were diverted along the other side and the public could cross all the way. The whole thing ran very smoothly thanks to the multitude of volunteers on hand.

At last we made it to St James Park near Buckingham Palace. There we encouraging signs for the runners:
and at last the finish line:
Since we were seeing the runners that finished around 7 hours 20 minutes many of them looked injured and slow but we cheered them on all the louder.

The whole event was very inspiring - making me want to try to run a marathon one day!

Summary: "Come on! You can do it!"

Cycling in Richmond Park

Website: http://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/richmond_park

Last Sunday I spent a fun afternoon cycling around Richmond Park with ML and VB. We had spent the morning and early afternoon cycling through suburbia and, after some tea at Morden Hall Park, we cycled to Richmond Park. We visited some very fancy neighbourhoods on the way and passed the mansion where Dwight Eisenhower lived during World War II!

I imagine that cycling around the park is not much fun in the pouring rain but luckily for us the weather was very pleasant. We plotted our route around the park on one of the maps and set off. We planned (like the polite cyclists we are) to stick to the cycling trails that criss-cross the park but, since we'd been cycling for over 2 hours, our first stop was a nice bench. It was there that I read out a letter from ABJ while VB and ML sat down in their matching bike helmets, bike trousers and fluorescent yellow jackets.

After we'd cooled off we hopped back on our bikes and set off again. We kept to the edge of the park and, according to ML at least, cycled right past Andrew Marr who was out jogging. We eventually turned towards the centre of the park and set off on a cycle trail. I was disappointed to see that the "true cyclists" (men who have thighs like tree trunks and ride carbon-fibre bikes) cycled on the road amongst the cars rather than on the paths amongst the toddlers.

We slowly made out way into the middle of the park and enjoyed the scenery. We saw people flying kites and riding horses (though not at the same time):
We saw a huge herd of young deer:We saw opportunities for arty photos:
After the exploration we were all really tired and free-wheeled down into Richmond for some beer, food and a film.

Summary: Worth a trip round on a bike even if you do have to stay away from the more exciting areas. Credit goes to ML for suggesting we go there and to VB for taking the photos.

Wimbledon Tennis Championships

Website: http://www.wimbledon.org

A week ago last Thursday I went with ABJ to see the Wimbledon Tennis Championships 2008. This world-famous tennis tournament takes place every summer for a few weeks and during all my time in London I'd never visited it.

Part of the reason for this is that the advanced sale tickets sell out many months earlier and to get in on the day involves queuing for hours. A large number of tickets are available to buy on the day but the good ones sell out quick. The really committed tennis fans camp out in tents for the night before to be able to get tickets for "Centre Court" where the tennis pros play.

Unsure what to expect ABJ and I arrived at Southfields tube station at about 4pm. Following the flow of people we were shocked to see a queue about 50 yards long. "Oh no! That's really long!" we thought. We followed directions to the back of the queue and saw it was actually 100 yards long. "Oh dear!"... No wait... We stood stock-still, our wide eyes following the queue along. It wrapped around the edge of a huge field used as a car park, round the corner, down the other edge and around another corner. The part we could now see was at least 500 yards long! It turns out that the full queue - including the part we couldn't even see from the car park - was over a mile long!We trekked across the vast car park, positioned ourselves at the end of the queue and discussed what to do. While we discussed we were handed a queue card noting our numbered position in the queue. My number was 11594. We were told we almost definitely get in but would have to queue for 2 and 1/2 hours. We decided that "we'd come that far" so might as well stay. ABJ went to Southfields to bring back food and by the time she returned I'd been given a "Guide to queueing at Wimbledon" and a "I've been in the queue to see the 2008 Wimbledon tennis championships" sticker. They really take the queueing seriously...

I don't want this account to feel like queueing for over 2 hours so I'll skip forward to the highlights. As we munched our houmous, bread, cheese, crisps, grapes and jaffa cakes we passed by people with tents, burger bars, ice cream vans and were eventually lead through an exhibition drawn by Gerard Scarfe showing famous tennis players from the past:
Finally the queue filtered through a thorough security search of bags and jackets etc and we arrived at the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Club. The time was 6.30pm (so the queue really did take about 2 and 1/2 hours!). We bought the cheapest (£14) ticket that allowed us entry to courts 3-19.

Once we were inside past the ticket barriers we stopped and wondered what to do. We'd been queuing for so long that I'd forgotten there was still tennis to come - I felt like the epic queue was the reason everyone was there.

We just wanted to see some tennis. We practically ran to the nearest court and, having watched a rally, breathed a sigh of relief. But who were these players? Where were all the famous tennis stars? We scuttled through the crowd to hungrily see another court but it wasn't that exciting. Was it all going to be like this?

Deciding to explore we climbed up the hill to watch "The Big Screen" at the Aorongi Terrace. People lounged about on the grassy slope watching a match between famous players on Centre Court on the huge screen. We watched for a little bit then felt restless and went to find some quality tennis. Studying the map we headed off to courts 2-11. There were some courts so busy that passers-by were peaking through the wooden slats around the court.

The paths were crammed with tennis fans trying to outmanoeuvre each other to get to the best court.We finally saw a few matches and tried to take cool photos of the players mid-serve:
We settled for a slow singles game between two people we didn't know. After watching for about 10 minutes there was a commotion behind us. Venus and Serena Williams were walking towards court 11 surrounded by a mob of autograph hunters. No sooner had I alerted ABJ to their presence than she was scrambling over spectators in an attempt to reach court 11. She ran ahead of me as we were swept up in a whirlwind of fans streaming forward, clawing at each other, hurrying to get a seat for the court 11 game. ABJ arrived first and saved one for me. We settled down to watch the match. It was between two Polish women and the American Williams sisters. Unfortnately the game wasn't very equal and the Williams' won easily. As they hurled their 120mph serves across the net the Americans in the audience whooped and cheered. The game was simply settled after half an hour.

We flowed out with the other fans, passed the "Cushions for hire" stall and wandered aimlessly to the food courts. We had discussed earlier buying strawberries and cream but, at 8pm, were not in the mood. There were television crews broadcasting the summary of the days tennis:
Dusk fell. The tennis was over. We felt tired and wandered slowly out and back to Southfields tube.

Summary: An unique experience but not one I want to repeat urgently.

Lord's Cricket Ground

Website: http://www.lords.org

Today I visited Lord's - famously known as "The Home of Cricket". There are 3 tours daily around the ground and, arriving at the imposing gates, I began to think I might be the only one on mine. A helpful security guard directed me through the deserted car park to the cricket museum where the tour was due to begin at 2pm. I bought my ticket from a chirpy middle-aged man and then began to study the museum's displays waiting for the tour to start.

Perhaps this is the right point to declare that I know very little about cricket. This state of ignorance has been only slightly improved by my tour around this world-famous cricket ground - the tour was definitely pitched at a level for cricket fans. It's my fault of course - what did I expect!?

Anyway, at 2pm, after a few minutes spent desperately trying to learn the entire history of cricket, the tour began. We were led outside by a friendly middle-aged man tour guide in a green blazer. He gathered us around and warned us repeatedly about not taking photos in the pavilion. The tough stuff over, he relaxed and asked us all where we were from. "Anyone from India?" About three quarters of the tour put up their hands. "Anyone from Australia?" Four people raised their hands. "That doesn't leave many left. Anyone from England?" The remaining three of us meekly raised our hands.

The tour seemed great if you knew a lot about cricket. For myself, I just went along for the ride, nodding in the right places. We were led into the grand pavilion building - the oldest building on the site. Up the ornate stairs with old portraits hanging on the walls we arrived in "The Long Room" (It's 90ft in length). From the way the guide spoke about it I gathered this was a pretty famous place but he didn't elaborate on why it was famous and I was too scared of being exposed as a cricket impostor to ask. We sat outside to listen to the guide but had to retreat when the wind suddenly blew the sprinkler's water all over us!

We dried off inside the "Committee Room" where many big decisions in the history of cricket were made. The guide's commentary was strongly peppered with phrases I didn't understand and cricketers names I'd never heard of. Despite this, I got the general drift of what was going on and the rest of the group certainly seemed to enjoy it. The Committee Room has the largest sash window in Europe and both rooms have excellent views of the cricket pitch.

We then climbed the stairs to visit the Home and Visitor dressing rooms. These were spacious and there was a stale aroma of sweat in the air. Both had (what seemed to be) pretty famous balconies which the people on the tour were keen to stand on. On the honours boards the achievements of great cricketers were recorded and I was proud that I could recognise a few names in the lists - Graham Gooch, Ian Botham etc.

We then came out of the pavilion and visited the "Real Tennis" court. This is an old fashioned game from the 13th century but is still played by a few people today. There's only 40 courts in the world and the rules made it sound pretty complicated.

We left the tennis court and returned to the cricket museum. One interesting piece was a stuffed sparrow which had been killed by a cricket ball bowled at Lord's. We were taken upstairs to see the Ashes urn. Not knowing anything about this apart from the name I was imagining a huge trophy and was surprised to see the actual urn on display. It's only about 3 or 4 inches high and used to be a perfume bottle. Apparently it's symbolic you see...

After the museum we wandered over to the stands where - at last! - we were allowed to take photographs. Immediately the tourists (including myself) grabbed their cameras and began snapping away. One man hopefully gave me his phone. The idea was I'd take a photo of him but with my first attempt I managed to put the camera on "stand by" mode. He reactivated it, returned it to me and then, trying to take the photo again, I pressed the "voice activation" button. He offered to fix the phone but I was insistent "No, no. I've got it now!" The fact that I then pressed the "off" button instead of the "take picture" button was the last straw. He took it off me, turned it back on and left in search of a more technically able assistant.

The weather was beautifully sunny and the pitch was bright green - it's obviously very well maintained:
The tour then moved to its final stop at the "Investec Media Centre" - a giant futuristic-looking white pod:
This was finished in 1999 to bring the ground's media-handling abilities into the 21st century. Emerging into it from the steps outside was like stepping aboard an aircraft - all white plastic and glass. The guide was a bit rushed for time and shooed us back down the stairs to finish up in the shop. Around the ground were a lot of cricketing statues such as:Summary: Great if you're into cricket, cryptic if you're not.