Great Layoff Escape Day 8-9: London Run

By the time I got to my Hotel, the Grande Royale London Hyde Park, I was ready for bed.

The hotel sounded swanky with all those promising adjectives. Its Edwardian exterior and wood-paneled lobby even got me excited for a few minutes. But then, I found out that the $200 room I booked online was in the basement. It was a broom closet in a former life.

Despite its size, the bed quickly lulled me off to sleep.

I woke up at 4:30 a.m. with two and a half hours to go before I needed to skip town to catch my plane. What to do when it's cold outside and nothing is open?

Why not go for a morning run past all my favorite London monuments?

I made a  route plan based on study abroad jogs back in 2003.

I would follow the border of Hyde Park & Green Park, say hello to the Queen at Buckingham Palace, stop by Big Ben, run across Westminster Bridge, follow the Thames Path to the London Eye, the Globe Theater, the Tate Modern, cross over the Millenium Bridge, hit up St. Paul's, The Savoy, Trafalgar Square,  . . . and be back by 6:30 a.m. to clean up and get out the door.

I thought it would be a five-mile run tops. It turned out to be ten freezing-cold miles. But for those ten miles and two hours I owned London.

Buckingham Palace

Parliament & Big Ben

The London Eye - I've never been in this. It always seems too touristy.

In front of the Tate Modern looking across the Thames to St. Paul's

Occupy London in front of St. Paul's

Trafalgar Square: National Gallery, St. Martin in the Fields, and the London 2012 countdown clock.