Sick of the sweaty commute? Take a tip from Mo and jog all the way home
The prospect of turning up to work in my sixth-form rugby shorts and chunky trainers was already quite a stretch when I began cycling to work a couple of months ago — but running is another kind of challenge altogether.
Not just because of the panting and extra sweat involved with running. There is something uniquely exposed about jogging along pavements in the city. You don’t have a bit of machinery under you to share the experience with or concentrate your attention on. Out on the streets, the running commuter (rommuter? cunner?) sticks out. It’s fine to run along the pavements of Putney (I do so once in a while). But once you get into town the coffee shop voyeurists come into play, not to mention the silently judgmental, well-dressed types stepping out of cabs and cars.
However, since the Games increased travel pressure across the capital — while inspiring us all to step up our fitness regimes — the arguments for running home have never been stronger. You’ll squeeze a little exercise into your working day, while saving yourself the cost of a monthly Travel Card. All of which recommends the position on running taken by author Jarod Kintz: “I love running. I’m not into marathons, but I am into avoiding problems at an accelerated rate.”
If you decide to submit to the various indignities of replacing your Oyster card with a pair of trainers, there remains the question of whether you will do so alone or in a group of similar converts. Having only ever run alone before — normally quite slowly through the Sussex village where I grew up or across Putney Common on a Sunday afternoon — the experience of jogging home from work with a group of fellow commuters was rather alien. To my increasing horror, it transpired that my fellow runners expected me to talk to them during the run. Which — in case you have never tried it — requires a lot more breath and effort than I’m used to.
The rapid growth of Home Run — a free service that arranges more than a dozen regular runs across London — indicates that many are willing to put up with the extra exertion of conversing while running, especially since each run is followed by a special cycle-trailer which carries your bag and cherished copy of the Standard.
Huge numbers were expected to sign up over the Games, in order to beat Olympic commutes, but one of the guides I was running with says they expect to maintain good participation during the winter too, especially because the dark evenings encourage women in particular to run in a group.
Truthfully, in non-Games time I don’t think I would run to work, but until London returns to normal, the sweatier commute might be on the Tube.
