Running the Parks

Run time : 44:51 Distance covered : 4.78 miles (7.69km) Soundtrack : Sam Cooke, The Man Who Invented Soul Conditions : sunny and warm Lots of blossom today. The south side is a pretty ideal area for running, all things considered. It's mostly flat, there are a lot of reasonably quiet roads (extremely quiet, at the moment), and it's just a really interesting environment. It's incredibly diverse in terms of the buildings, the street layouts and the feel of different neighbourhoods. There are wealthy enclaves a few hundred yards from very poor areas. There are mansions and tenements and fancy restaurants and greasy spoons and gardens and warehouses and river paths and alleys. And of course, there are a lot of parks. Once again, I combined daily exercise with my weekly delivery of supplies to my dad. I was pleased to see that the police have clarified it's okay to drive somewhere for daily exercise as long as more time is spent on the exercise than the driving...

Run time : 01:03:24 Distance covered : 6.67 miles (10.73km) Soundtrack : New Yorker Radio Hour , 13 Minutes to the Moon Podcasts Conditions : borderline hot An accidental 10k, because I got a little lost. Actually, it's the longest I have ever run, as far as I know. This project is really helping me up my distance, because it means I'm not really thinking about the exercise, I'm thinking about exploring. I started out in King George V Park (confusingly there's also a newer sign calling it Regents Park), which is one of those out-of-the-way and forgotten urban parks, but with a nice balance of open spaces and tree-lined paths. I left George V and there was a fairly lengthy run east and north along Thornliebank Road to the small but perfectly formed Greenbank Park , then across the road to the adjacent Auldhouse Park . These two were so close together that they almost felt like one park. Both small, but in decent shape. Nice spots ...

Run time : 30:10 Distance covered : 3.3 miles (5.31 km) Soundtrack : Jimmy Eat World, Surviving Conditions : warm and sunny I ran a circuit of Maxwell Park when I completed my first 10k a while back, when things were still relatively normal. I was out in the car to do my weekly drop-off of supplies for my dad and my brother, so since I was in the area, I decided to cover it properly, and cross a couple of other small parks off the list at the same time. One of the weird things about quarantine, speaking as someone who's out on foot quite a lot, is seeing how many more people are out on the streets walking or running or cycling. Around my neighbourhood, it's getting quite crowded on the narrow pavements, so it was nice to visit a part of the city with decadently wide streets and pavements, where everyone can give each other yards of space. Apparently that's because Pollokshields was developed in the Victorian era according to a plan by the Stirling-Maxwells, the ...

Run time : 47:09 Distance covered : 4.86 miles (7.82 km) Soundtrack : Smashing Pumpkins, Adore Conditions : sunny and spring-like Lots of disapproving pictures on social media this weekend of people sunbathing, picnicking and not observing proper social distancing in parks, so I decided this was a good day to take on six of the less-loved parks, in the east of Glasgow. These ones are far removed from the beauty spot trail, so I figured I would have them mostly to myself, and I was right. I had to drop in to a couple of older relatives to check they were okay first, and deliver soup. My dad was out in the back garden making preparations to cut down a tree, which is classic my dad. My wife's gran was pleased to get a visit (appropriately distanced, obviously), and she talked about the only thing she could compare the current situation to being the war. She was an infant when WWII began, so she had grown up for a few years never knowing anything different. We wondered if...