The Best Running Routes In and Around Teddington
Teddington has become a popular place for top-level runners to live and train in the last few years. What are their favourite running routes in and around here? We can start by seeing where a few well-known runners have chosen to run here.
Jo Pavey
Pavey was born in Devon and has racked up several medals at the European Championships, Commonwealth Games and other events. The Olympic competitor has revealed that she lived in Teddington for 10 years, at the turn of the century.
She pointed out in an interview that the great running routes in this part of London played a big part in her decision to move here. Pavey said that she moved home to be as close as possible to Bushy Park.
Clearly, Bushy Park was where she carried out a lot of her training. However, there were also times when she needed to run longer distances than even this big park could provide her with. This is when she would combine it with another park in the city.
For example, Pavey would combine Bushy Park and Richmond Park to run 15km or more. This means leaving the park at the end of Chestnut Avenue and crossing the Thames at Teddington Lock. She also liked to combine Bushey Park with Hampton Court Park.
The Kenyan Runners
The Kenyan runners who train here during the summer have become an important part of the local running scene. Back in 2010, The Independent checked out how they lived and trained in Teddington.
It turned out that six top-class Kenyan athletes were living in a terraced house here. Among there were 10k former world record holder Micah Kogo and Mike Kigen, who was the Kenyan 5,000m champion.
It was no surprise to see that they headed across from the home they shared to Bushy Park. They walked there from the house that they shared, as they didn’t like running on asphalt.
They ran around the whole park, with some of the runners taking it easy and others finishing the run with a powerful burst of speed. Later on, they had a sprints session at St Mary’s University College before heading back to Bushy Park in the evening.
Mo Farah
Farah has credited a move to Teddington with helping him to turn his life around. He moved here in 2005, staying with a group of Kenyan runners as he dedicated himself to athletics completely.
The runners living here would go for their first run at 7am, which was a time that Farah wasn’t used to getting up and training at. He doesn’t mention in the interviews carried out on the subject where they ran, but it seems safe to suggest that he joined the training regime at Bushy Park mentioned earlier.
Of course, the track at St Mary’s Richmond Athletics Club has now been named after him. This is where he trained from 2001 to 2011, when he was awarded one of the first scholarships to the Endurance Performance and Coaching Centre.
If you look on YouTube, you can also see a couple of videos of Mo Farah running long distances in Teddington. Check out the landmarks if you want to copy his run exactly.
You will also meet other athletes running around Teddington. From cricket players to rugby stars and someone dreaming of NFL or being part of the NBA future expert picks, lots of athletes love to use this as a base for their training.
For a change of scenery, nearby Richmond is well worth checking out. Online suggestions for training runs here include The Tamsin Trail around the perimeter of Richmond Park and the route from Kingston to Hampton Court.
