The London Landmarks Half Marathon is a closed road, central London run and is the only half marathon to go through both the City of London and City of Westminster.
The idea for this run was born in 2014 by baby charity Tommys. Now in only its 4th year, The London Landmarks Half is already so popular that places are balloted. But that was no barrier to 1 lucky Road Runner, Garry Sharp as he secured his place to line up on Pall Mall alongside approximately 17000 other runners on Sunday 3rd April, taking wife Sarah, who luckily got over covid just in the nick of time, with him as support crew and chief photographer.
The team at Tommys were adamant that this would be so much more than ‘just a run’ and so developed the strap line “The Grand. The Quirky. The Hidden”. The idea being that the route would shine a spotlight on not only Londons grand iconic landmarks, but also it’s quirky and hidden history and gems. And they definitely delivered.
Taking in some huge landmarks along the way this route certainly lives up to it’s name. Nelsons Column, St.Pauls Cathedral, The Gherkin, The Tower, The Shard, The London Eye and Big Ben… and that’s not counting all the little quirky ones too! Passing the houses of Guy Fawkes, Dick Whittington and Shakespeare, Harry Potter’s Bank, The real Bank of London, (with its 400,000 gold bars in the cellar), Britain’s smallest Police Station, the Monument to the Great Fire of London and an 11 foot grasshopper to name just a few, our Garry wouldn’t know where to look as he made his way around the 13.1 mile course
From Pall Mall our man made his way through Trafalgar Square and past the Oscar Wilde memorial on The Strand before doing a little tour around Aldwych passing Australia House, (more commonly recognised as Gringotts Bank from Harry Potter), then ensuring best behaviour as he passed the Royal Courts of Justice before taking a u turn back down The Strand with The Shard reaching up into the clouds on South Bank. A quick trip over Waterloo Bridge in both directions then took our runner East along the leafy Embankment before winding his way past St.Pauls, up Cheapside and on toward the halfway point at Holborn Viaduct.
Onward he went, turning onto Fleet Street and then onto Chancery Lane and then High Holborn, back down Cheapside passing the famous “Bow Bells”. Swinging a left to pass the 7000 seater Roman Amphitheatre and looping around the Bank of England, he then emerged on Threadneedle Street passing the giant grasshopper on top of the Royal Exchange. Onward then to Monument, the site where the Great Fire of London started. A little wiggle on and around Cannon Street before passing Dick Whittington’s house and continuing on past Billingsgate before doing a u turn in front of the iconic Tower of London and Tower Bridge. 10 miles in by now, that was the turn for home. 5k of embankment in front of him. The London Eye getting closer with every footstep.
With Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in sight on the South Bank, he passed Blackfriars Pier, Kings College and Cleopatras Needle to the turn at Westminster Pier and of course arguably the most famous landmark of them all – Big Ben. Past Whitehall Palace, for the last blast down Whitehall sprinting past Horse Guards and over the finishline outside Downing Street.
Our superstar crossed the line in an awesome 1:36:05, taking a phenomenal position of 28th out of 790 in the M50 age category!
Garrys wife Sarah did a fantastic job of supporting and managed to catch up with him several times along the route, capturing some fantastic photos for the memory bank and also managing to get a run in herself!
“I ended up running 5 miles to try and see him at different points. At one point I was running in the race – Whoops!” she said. “Think I saw him 9 times. He absolutely loved it!”. And Garry also told me how much enjoyed this run, how well supported it was with so much going on along the route and some amazing sights.
Sounds like one we should all be entering the ballot for!
Awesome running Garry, well done!
Garry Sharp 1:36:05
