A Trip Down Nostalga Way

An easy 4 miler this evening to keep things ticking over until another 6 miler tomorrow.
Last week I started to think about the 6 milers I used to run back home between 81 and 84 b4 I began to get more adventurous over 10 milers and longer as I moved up from 10k to 10 miles,half marathon b4 my marathon debut in 85.
My first 6 milers in 80 came on the back of an Easter vacation to Ireland,long b4 10k became the distance du jour I was just curious to see if I could run 6 miles so I mapped out an out and back course from where I lived to Blackheath roughly 3 miles away,it probably took me 50 mins(what the fuck I was 16 and only used to running a mile!!!)by 81 I'd brought that down to 37.58 b4 34.59 in 83 33.14 in 84,32.41 in 85 and finally 31.49 in 87.

I can still visualize the route I used to take:from the corner or Lewisham High St and Roxley Road make a right,down Lewisham High St to Belmont Hill,up Belmont Hill b4 hanging a left into Blackheath Village(picture above)down and up through the village b4 a right and eventually onto Prince Charles Road and across Blackheath towards the corner of Greenwich Park(marathon runners may recognise Blackheath and Greenwich Park as the start of the London Marathon.
Right onto Charlton Way at the corner of Prince Charles Road and Charlton Way which then morphed into Vanburgh Park.
At the corner of Vanburgh Park and Strathden Road stood the Royal Standard pub,this was half way....rather than pop in for a swift half I would make a right on Strathden Road and head back towards the heath,crossing Shooters Hill Road Strathden Road then became Prince Of Wales Road which would lead me back into Blackheath Village,down and up through the village and a right onto Belmont Hill.

At the foot of Belmont Hill there was maybe a 100 meters b4 that section of road became Lewisham High Street and now the race for home against the trusty old enemy the stopwatch began.
Notable landmarks in that final mile and a quarter(give or take) St Savours primary school and church where I went to school and served as an alterboy.....stop laughing ye feckin' heathens!!!,Ladywell swimming pool the Fox and Firkin pub(where many a brain cell was overworked into submission over the years!!!)Memorial Gardens and Lewisham Hospital or aka St Elsewhere cos you'd want to be treated anywhere but there!! b4 making a left onto Roxley Road and coming to the finish inside 10 meters.

Who'd have thought that run would be the foundation of my career,it's been 31 years since I began to make that run a standard run,I've often thought about rerunning it whenever I get home next,of course I'd have to run it in reverse from Blackheath to Lewisham and back given my mum lives in Blackheath but who knows in the next year or two maybe I'll get that chance?