Follow The Yellow Grit Road

Sunday 25^th January

Run #25

15.5k Reverse Tamsin Trail & Dysart Loop

After last week’s long run round the Tamsin Trail of Richmond Park I decided this week to tackle the same but in the reverse direction, then tack on a wee bit of pathway out of the Park and back towards the Thames. Either way you do the Tamsin Trail there are a couple of chunky hills, and I’m not yet sure which direction I prefer. For the record I consider ‘reverse’ as clockwise, and ‘the normal direction’ as anti-clockwise, for no reason other than the fact that that this the direction I’ve usually run it! I think it probably stems from the couple of k of Richmond parkrun that take in the Trail near the Richmond gate going anti-clockwise. But I couldn’t be sure.

The nice thing about the reverse direction is that the first 3k is almost exclusively a steady and continuous decline. It’s the k in the middle of this stretch that, in the opposite direction, is my parkrun nemesis every time. But going this way it’s a sweet flow downhill and feels gooooood. This side of the Park is my least favourite. That’s not to say it’s not lovely, with its yellow gritty track, duck pond and wooden bridge over a stream near the Roehampton gate. I think it really is the relentless continuation of the slope that puts it out of my favour. So tackling it in this direction definitely helps with my liking of it and I find myself at Roehampton gate before I know it.

Of course, there’s a price to pay for all that downhill. And the sharp up of Broomfield Hill in the 6th k - in a segment christened ‘The Guantanamo Experience’ by someone on Strava - the rise of 25m in half a k makes sure you don’t forget it. I always myself run up this hill, no matter how slow that ‘run’ ends up being. Which is probably stupid actually, given how tweaky my PF and calves have been feeling. But I can be stupidly pig headed at times.

The reward at the top is my favourite bit of the Trail, whichever direction you come at it from. One of the high points of the park the view over toward Roehampton and Kingston is awesome, and the trail bends through the trees and – in this direction – on towards the big downhill. After slogging up the 39m you get to run the same down the other side and boy it feels good.

The reason I am partial to reverse Tamsin is that, after Broomfield Hill I like all of the rest of the route, regardless of whether you go back up past Pembroke Lodge or take the yellow grit path towards The Dysart pub and the Thamesside as I did today. There is a lot of running through cool wooded areas, with loamy bracken paths and a lovely earthy smell. Leaving the Park opposite The Dysart I pick up a hidden path towards the Petersham Meadows. In a cheeky move I finish at the bottom of the hill to home and jog walk back up to cool down, justifying it with an acceleration of pace over the last k to leave me doubled-over and breathless but happy at 15.5k