Me on the Thames

COOL picture!

You be careful with your camera round there... if I'm not mistaken you are not far from the headquarters of MI5! (British Security Service, known in the days before "spin" as The Secret Service). Heh heh.

Maybe that's what the building across the river is! I haven't been able to find it anywhere!! Or, that's the building I'm looking at and the camera behind me is recording my image for posterity! ,;)

Yes... you never know :)

The "real" MI5 building is right on the corner by the bridge, opposite Vauxhall tube station. It's a green and white multi-tiered thing that looks like a cross between a fortress and a power station. Which I suppose it is, really.

There are some pictures of it on Wikipedia here, which also corrects me by stating that it is actually not the MI5 building of the British Security Service, but the home of M16, which is still the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). So there you go.

To return to our theme, I've also tried to put in what I thought would be a pleasant riverside run along the Embankment, but there are so many pedestrians and so much vehicle traffic alongside it can be really unpleasant. At lunchtimes you will share the route with a stream of runners (some of them probably from MI6) getting a few miles in during their breaks.

If you are in Central London and want to run -- head for any of the big parks, or Hampstead Heath if you can get that far north.

There are fun 5k races in Hyde Park on the last Friday of the month, too. Check the Serpentine Running Club website here. They used to be very informal, but have got so popular now you have to enter two weeks in advance.

Thanks! I live in NYC and only run in London on vacations (getting up very early to do it, too), but my friend just moved over there and joined the Serpentine. I'm hoping she'll still be there when I go over in the Fall. I'm hoping to run the Full MontyCute in December - 10 miles of fun in Somerset!