Went for an early morning run today along the Thames from Tower Bridge to embankment and back. As I settled into a rhythm, my mind started to wander as it often does on a good run. Because I hadn’t been out early for a while, something about setting off for a run in the dark brought back memories of other early morning runs I have taken since I took up running to keep fit at age 18 or so.

• Running around the streets of Calcutta and Bangalore at dawn to avoid the heat and smog, while on a three month trip around India after university.
  
  
• A six mile circuit through the woods near my parent's house when I was a student, a hundred times, from early morning July wearing just shorts and Tevas to freezing, grey winter in a hat and gloves.
  
  
• Coming down from my bedroom in the hotel to run around the Jardins des Tuileries in sub-zero January darkness before starting my day’s work at the Hotel Ritz in Paris.
  
  
• Later, running along the banks of the Seine from my apartment in Parisian Spring after I had moved out of the hotel itself into my own place.
  
  
• Across London Fields and along the Regents Canal in Dalston, on pitch-dark freezing winter mornings at 6am before work.
  
  
• Running for two hours straight along the seafront from the north of Santa Monica to south of Venice and back at 6am when fighting jet-lag just after arrival in L.A last Summer, then around the bay running on the sand at Laguna later that Summer

These are just the ones that came to mind while jogging along the embankment. Memory can be a cool thing sometimes.