Number 5 of 50: Canterbury

The giggling slowed us down

Canterbury was a particularly important run to do. It's where Dad died and it's the home of the marvellous Pilgrims Hospices, for whom my siblings and I are all doing challenges this year to raise funds. You might think that getting us all together for this 5k would be laden with meaning and grief, but in fact, this is the run so far I've laughed most during. It was also quite slow again, but I should say that all my siblings ran a lot faster than me, taking it in turns to hang back and keep me company.

Handsome family

With the everyone in different coloured hi-viz and Anna Flashdance-ready in legwarmers (something about cold shins) we were quite a sight to see as we trotted through the streets of the historic cathedral city of Canterbury chatting and giggling. Our Fisher family noses (appropriate, since they come down the line from the Archbishop) clearly marked us as a family to anyone who cared to look.

Warm *and* on trend

As you would imagine, Canterbury has a long and illustrious history. Its position relative to the Kent ports made it strategically valuable and it's changed hands a number of times since being taken from the Celts by the Romans in the first century AD. The cathedral was first built in the late sixth century and, after another few hundred years of being fought over, Canterbury fell to William the conquerer in 1066 and became the site of a motte and bailey castle, too. 

Cathedral view

The thing about such an important and historic city is that it gets absolutely stuffed full of tourists all year round. If you want to run in it, even if you want to do it slowly, it's best to give the huge groups of European teenagers with matching backpacks a wide berth.

Ignoring the historic gate

So, rather than run round past the Cathedral (as we did in quieter Ely) we settled for taking a photograph of it across the park. It is a pretty important cathedral, being the seat of the primate of the Church of England. It first became a pilgrimage site (and inspiration for Chaucer's Canterbury Tales) following the assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket in 1170 - a tale that should give anyone given to overly dramatic exclamations of frustration pause for thought.  

Anyway, we avoided tourists, pilgrims and shoppers and headed along the river to Westgate Tower which was built in 1379 and is the largest surviving medieval gateway in the country. It's now home to a museum which we didn't have time to explore and a pretty spectacular view that we didn't take advantage of either. This is why running is no fun.

One of the rather lovely things about Canterbury is how quickly you can find yourself away from the crowds and running through countryside, and that's what we did. Hambrook Marshes run along the river out of Canterbury to the west. They're an area full of interesting and beautiful wildlife, most of which you miss when you run through it. What we didn't miss was the rather peculiar grafitti on the railway bridge we passed under and couldn't resist stopping for a quick photo.  

Hambrook Marshes

Guff!

Lovely tree.

Only slightly trench-footed, we returned to Canterbury through the rather lovely Westgate Gardens. There have been gardens here since the fifteenth century and it's home to some truly beautiful trees. It is also the site of Tower House, an early Victorian home that belonged to Catherine Williamson who became the first female mayor of Canterbury in 1939.

We don't usually take a post-run selfie, but on this occasion, as we finished the run and walked back along the river, we bumped into another Fisher nose on a small old lady, so we all took a picture together. This also nicely demonstrates where I get my not very big head from.

So, here we all are doing different challenges this year to raise funds for Pilgrims Hospices. Steve and I (I'm in the middle, Steve is on my right) are running fifty 5ks in fifty different places. Anna (over my left shoulder) is taking on the Pilgrims Way Challenge, a 55k walk from Wye to Dover. Clare (in front of me) is running in the Brighton Marathon and Simon (over my right shoulder) is taking part in Dock2Dock London, a 10km swim between Victoria and Albert Docks. We are hoping to raise £2,500 between us and we'd be really grateful for anything you can contribute. The fundraising page is here.

Five Fisher noses. And a Roman.

Pilgrims Hospices provided Dad and all of us with such compassionate and brilliant care last year when Dad died. We all want to thank them and this feels like the best way to do that.

And that's the end of this Canterbury Tale. Except to say if you have a local 5km run that you think we should do, let me know. We still have a long way to go and the logistics of finding places to run is harder than the running. We're really keen to see as many new places as possible and look forward to hearing from people.