Hyde Park has been a huge part of my running this summer. Like a silent running buddy it’s been there on my long runs, never late and always goes the distance. Need water? Stop at the sculptural water fountain in the north of the park. Toilet stop? No need to hide behind a bush here. Too hot? Take shelter in the shade of the trees.

One lap of the perimeter (including Kensington Gardens) gives you nearly six miles surrounded by trees, grass flowers and all in the centre of London. What’s more for most of those miles you can take a break from pounding the pavement and run on grassy paths. For one of my 20-mile runs while training for Nottingham Marathon I ran three laps without getting bored of it.

So it was an emotional run for me in Hyde Park on Saturday because it will be the last time I run there for a while. Sometimes I’ve neglected my running buddy, focussing on putting one foot in front of the other rather than what’s to my left and right. But this week I stopped to smell the flowers, quite literally. The speakers on their box at Speakers Corner, dogs chasing frisbees, the leaves that have changed from green to brown in the past few days – I saw them all.

Next weekend I’ll be leaving London for a little while and finding new places to run. I’ll miss watching the snow and frost transforming the park and the trees standing bare in the cold. By the spring we’ll both have changed. But with the first new leaves of 2012 I’ll return to the city I call home to run through Hyde Park again.