Local parkrun tourism and a wedding

So, Great North Run recovery went like this:

Monday- 

Home to tea and a gingerbread man, plus trying to work out if my medal hanger can take the weight of another one!

Tuesday-

I needed to get a few bits in town so walked there instead of having a run- I had forgotten my lunch and this is what you end up buying when shopping hungry!

Wednesday-

The most beautiful sunset when driving to yoga- I actually pulled over and parked so I could take a photo. Plus pumpkin sprinkles in my Bird&Blend September tea club tea!

Thursday- 

A short run looking at the gorgeous autumn leaves, tea, and a notification that I had another 60 days of my step streak (10,000+ per day)- all good!

Friday- 

A rush to get home in time, to catch a train into London as we had tickets to see Adam Buxton at the London Podcast festival. We went to Leon first for dinner- I really love their vegan burgers (and so does Andy)- we have perfected our order which is two burgers, one portion of fries and one pot of hummus (to dip the fries into)- mmmmmm, so good. The podcast was really good too- the guest was George the Poet, who I didn’t know much about, but was really interesting. Originally we were going to be going straight from there to somewhere further south (like Basingstoke) as we had a wedding in Southampton on Saturday, but Andy had to work on Saturday morning so we came home.

As I was expecting a different parkrun, I decided to go to Westmill instead of my most local Panshanger or Ellenbrook.

I thought I would wear my new trail shoes, as Westmill is mainly off road. I’ve been there a few times before (most recently as tail walker) and if I go a few more times (plus a visit to Preston Park and Jersey Farm) I can up my p-index to 6 (this means I will have been to 6 different parkruns at least 6 times)- it’s a long game challenge but keeping my occupied on the run up to 250.

I also wore my fairly new Sweaty Betty capris- I won a competition on the fab FitBits blog a while back, and for ages I couldn’t decide what to get (I knew I would get a running bra as theirs are so much better than the Shock Absorber ones I used to wear)- just before holiday I finally ordered some bits, including a yoga brick and these lovely capris. I’d painted my nails ready for the wedding and they matched perfectly!

Anyway, back to Westmill. It’s a fairly hilly two lap course, but beautiful views really help spur you on. You have to drive there really- I don’t think there are paths nearby, and it doesn’t get a huge amount of people each week. Considering it is so close to Panshanger, it’s far less busy.

Once home I made some pancakes- I bought this mix (from Superfood Bakery) made with various things including chickpea flour- they were so tasty- I knew I’d need something to keep me going as you never know exactly when the wedding breakfast will be.

We drove down to Southampton in the afternoon for the wedding (Andy’s auntie was getting married) so we had a lovely time catching up with all the cousins etc.

Andy liked the wedding favours which were little bottles of whiskey and jars of jelly beans- I swapped my alcohol for his sweets! Each table had a Beauty and the Beast style table decoration of a rose inside a glass vase (it was Andy’s Auntie’s favourite film) which looked so pretty, although excuse my terrible photo!

The cakes were so pretty too- we took one home each instead and had them the next day with some tea- mine was a gingerbread/cinnamon flavour and really tasty.

We drove home after the wedding, getting home just before 2am- I am not sure when the last time I saw that time was (apart from getting up early for holidays!).

I did a 6.5 mile run on the Sunday, and then we popped to the garden centre to pick up some bargains (those dahlias on the picture were £3 each!) and to Starbucks for our free drinks.

Do you like going to weddings? Is the cake the best bit? (Although fruit cake is the best wedding cake and no-one seems to have that any more…)