Month: January 2025

2024 parkrun summary

First up, a big shout out to the 5K parkrunner app, and the google Chrome running challenges extension, as I love both of these for keeping track of challenges but also just total number of parkruns completed. I could spend ages looking at the map.

Of course I had plenty of revisits too including one of my fave events of Hove Prom in Brighton.

So, a belated 2024 recap. I completed 16 new parkrun events in 2024, which is in line with previous high years- those early years of touring were easier as I was visiting events in Herts, whereas now it is more reliant on a weekend somewhere else or travelling a bit further .

(For interest the numbers are 14 in 2023, 14 in 2022, 5 in 2021, 3 in 2020, 16 in 2019, 17 in 2018, 22 in 2017, 10 in 2016, 2 in 2015, 1 in 2014 and 1 in 2013- my first event)

I did 46 parkruns in the year which equals my highest years of 2019 and 2022. I don’t think I will ever get the 50 as we’re always going to have a weekend in a non-parkrun country at some point each year. I volunteered 21 times- mostly at junior parkrun but with a few 5k events thrown in there too.

Notable achievements- Stay in Beds challenge completed (all the parkruns in Bedfordshire)- achieved at Great Denham last April

350th parkrun- celebrated at Lee on the Solent in March

German flag claimed- at Dietenbach in May:

(This had been a long time coming because we went to Berlin in 2018, and were meant to be flying out there on the Friday night, but our flight was cancelled and we travelled on the Sunday instead, so of course I couldn’t parkrun then. This trip was combined with a trip to the Europa-Park theme park so we were close by)

Japan flag claimed- at Futakotamagawa in August:

(We had three Saturdays in Japan but due to travelling and logistics I managed one while I was out there, but it was perfect and I am very proud of myself for navigating the trains on my way there by myself as I am not the best at navigating and get very anxious- not helped by an earthquake warning on our phones the night before…)

Single-ton (100 run/walks at the same location) achieved at Panshanger on their 10th birthday:

Deciding to make a dent in Lon-done after having visited lots of London events – in 2024 I went to Hampstead Heath, Pymmes, Gladstone, Harrow, Southall, Wormwood Scrubs, Osterley and Morden which (I think?) all count towards Lon-done. Getting into more tourism with Branka and Holly has been great fun too, as well as tourism with my dad.

National Trust parkruns are excellent for post-parkrun parkfaffing too- a scone and a pot of tea? Perfect.

I’ve also had a lovely time volunteering at Birchwood Juniors since they launched. I feel like it is my volunteering home now as I know more of the team.

Basic total stats at the end of 2024 – 386 parkruns completed, 96 volunteer occasions, 121 different events overall

So what next for 2025? More tourism of course! V100 is on the cards soon, and later on I’ll be celebrating my (arbitrary) 400th parkrun! Oaklands College launched in January so I’m looking forward to revisiting that event (I think I could run there from my parents too so that will be something good to explore as I like a parkrun sandwich). I am also hoping for a new flag, or at least a new event outside of the UK, but we shall see how plans go for that as nothing has been properly arranged yet.

What are you looking forward to in 2025?

Oaklands College parkrun- marshalling then running

In January, a new parkrun launched in St Albans. I know one of the RD’s so had offered to marshal on their first event, as the date had been leaked online (this seems to happen to lots of parkruns now) and the team were worried about the event being swamped. However, the first event was cancelled due to ice, and as they emailed to ask if volunteers could be there the following week instead, I was happy to help.

Dad came back and even took the selfie- his skills are improving too! My view of the start (I guessed 18- runners, it was just under 250 in the end), views from my spot, and of course a pic with the pop up

Do you think the course looks like a dog?

The course looks very confusing on paper- it’s two laps but one lap has an out and back section, and you pass various points from different directions so I would not know how to run it on my own without signs and marshals. Luckily they walked us to our marshal points on the first event as I would have had no idea!

I was at a marshal point with another member of OH ladies (hi Mel)- we had a bit of a complicated cross over point with runners approaching from two directions and needing to be sent in different ways too, but we worked it out. Once the event is established and most people know where they are going it will be easier too.

Lots of familiar faces were at the first event, including my dad and brother, and I always enjoy marshalling and cheering people on as they pass. It was a bit of an overcast day and sooooo cold- I had wrapped up warmly but my feet were freezing when we finished.

The following week I decided to run at Oaklands College, as Dad wanted to stay local so I thought I’d give it a go and see the whole course as I’d only seen the section that I’d been marshalling on.

A few OH ladies at the start, some of the mid run views, and the finish funnel

Parking is available on site, and when I’d volunteered I had been directed to a small car park right by the start, but this week I went to the normal car park (still only a minute away from the start)- it had signs up with ways to pay, but I could not get the QR code to scan or the website to work, and then someone told me it was free until February. So be aware! (Not that I mind paying but there were no machines so it was app or website only…)

The start/finish is right by the old mansion house, so it’s a nice backdrop to the purple pop up. The week I ran it was cold but glorious sunshine. People were pouring in from the car park- the first week there were around 240 participants and I guessed there were 450 this week- so many tourists with the cow buffs and hats from far flung running clubs. I spoke to one person in the car park who had some from Harlow (not too far) but basically told me he was ticking it off as quickly as possible and didn’t seem that interested in the event at all. There was a big queue for the purple pop up and it felt like a weird atmosphere with lots of people who were not going to be coming here regularly, but then once I saw people I knew (lots of OH ladies and other local runners) it felt more like a normal parkrun morning.

I have to say that I loved the “beware of the swamp” sign!

I had been warned to wear trail shoes when marshalling, so of course I wore them for running, but according to my dad it was way muddier this week! The course is varied- you run around a rugby pitch (despite them saying in the run brief to keep off the rugby pitches the poor marshals were having to shout at so many people who were ignoring this request), on some hard paths, through a little wooded area and over a little hump (the reverse of a ditch if you can picture that), then you had a long out and back section on a stony path, before repeating the rugby pitches and woods again. For the finish funnel you run past the funnel, around some trees and then loop back into a hard path so it was quite nice to have a strong finish. You end up right by the mansion house again, and the scanners were right in front- all very easy to find.

After finishing we stayed around and chatted to people as they finished- one of my friends had nearly lost a shoe in the deep mud, and I had seen that happen to someone as we ran too. It was a proper quagmire in places!

Muddy legs and shoes at the finish!

Dad had cycled so he headed off once he started getting cold, and I hung around a bit longer, enjoying chatting to people as they finished. As I was stood by the purple pop up I ended taking lots of photos for various people so I asked for one in return- I was a bit miffed that they could not manage to frame the photo properly- I made sure that in all the photos I took the mansion house was in the background with the blue sky- it’s not that hard people!

How to take it with the sky vs how the photo was taken for me!

I was doubting my estimate of 450, but it was getting closer and closer. Apparently they only had 448 tokens (must be to do with how many are on each sheet?) so they had some paper tokens, and they needed one as the final total was 449! It’s crazy that event 2 was so busy.

I do think it will be lovely in the summer as it’s lots of grass, it’s varied, fairly flat and there is some shade- it reminded me a bit of Great Dunmow but slightly less wild. Anyway, I was glad to have given the course a go, and very glad I had on my trail shoes!

A new hole appeared in my map but it was quickly filled!

That was location 122 for me, my first new location in 2025, and my run number 388.

Up next? Hopefully a bit more touring!

Festive Five 2024

This is one of my favourite races of the year, and somehow I didn’t even do a post about it!

The Garden City Joggers put this event on each year- it’s a five mile race consisting of two laps around the centre of town- all on pavements but with marshals at all the road crossing points. It’s the type of low key event I love, where you collect your number on the day, and it just had friendly vibes. Loads of people dress in festive gear, lots of the marshals do as well, and it’s just good fun.

The weekend that it took place on in 2024 had big storms everywhere, with lots of parkruns called off the day before, so rather than running there and getting drenched, I took up my friends offer of a lift (she lives around the corner from me and we often share lifts for parkruns or club runs). Thankfully it didn’t rain before the start, although it did rain a bit while we were running.

I absolutely love seeing people run in inflatable outfits- no idea why it amuses me so much but seeing the inflatable Santa run past us in the road just really tickled me.

Before, during and after

I ran with Nicola and we just had a great time- no worrying about times, just enjoying all the festive outfits and wishing all the marshals a happy Christmas. Thankfully it didn’t rain too hard, but there were some huge puddles that I didn’t expect and that you couldn’t avoid so I got very cold wet feet. The rest of me warmed up, as you can see I ended up taking my jacket off.

I tried to get some photos and selfies with the inflatable guys!

At the finish we were given a little selection box- in previous years there has been a vegan option but sadly not this year (so that was donated to the food bank collection at the parkrun the following Saturday), however we had our OH ladies Christmas brunch so post-race treats would soon be coming.

As we had a bit of time in between the race ending and the brunch booking, Nicola kindly offered for a group of us to pop back to her office (in the town centre) so we could get changed in the warm and dry, and even made us cups of tea. I had packed a complete change of clothes, but had forgotten about shoes, so I had to put on my soggy cold trainers as we headed out for brunch.

OH ladies having brunch (I am very hidden on the left in that photo), oat matcha latte, pancakes and my With Me Now Christmas jumper (which is always fun to try and explain- “Maria I didn’t know you liked cats?” ” No, I don’t like cats, but there is this podcast…”)

Brunch was fab- so nice to catch up with everyone, enjoy some food (I had vegan pancakes, tea and then a matcha latte) and chat about our Christmas plans. I really love this tradition.

Do you have any running club Christmas traditions? I always love festive parkruns too.

Hatfield 10K 2025

Long time no posting from me! I didn’t do any parkrun tourism in December, and I have realised that I did the Festive Five but haven’t documented that here. I was away over Christmas so just getting back into routines now. I have a summary of 2024 parkruns in the pipeline but that is coming later…

Anyway back to the race:

I signed up to this race late in 2024, knowing it would be my first weekend back after being on holiday, and not knowing how much running I’d do while away, I thought it would be a good idea to have something in the calendar and a 10k seemed a good distance. I have really enjoyed the Hatfield 5 (miles) in the past, and this 10k looked to be a similar route. The ATW events are always really well supported, and they are quite low key (collect your number on the morning just before it starts sort of vibes) so it sounded perfect.

The few days leading up to the race ended up being sub zero temperatures with lots of heavy frosts and ice everywhere (lots of parkruns were cancelled on the Saturday due to the weather), and the ATW team ended up having to amend the course as part of the original route was flooded.

As they had to amend the course, and part of it was on trail, they offered for people to have an automatic credit on their account if they didn’t run, and I was very tempted by this! It was so cold at parkrun on the Saturday and I felt like I didn’t really warm up all day after, so the thought of going back out into the cold wasn’t appealing. Thankfully some other OH ladies (and Branka, who can be an honorary OH member) were doing it, and as I had signed up to this as part of the OH ladies 12 days of Christmas challenges, I couldn’t really not do it!

The race HQ is right by the parking, and it’s inside (although no heating on in the building I don’t think)- we met by the steps for our traditional pre race photo and then chatted while we waited for the race to start.

The before (all of us) and after (4 of us as Catherine told us not to wait)

We knew a few of the marshals and pacers too, so it felt like a nice social occasion at the start of the year. I kept heading back to my car- once to return my mini scissors and spare bib clips (you have to cut holes in the bibs in order to use them) and then again at the last minute to get an extra coat. Emily and Zena were both going to be jeffing, 30 seconds run, 30 seconds walk, so I decided to join them rather than run alone, and Branka also decided to join, so we ended up with a lovely group of 4 of us chatting on the course.

The route was a lollypop (an out and back with a loop in the middle) where you repeated the loop twice, so on our first lap of the loop we were being overtaken by the speedier runners (momentarily behind the 40 min pacer!), but for the second lap we could spread out and chat as a four a bit more.

The section on the trail was very rutted, icy and frozen, so I struggled to run on that section. I was at the back of our pack of 4 so just caught up once we were back on paths again.

The photos below show the start, where we looped around paths by the uni, the trail section with frozen puddles, views out to the frosty fields, and my face once I’d warmed up enough to take my extra coat off!

As you can see, a very cold day!

I really enjoyed the route, and although it wasn’t the fast road race it was originally going to be, it was great to go off the main path, and it felt as in no time we were already on our second loop. All of the marshals were brilliant- huge thanks to them all for standing around in the cold so the event could go ahead.

As we approached the iciest path for the second time, Emily suggested that we ran side by side as she had seen the photographer at the end (and the photos were included in the entry fee)- however you don’t actually know when the photographer is going to take a photo- so we got the two below- as we are organising ourselves!

You can see my holding my coat (and hat) here- as we passed one of our friends he asked me why I was running with a sleeping bag- I can see why he would think that!

Our aim was around 1Hr20, and we came in in 1:20:26, which I think is pretty impressive pacing. After not running for 2 weeks it was great to do a run/walk to mean I could complete the distance. And despite how I felt at the start, I am so glad that I went out and did the race- it was good fun to run with others and great to be out in the fresh air even though it was absolutely freezing!

You got a nice medal, some Love Corn snacks, and optional water at the finish. I’d made a cup of tea to have in the car before I drove home, and that was a very good decision indeed.

How do you get back into running after you’ve been on holiday?