Author: Maria Runs

Snowy runs and St Albans parkrun repeats

On the 10th December I went to St Albans parkrun with Dad. I had realised that I’d not been there for about a year, and was keen to try out their newest route. It was the first parkrun I did, and it used to be out along a path, 3 laps of the lake and then back. For a long time it’s been on the alternative course, laps of a field, because of flooding by the lake, but they have created a course that takes in the lake (confusingly, still 3 laps but not like the old route at all).

It was a frosty and beautiful morning- some of the lake was frozen, the grass was covered in frost but with bright sunshine so it just looked amazing. One of those perfect winter days.

My hands were so cold- I took my gloves off briefly to collect my token but that was it. It really was freezing.
The Sunday was just as cold, and my long run was another freezing but beautiful run, although this time under cloud rather than gorgeous winter sunlight.
In the afternoon I popped out on a walk to collect some greenery for making a wreath, and saw holly leaves just draped in frost. We also put up our Christmas tree.
On Monday I woke up to loads of snow, meaning work was closed (well, we had to set online work). I made the most of being home by heading out on a run at lunch time as I knew that I would not be running before work on frozen pavements on the following days. Of course I made a snowman in the garden too- I am sure that is a rule?
I could not get over how much snow we had! Back in 2021 we had some snow on the Sunday night, but it was all gone by the Wednesday. This was still around the following Sunday, and of course unless pavements had been cleared they were really dangerous. We attempted a few walks in the week but that was not easy as the pavements were so slippery. (We do own a snow shovel and had cleared our driveway and the pavement in front of our house on the Monday, but I appreciate that not everyone can do that).
One day I went out on a lunch time walk as the snow was not as bad there. I spotted some cool Christmas postbox toppers!
(Snow on my Monday run, Stitch Christmas cup and my wreath)
Snowy St Albans parkrun and our garden a week after the snow, all the cancellations on the 5k parkrunner app, and Christmas gear on at parkrun)

On Saturday 17th December I was meant to be heading to Letchworth parkrun for a meet up with the Herts branch of Vegan Runners. However, the snow was still around and loads of parkruns had already cancelled. Letchworth were on, pending on a morning course check, but you have to drive along narrow residential side roads and I wasn’t confident that they would be OK (lots of the side roads around here were still terrible and icy), and I would have had to leave before their course check had been made, so I made the decision to go to St Albans again as they were on (as they have their off road course that they can use). It was great fun, crunching through the snow, and it felt easier than when it’s muddy. I wasn’t even as cold as the previous week as I had taken my gloves off before the end.

It was only after that I realised I could have tried for Groundhog day (2 identical times, 2 weeks running) as I don’t often go to the same parkrun twice in a row, but with the two different courses it would not have been easy. 30:24 the first week and then 33:05 on the snowy (and hillier) route. But as ever, very thankful that the event was still on.

Festive Five 2022

The first Sunday in December, a local running club hosts the Festive Five, a five mile race close to the town centre. Everyone wears festive gear, it has a great feel to it, and this year it perfectly coincided with our club’s Christmas brunch.

It’s one of those fab small, relaxed races where you collect your number in the morning, there’s a small gazebo/tarp for bag drop, and so there is no need to rush or stress. I ran there is it was less than 2 miles away so it’s the perfect warm up, plus I had started the Run up 2 Christmas as part of the With Me Now patreons team, and needed to start totting up the miles for our team target.

Compared to how mild it was the previous week at the Hatfield 5, it felt freezing that morning. I’d wrapped up in a long sleeved top and then my (not at all ugly) Christmas vest, long leggings, buff for my neck and gloves, but I didn’t ever get too warm when running.

Festive running gear on, delicious vegan pancakes, my chocolates and the regular Santa from the finish, and of course tea to warm up with in the afternoon.

Lots of our club were there, and running it was just great fun as all the marshals dress up too, and give festive cheers (including one person who shouted at me “go little elf girl” as I ran past!

I finished in just under 50 minutes, so slower than the Hatfield 5, but this race is not flat whereas Hatfield 5 is, and I was just happy to enjoy it.

After we finished, the few of us heading straight to brunch walked into town and met the rest of our club in Megan’s for vegan pancakes (excitingly these are on the main menu and you don’t even need to ask to see a different menu or anything). It took ages to warm up after though- I had packed a hat and an extra layer in my bag drop bag, but the walk home after was very chilly.

Sadly this year they didn’t have a vegan option at the finish- you usually get a chocolate Santa but in previous year there have been a vegan option, so I popped into Holland & Barrett to get some vegan chocolate to enjoy in front of the fire to warm up in the afternoon.

Prospect parkrun in Reading – en route to Bath

For a few years now, the two of us have headed to Bath Christmas markets at some point in December. They haven’t been on the past two years, but this year they were properly back so we decided to visit. Over the years we have travelled and stayed there with various combinations of driving, using the park and ride and getting trains, and the best combination for us is driving to Reading, staying there overnight and then getting the train the next day. The train only takes about 45 minutes from Reading, whereas the drive takes ages and the park and rides get super full.

This also means I can combine it with a parkrun trip. My Bath Christmas market parkruns so far have been Swindon (now called Lydiard but it was Swindon when I went there in 2016), Chippenham (2017), Dinton Pastures (2018 for the D for my alphabet) and Reading in 2019. Handily, we picked a city centre hotel and the closest parkrun was Prospect, one I’d not been to before. We parked in the station car park so it would have been a bit of a pain to drive anywhere, and as the parkrun was a couple of miles away it was a good warm up and cool down.

The run there was straightforward- almost a straight line from the city centre, although when I got to the park I could not work out where the start line was and ended up asking a council worker as it seemed like a big park. This was lucky as I was going in the wrong direction and as it was not a huge parkrun (participant wise) I could have easily missed it!

The morning was absolutely freezing and even though I didn’t have long to wait before the start after arriving, I got really cold. The course was two laps around fairly muddy and fairly flat playing fields. I spent most of it running behind a few people who were chatting away, although at one point a marshal (who must have known them) told them “hurry up stragglers”- not the best thing to hear and could have bothered others but I didn’t mind.

That was my 91st different parkrun course- gradually getting my way to 100! A goal for 2023 I think.

After getting back to the hotel and briefly warming up it was time to get our train to Bath- we’d picked up sandwiches in Reading before getting on board so could have lunch as we travelled.

Christmas Baby Yoda jumper, Bath markets, delicious vegan pizza

The markets were absolutely heaving- often it’s busy but this seemed exceptional. It is always so pretty with lights projected onto the cathedral, a huge Christmas tree and various carol singers dotted about. We’d booked a pizza place for dinner and then went back around the markets in the evening when it was a bit quieter, and then got the train back late that evening.

Do you like Christmas markets?

Hatfield 5 Postbox Nerd!

Often I have not been around for the Hatfield 5, as it coincides with the occasional day which means we may well be at a lovely European Christmas market. This year (2022), I was around so decided to sign up. It’s a great race- you pick up your number on the day, parking is right there by the start, lots of marshals, a flat route, and lots of club runners take part.

Saturday was a regular parkrun at Jersey Farm with Dad- after our touring for his 250th and to reclaim Queen of Herts, we hadn’t actually been there for ages (I’d not run there since July) so it was great to run/walk to the start together and enjoy the route.

The race didn’t start until 10am, and you could collect your number up until 9:45, so I got there at about 9:30 to pick up my number and catch up with my running friends. It’s so good to be at a local race as you bump into people that you’ve not seen for a while. It starts at one of the Uni buildings (did you know that the library was used as the outside of the hospital in Bad Sisters?), so there are real toilets if you need them, plus a shelter from the rain. The bag drop was supervised but you just attached a strip with your number to your bag- I’d brought along a jumper for after and that was about it.

We had our traditional pre-race picture on the stairs and then it was time to head to the start.

Stair photo, after with medal in front of wonky Christmas tree, during the race, and the special postbox.

I had purposely not looked at my previous times, as I knew my 5 mile pb was from there (something like 44:44) and I didn’t think I would be close to it, so just wanted to enjoy it.

The route is nice and flat, heading out from the uni, along a cycle path, through some residential areas, alongside a dual carriageway for a short section before going back on the cycle path and then back to the uni. I was not looking at my watch, trying to run on feel. At one point I saw a cool black postbox, so of course I stopped to take a photo. As I did, I heard someone from behind call out “postbox nerd”, so I laughed and then carried on running. They then asked me why I was taking a picture of it, and I was about to launch into a speech about With Me Now pod, and how in lockdown people got into looking at the cyphers on postboxes, when the person caught up with me and I realised that it was actually Danny Norman the presenter himself. Oops! I knew he was running it but thought he’d be ahead, and the thought just didn’t enter my mind! I think he felt a bit like other people might judge him for saying something like that to someone he didn’t know, but I wouldn’t have minded even if I didn’t know them as I sounded jokey. Anyway, we ended up running and chatting for a bit before he overtook me, and then later I went past him and we had another chat.

My official finish time was 45:44 which was way faster than I had expected, so I was very pleased.

Once you crossed the finish line there was a huge queue for water and medals, which I hadn’t seen before when I’d taken part. I ended up being next to Danny’s partner in the queue, so we had a nice chat before getting some water and a medal. I also caught up with some other running friends (the lovely Branka who I know via parkrun) and a colleague that I used to work with and haven’t seen for ages. I chatted a bit to some of my club mates at the end and one of them offered to take the photo for me as I was admiring the wonky Christmas tree!

It was a chilly morning so I didn’t hang about for too long, quickly picking up my bag from the drop and heading home for a shower and then the next Disney film that Disniversity were covering.

Hove Prom parkrun and Marmite fries! (Brighton weekend)

We had an occasional day at work one Friday in November (this is when the school is closed- we have one day a year and can choose when it will be- something to do with making up for the bank holidays that are in the school holidays). Anyway, in the past we have headed off to a European Christmas market, but this year the Friday was a week too early, so we went down to Brighton instead.

We had planned to get the train, and had paid for parking, bought our tickets and were waiting on the platform, but there had been signalling failures and something else (one problem on the northern line and one on the southern line), then the platform changed and we could not get up the steps and across the bridge in time, and then the next one was cancelled, so we ended up getting a refund for our train tickets and driving down, so we got there much later than planned, but as that was the Thursday night we still had all weekend ahead of us.

A walk to the beach huts, delicious vegan pancakes, a walk by the sea with a B&B chai

We went out for breakfast on the Friday- there is a fab cafe (Wolfox) that has a host of vegan options, so I went for the pancakes (of course). The weather was amazing for November- blue skies for miles, so we walked up to Hove, popped in and out of shops and generally got our fill of fresh air and sunshine.

It being close to Christmas (ha ha) meant that Pret were doing their delicious Christmas sandwich. It is good that lots of companies make these fake meat alternatives to help people transition over, but as someone who didn’t ever like the taste of meat, I don’t really want to eat a vegan turkey sandwich, and Pret seems one of the few places that actually uses veggies rather than the meat alternatives.

We went for dinner in Purezza (all vegan pizza place that is amazing) and then had another walk around after that too.

Hove prom parkrun selfie on the beach, marmite fries and vegan burgers, parkrun token and of course another drink from B&B (one for each day)

On Saturday I headed to Hove Prom parkrun as that was the closest to our hotel. It was their 300th event which got me thinking back to when I first went there. Back in 2015 it was my first UK tourism at their 17th event. It has got a lot bigger since then!  They had pacers so I tried to keep between 29 and 28 minutes, and ended up with 28:02.

Andy had been out to the flowerpot bakery to buy one of their vegan chocolate almond coconut croissants, so I had that in the room as we had to check out at 11. Then it was time for more wandering, more sunshine and more fresh air. Perfect.

Before heading home we went to Oowee for vegan burgers and Marmite fries. Something that I did not know existed until seeing them on the menu. They were so good! But so salty! We shared a large portion and that was probably too much- we will know for next time.

Autumn run scenes from Sunday, vegan croissant from Flour Pot Bakery, photo from Hove Prom and tea with Taskmaster

Of course I had to pop in to Bird and Blend for a few times too- they do the best chai lattes, fact. Then it was time to head home for tea and Taskmaster, and then a regular Sunday with a long run in gorgeous autumnal weather and of course a croissant brought back from Brighton.

Where would your ideal long weekend be?