Maria Runs - Maria Runs

Finsbury Park parkrun

On the 12th March I took myself on a little solo tourist trip. Dad was away, so I could either go to Panshanger, or venture further afield. I had seen that the Vegan Runners were doing a takeover a Finsbury Park parkrun, and it is fairly near to me but I’ve never been, so I decided I would head there. It’s on the same train line from Welwyn Garden City, although the train aren’t that frequent (2 or 3 an hour), so I had to be prepared.

I was at the station just before 8am and arrived at Finsbury Park station at around 8.20am. Plenty of time, and I’d allowed time in case of delays and cancellations etc. It turned out to be very lucky indeed, because I first got lost in the train station (there are two exits and I tried to go out of the underground exit and so my ticket didn’t work- I had to go back under the tunnel and out of the over ground exit), and then once out I got totally confused about the direction, and turned right rather than left. After walking for a bit and seeing no park (on the map the park is right next to the station), I did what any sensible person would do, and first put on my Garmin to track my run, and then looked on maps on my phone to see where I was. Yup, the wrong direction totally.

Once I was pointed in the correct direction, it didn’t take long to find the park, but I am glad that I didn’t get the train that was meant to arrive at 8.45 as I would have been panicking at that point.

The park had huge wide paved roads, and was filled with runners going in all directions. I was not quite sure where the start was, so wandered around taking photos until I saw a big group of people gathering. There were lots of people with the Vegan Runners vests and tops and buffs, and most of the volunteer roles had been filled by the club. I was on the lookout for Ed Miliband as I hear he often does this parkrun, but no joy this week.

The new runners briefing (which I think is soon going to be called the “welcome” which I really like) was super- 2 laps, and a hill- simple.

Then we walked to the start and the main briefing was given. The RD was a vegan and gave a few wry comments about how poor vegans are all malnourished and how he hoped some of them would make it to the finish line…

And then we were off! It seemed very busy- possibly the busiest one I’ve been to since lockdown (over 500 runners) but it was well spread out so it felt fine in that respect. There were a few hills- one was OK but the second of each lap was much tougher. All the cheerful marshals helped of course! As I was coming up to finish my first lap, the leader raced past on his second, and I saw later in the run report that he had broken the course record in 14:58- what an amazing time!

I really enjoyed visiting there, and when I looked at my results later I realised that it was my 80th different parkrun event- 4/5 of a Cowell! I love going to parkrun with my dad (and brother when he comes along), and of course the fab OH ladies, but sometimes it is nice to take yourself off and do something on your own. It also made me realise that I need to do a bit of prep before my next parkrun tourism as I cannot just rely on getting my phone out once I am already lost- I need to look at the directions properly in advance!

Post run, the lake before the run, mid run photo and finish token

I had a while before my train so took my time heading back to the station, and popped into Pret to get a croissant for breakfast (when in Rome…). I had looked up the train times and there were 2 around 10am, one was a slow train which departed first but got home a few minutes after the fast train. I nearly got on the slow train but when they announced the stations I didn’t hear WGC- turned out it was stopping before then, so it was lucky that I listened to the announcements and didn’t just rely on the train times that I’d looked up.

Andy walked to meet me in town, and so by the time we’d walked back and I’d had a shower it was quite a late breakfast, watching the latest With Me Now vlog as is now tradition for Saturdays.

Do you like to tour alone or with others? How are you with directions?

Signs of spring and pink rainbows!

On Sunday morning I had a lovely 8 mile run. It started off in the sunshine but by the end it was quite cloudy. I saw loads of crocus flowers and some daffodils and blossom- it was starting to feel very spring-like. I had pancakes once home- I’d not made them for ages so it felt like a lovely treat.

I then made the mistake of suggesting the new West Side Story as an afternoon movie, as I’d seen it was on Disney Plus. Let’s just say, it turns out that Muppets Most Wanted is more my style of musical I thought (wrongly) it was going to be modernised- and I thought that a modern twist on the story (immigration etc) would be interesting, but no, it was just a remake. I had bought a cinnamon bun from the coffee shop in town, and it was cold enough to have the fire on, so it wasn’t all bad!

Pret granola and Aldi chocolate chip yoghurt was a delicious snack after yoga

My early morning runs were also seeing the signs of spring, as the sunrise it about to appear at times.

One morning I had the most amazing run. I started to see this pink line in the sky, and wondered if it was the trail from a plane being lit up by the sunrise, but it appeared stronger as I ran, and got more and more arched. I realised after a while that it was a rainbow- it wasn’t raining at that point but there were a few drops as I got closer to home. I just kept taking photos of it and stopping as it was so beautiful. It set my day up so well.

Have you ever seen a pink rainbow? I’ve seen the upside down rainbows before (something to do with ice crystals I think).

IWD parkrun! And “two’s day” running to plant trees.

The week following on from our trip to Brighton was fairly standard.

Andy had bought me one of the amazing vegan chocolate coconut almond croissants from the Flour Pot bakery- I was going to have it for breakfast on Monday morning but I felt a bit rubbish in the morning so saved it for Tuesday- I went for a short run to ease my achy legs and then watched the latest With Me Now video and enjoyed it with some tea.

One of my new year goals was to sign up to Earth Runs- they are virtual runs and they use your entry money to plant trees. The previous Tuesday was “two’s day”- 22.2.22, and they did a special run where they would plant 22 trees if you ran a 5k. I didn’t need much persuading to sign up for that! My medal arrived (you can pay extra to have a medal and they are compostable and filled with wildflower seeds).

Christmas cake, slightly lighter skies at the end of a run and my medal for 22 trees

On the Wednesday I had an all day training course (online), followed by a staff meeting (online) and then a local cluster meeting (online)- I knew I’d be sat looking at my laptop from 8.30-5.30, so I went for a run in the morning to stretch my legs. It poured with rain but in the lunch break I decided to have a quick walk too, just to give my eyes a break from the screen. I really do not know how people manage to look at computers all day!

A rainy lunch time walk, cookies and tea to help with the training, plus sweets from my vegan box (just took the photo as they matched my nail varnish) and lemon loaf from a new baking book.

We did an order from the Vegan Kind supermarket, and happily it coincided with their doughnuts being in stock (they only have them on certain days)- these were shared over the weekend and so good. We started to watch The Afterparty, and I really enjoyed it (we’ve finished it now)- it had similar vibes to Only Murders in the Building, so if you liked that then I’d recommend seeking this out.

And then it was finally Saturday! As it was IWD the week after, parkrun was encouraging women to take part/ volunteer etc. We headed to Jersey Farm along with lots of OH ladies. I thought they might make a bit more of IWD, but literally the RD went “and, international women’s day”, and then did the countdown.

I’d not been there since January, and it was much drier with a few big muddy puddles. Quite good going but I still got lots of mud splattered up my legs. I could have worn a marathon top as it was parkrun 262 (26.2) for me, but I only thought about it after!

Did your parkrun do anything for IWD?

Yoga with Adriene- I actually did it!

For the last few years, our running club has had a December challenge, and one of those challenges was to set goals for the following year. One of my goals this year was to stretch/ do yoga more regularly than my once a week yoga class. I know it’s good for my body, but it is also good for my mind to slow down and relax.

In previous years I’ve started the YWA January challenge, but I’ve never even made it half the way through. I decided I needed to be realistic with myself. No matter what people say, sometimes finding 20 minutes to do some yoga is just too hard. I have meetings after work, I have work to mark and other bits to do. Obviously you can’t do yoga after eating, so it just gets harder to find the time, and I think if I didn’t do one day before, I’d be a bit disheartened and then stop. This year I decided to follow it, but just not worry if I was a few days behind. In the end, I finished it right at the end of February, so it took me 2 months rather than one, but I worked through every session.

The other thing that helped were the length of the sessions- they were usually around 20 minutes, but some being 30 minutes, whereas in previous years some have been 40 minutes or a bit more. On the face of it that doesn’t sound like much, but actually finding the time for them is much harder.

I’d also signed up to the daily emails so I got a prompt, and could find the next unread email to see where I had got up to.

I tended to do them on Monday and Friday mornings, and Saturday and Sunday afternoons. I found the Sunday afternoon session particularly helpful after doing a Sunday long run, so I will definitely keep up with that, and see if I can do a session or two in the week as well.

Vegan re-usable food wrap from my vegan monthly box, the most delicious almond croissant from Veggie Pret, and the message at the end of the YWA month.

The final session was the Monday after the half marathon, and turned out to be a freestyle one where you followed your body. I ended doing a fair bit of foam rolling as well as stretches as my legs really needed it.

On the subject of self care, I also got a delivery of hair syrup- a pre wash treatment for your hair. I’d been keen to try it for a while but they are one of those small shops that restock every now and then. The main reason I wanted to give them a go is because you put it onto dry hair. I’ve used a few that go onto wet hair but it’s a pain to get your hair wet, put it on and then sit around with wet hair for ages.

Fire, hair treatment and finishing Inventing Anna

I can now get home from work, put it on, have a cup of tea and then got for a shower and wash my hair later on. It was chilly enough the other week to put the fire on, which did help to dry my hair after I’d washed it!

Preston Park parkrun and Brighton Half 2022

Since I’ve been running half marathons, most years I’ve run the Brighton half. The 2021 one was postponed to October, so it felt like I had only recently run it. I always love a weekend in Brighton though, and the weather was set to be beautiful for this time of year too.

We drove down on the Friday night, parked near Preston park station, and then had to get a rail replacement bus to the centre, where we were staying for the weekend.

Pavilion in the sunshine, the end of parkrun and a person dressed as a traffic cone!

I’d decided to go to Preston Park parkrun, partly because it was away from the coast and would be a change from the half route (you run along the Hove Prom parkrun route in the half marathon) but also it would increase my p index to 6, as I’d been to 5 parkruns at least 6 times, and Preston Park 5 times. It was a beautiful day as I ran there, with blue skies and the feeling of spring on the way. I got quite warm running, although there was a chilly wind so as soon as I stopped I got quite cold. I picked up my free Caffe Nero on the way back as I really wanted a tea to warm up.

I noticed that next to our hotel, a new version of the Wolfox café had opened, so we popped there for breakfast. Going to a place to eat in still feels quite alien, but it was nice and spacious with the door open the whole time, and so it felt OK. They did vegan French toast which was delicious, but their pancakes are also vegan and looked amazing so I am sure we will be back to sample some other delights.

We then wandered around to Hove, got a drink from Bird and Blend, and generally enjoyed the sunshine.

I did have some admin that needed to be done however. I needed to renew my driving licence with a new photo, and even though it says you can do it online, I can’t, because my passport is too new (3 years old) or too old, or something ridiculous. I’d tried in half term many times, I’d tried the online chat but that was just a bot, tried calling but you just had a message saying “we’re too busy, try again later”, and had emailed but had no reply. Very frustrating, so the options left were to go to the Post Office, or do it by post. There were no post offices where I live that did it, but 2 in Brighton, so we popped to one, only to be told that their photo booths had been switched off the day before, and the tablets that had ben sent in place didn’t yet work. We tried a second one but it was the same story. So frustrating!

We ended the day with pizza from Fatto A Mano, as they do a really good vegan pizza, although I think I prefer the vegan cheese from Purezza so would probably choose that next time. I did well over 30,000 steps which probably isn’t the best prep?

Our hotel was very central, so I didn’t have to get up that early which was a bonus. I could not decide what to wear- vest, vest over long sleeved top or t-shirt. In the end I went for the t-shirt as I knew I’d heat up once I started running. As Andy walked with me to the start, he could take my long sleeved top back for me so I didn’t have to tie it around my waist while running.

It felt windier than the previous day, and I was initially worried about being cold, but really I should have worried more about how hard the wind would make it!

It didn’t take long for us to start- my pen was the 2-2.15 pen, but I couldn’t find a way to get into that one, so I ended up at the back of the 1.45-2.00 pen, which was nicely spaced out. Like last time, I ran on feel, barely checking my watch at all. I noticed a few of the mile markers but mainly just enjoyed the route, listening to other runners, reading signs in the crowds etc. I think one thing I need to remember with this is that the turnaround points are always further than you think! The first bit is uphill and isn’t usually too bad, but this time we were running into the wind so it felt tough from the outset.

After 3 miles we turned away from the wind and the relief was amazing! You can see from my splits that I got a bit quicker- downhill and with the wind behind me it’s not surprising. At this point (and for the whole loop into the town and back) I was just behind a runner in a Vegan Runners vest (I had my buff with me) who took her role very seriously. She was constantly shouting “you can’t love animals if you eat them”, over and over again. Now, while I agree with her sentiment (the weird disconnect people have that they love their dogs or cats but happily eat chickens or pigs or cows), I am not sure anyone is going to change their mind hearing someone shout it at them from a race, and probably does more to make people annoyed with people being all preachy than it will actually help anything. I’m not sure if she went past me or if I managed to speed up, but I was quite relieved when somewhere along the seafront we were not together any more.

There are a few sections where you head into a little square of streets before going back to the seafront, and each time you got a taste of the wind and the final few miles as turning back onto the main road you’d get battered by the wind. Those final 3 miles were going to be fun…

As you can see, as we turned and ran into the wind, everyone slowed. It felt as if I was barely moving, and even though that was my slowest mile it was still a pretty good speed. I like the 10 mile point as you can tell yourself that it’s just a parkrun to go, and in Brighton you reach the Hove Prom parkrun course along this section. The i360 tower just seems so small when you turn at first, but soon you get closer and the crowds get even bigger- it really does help having people cheer you on.

I was so glad when the finish gantry came into view as battling the wind for those final 30 minutes was tough, even with the beautiful sea views! I crossed the line in 2:07:37, again feeling pleased to be in front of the 2.15 pacer. I have mixed feelings about the times, because on the one hand I tried for ages to get a sub 2, I achieved it once in Brighton but then the course was short. I worked out that if I had continued at the same speed, it still would have been under 2, but it isn’t the same a actually running it. But then running at that speed is hard. I enjoy running by the sea, and love the race atmosphere, so shall I just continue to enjoy it and not worry about the times? But then if I finish sooner then it’s less of a rush to check out…

The goodie bag was terrible! Not that I do a race for the bag, but other than a can of water (love that it’s easier to recycle and that there are actually recycling bins along the seafront), look at what you got! Some energy gels, a tab filled with artificial sweeteners (bleurgh to both of those)- the only saving grace was the Bird and Blend teabag sample- chocolate digestives tea woohoo! No banana or cereal bar or anything to have- I’m not sure many people are clamouring to eat (drink?) an energy gel when they finish running.

I couldn’t hang about as we had to check out from the hotel at 12.00, and as this was around 11.15 and it takes ages to battle through the crowds (I love Brighton but they have a weird set up with the toilets in the way and it’s always so congested). I did have a selfie by the sea with the medal, of course. I made it back just in time to have a speedy shower, gulp down the tea that Andy had made for me in the room, and then head out to get some lunch.

Before the race, after, the pier and a delicious burger for lunch

We went to Leon for lunch and then headed to the station (via Bird and Blend for an amazing strawberry and nutella pancakes tea latte). This was probably a mistake, as the rail replacement buses were not frequent, and when we finally got on one, the streets around the station were gridlocked so we definitely could have walked back much quicker. Ah well. A fab weekend as always.

Also, can we appreciate how well I did with my nail varnish? I like to paint my nails before a race, and it just so happened that the colour I picked matches perfectly with the medal ribbon!

Best or worst goodie bag item?