Author: Maria Runs

Bug Hunter Waters parkrun

I mean, with a name like that, who doesn’t want to go there?

Bug Hunter Waters is just outside Cambridge, so just about within driving distance. This was a fun little parkrun road trip, with me picking up Branka and meeting Holly and her friend Lou (and baby) there.

This is a relatively new parkrun, with my visit being the 12th event. That was the reason why we went that day, as Holly wanted to do event number 12, a fact she only remembered when they announced the number in the run brief!

The website directs you to park at the park and ride, although I used the postcode and got us slightly lost. I was following the park and ride signs, but they were a bit sporadic and so I turned off (where google maps told me to) and we ended up in a section of the housing estate. Thankfully we turned around and although the maps were not loading we saw a park and ride bus and followed that until we saw signs again (we were only about 2 minutes away). There was a parkrun car park marshal directing us to a section of the park and ride car park, there were toilets by the bus stop, and then it was around a km walk along a path which was part of the route, to get to the start. Very easy to find.

It reminded me a lot of Great Denham, with the parkrun course right by a new housing estate. The lake made it very scenic, and it was a very flat course too. It was narrow in places, and we were warned to slow down at certain pinch points on the course.

The start line by the water, some of the houses and of course the pop up. Branka and I were accidently twinning with our black shorts and green tops!

We took the obligatory pop up photos (Branka is teaching me how to line up the sign in my selfies too!), listened to the first timers welcome and then the main run briefing which was hilarious as the RD had managed to fit in a lot of Oasis quotes (they were off the previous Saturday for something else but he mentioned that everyone was trying to get Oasis tickets that morning instead).

Then we walked to the start. As it was narrow, they asked people to seed themselves which I always think works well but I ended up being a bit too far back- it’s always hard to tell!

A few photos taken while running, plus the token and solo pop up photo

I was going to run, Branka was run/walking intervals and Holly and Lou were walking so we spread out, and then we were off. It is two laps, with a sort of out and back section and then a lap of the lake. I really enjoyed the scenery, although at the moment there isn’t much shade so on a sunny day it would be quite tough in that respect. There were 249 parkrunners that day and it felt quite busy due to the paths being narrow in places, but it did thin out. I didn’t get lapped which surprised me, I thought I would at the end of my first lap. I did pass Holly and Lou walking towards the end of my second lap but by then there were not that many people running around me so it was fine to have people passing at that point.

Once I finished I made sure I stretched and had some water, and then not long after Branka finished. I really liked their token sorting board (see photo below)- I do love it when you visit different parkruns and they have their own way of doing things.

We walked to the cafe (of course we ended up getting lost going there too) and found a table so that Holly and Lou could join us when they finished. The cafe was really nice (Northstowe Tap & Social), with lots of outdoor seating. They had the most enormous pastries that I have ever seen, but the only vegan option was banana bread (which was tasty- I had packed an emergency cereal bar in case they didn’t do anything), and of course oat milk for tea. We sat in the sunshine for ages- I regretted leaving my sunglasses in the car as it was quite overcast during parkrun but the cloud really burned away after.

Banana bread and Earl Grey with oat milk, the token sorting board and the finish area by the water

So that was location 119 for me, and my 373rd parkrun in total. I’ve not been to many Cambridgeshire events, just Pocket and Wimpole before this one. It did get me a nice big purple chunk on the Voronoi map!

Before the after- look at that big purple chunk!

How do you choose new events to visit?

Futakotamagawa parkrun, Tokyo, Japan

Japan has been on our list of places we’d love to go for a while, and once we booked flights I had said to Andy that I wanted to do one parkrun while we were away. We were away for 3 Saturdays, but the middle Saturday was already taken with Ghibli Park, so I had two others to play with. Thankfully Plan A worked out well, as the parkrun I was planning on visiting went ahead- they were cancelling if the heat index was forecast to be too high. Just the 33C before 8am!

For this part of the holiday we stayed in Shibuya (by the famous crossing) and Futakotamagawa parkrun was about a 20 minute train journey with no changes, so this looked to be the simplest one. I was quite anxious the night before about navigating on my own, as we had only arrived a few days before, and then this was not helped by an earthquake alert on our phones and then an actual earthquake. Anyway, to the morning…

Due to jet lag and feeling stressed I was awake before my 6am alarm, took my time getting ready (lots of suncream) and I packed a bottle of water with a rehydration tab in it, plus a t-shirt to change into for the journey back. Our hotel was a short walk from the train station, but the station itself is huge so I allowed plenty of time to get to the platform (there are just so many). Google Maps was a great help as it tells you the end station, direction, platform number and time of departure so you know you are on the correct train, and then once on the train the screens show the stations clearly in English, so the journey was all good.

I’d watched their You Tube video of how to walk to the start from the station, as the construction work around the river was ongoing, but as I walked I met one of the volunteers, who walked with me and another tourist, and we also saw a volunteer at one point (in front of the bike shop) directing us to the cut through to the river, so no worries about getting lost.

First timers and volunteers photo, and a photo by the artwork under the bridge (no purple pop ups here)

(I used a Suica card, which is a bit like a travel card but you get the app and save it in your apple wallet- you then don’t even need to unlock your phone as you go through the barriers, you just tap your phone on the barrier and it pops up on the screen that you have an active journey and the total amount of Yen on your card)

I was there with plenty of time (around 7:30 for the 8am start) so I chatted with some other runners- one guy had on a Dunstable running top and this is just up the road from where I live, so we chatted for a while. He was intrigued as to how I would get on a as a vegan in Japan (as I had on my VR visor)- he was vegan but was not going to be for his trip. This was only a few days in to the trip but it had been fine until then, and we were there for 3 weeks and didn’t have any issues.

Anyway, back to parkrun. They did the welcome in both English and Japanese, and took a photo of all of us before the main briefing which again was in English and Japanese. We also got interviewed by one of the volunteers- I thought he was taking our photo but then he asked us about our home parkruns, and if you follow them on facebook there is a link to their You Tube (the channel I’d used to see how to get there from the station) and a lovely cringey bit of video of me saying that I was not travelling with the two people I was chatting to, and that Panshanger is my home event.

Heading to the start and then a few mid run scenes.

The route seemed fairly simple- along a path, two laps around playing fields, back along the path, a little out and back section next to some tennis courts and then back to the bridge for the finish. Sounds a little complicated but it was simple and there were lots of cones, arrows and volunteers out.

I really enjoyed the course too- in one direction you could see back to Tokyo and the skyscrapers, but we ran alongside a nature reserve so you could hear the circardas (which was the soundtrack to our whole Japan trip) and I saw loads of swallows and little wagtail birds. There were people paying baseball and tennis, one part of the park had these small man-made boulders which might be for dog agility? Not sure. The volunteers were all so wonderful, cheering us all on. I was still trying to be confident in saying thank-you in Japanese (“arigatou gozaimasu” as just arigatou is a bit too informal) but I waved and smiled and clapped as I passed each one and they were all fantastic at cheering back. It was a real mix of Japanese locals and ex-pats who were on the team, participating and volunteering, and of course a few tourists as well as local first timers.

There was not much shade out there- just this small section (below) under the large tree, so it was quite brutal, but I loved it. I did stop and walk a few times to try to cool down, but also I didn’t want to take too long to finish as then I would be out in the sun for longer.

They also took photos of us and these were on facebook so I have a couple of me out on the course too which is always a real bonus.

They had a tail walker and a few walkers and run/walkers as well as runners, so I felt confident taking my time and trying not to overheat, although I did get a bit carried away in the final finish stretch and felt a bit dizzy when I stopped. I was wearing my Ellenbrook Fields vest and one of the scanners asked me about it as he knew of it, and I think I answered him quickly and then had to apologise and say I needed to get my water as I felt not great at that point, but I did soon recover once I had cooled down.

Red and sweaty face after I had finished, and my token, plus views of the bridge and river.

I cooled down in the shade for a bit before walking back to the train station. I changed into a clean t-shirt as I didn’t want to be all sweaty on the train back. The journey back was fine- I didn’t need maps to get me back to the station as I just retraced my steps and it was simple enough, and the train back was fine as that station only had one line and Google Maps made it very clear which platform I needed, but back at Shibuya I came out of a different entrance (there are so many) so when I was back at street level I realised I was quite a few blocks away from where I needed to be, but then I had my bearings and could get back to the hotel fine, it just took a bit longer! Andy had popped down to Starbucks and got me a blueberry bagel (plant based and delicious) and made me a cup of tea plus another water with a rehydration tab as the aim was to have as much liquid as possible!

Walking back to the station by the river/ changed to a dry top/ back at the hotel/ the train station by parkrun.

I loved getting the results email as it’s all in Japanese! I can see my time (32:57) and if I click to translate I can get more (eg I was 62/76 people).

Of course I had to check the 5K app and now I’ve got a little purple chunk in Tokyo, and a Japanese flag!

I am so glad I got to go along to this parkrun- the experience was really special, every volunteer was so welcoming and friendly (we experienced this with Japan as a whole- everywhere we went the people were wonderful), so thanks to everyone there!

So, my 9th country and again just a really special place to visit.

Wormwood Scrubs parkrun

Dad fancied some tourism, so I sent him a list of my ten NENDY’s and asked him to choose (apart from Walthamstow as Branka wants to go there and we should manage a joint trip at some point). He said Wormwood Scrubs had caught his eye, so that was decided!

My brother also wanted to come along, so we met at Dad’s at 7:30 for the journey that Google Maps said would be between 35-55 minutes. With that big variation, we wanted to leave lots of time free. I’d found in the parkrun tourist facebook group that there was free street parking, and the journey there was relatively straightforward with us getting to the parking spot at 8:15. We could take our time walking to the start, which is in the centre of the scrub land and not that obvious from the road. I had saved the location in my phone and we were following those directions but obviously it wants us to follow actual paths (or what it thinks are paths) and we ended up wandering through a few places that looked like they used to be paths, before coming out onto the open scrubland and seeing two other people dressed in running gear who pointed us in the right direction. I tracked it on Strava and the walk back (which was more direct) was 0.4 miles so it’s not far but it’s not right by the entrance either.

Walking to the start/ the misty buildings/ the start area with the flag and pop up

As we walked across it was drizzling a little and I was glad of my last minute decision to wear my hat. The tall buildings in the distance were fuzzy as the rain/cloud was so low, but later when it cleared up we could see them clearly.

Our “before” photos

Not long after arriving at the finish area and getting some photos the new runners welcome started. The RD was so positive and enthusiastic, and gave a great little speech about why the location was so unique- it hosts an area of SSI and animals including bats, snakes and lizards live there- very exciting indeed! I always forget we have snakes in the UK and it’s amazing to think that wildlife is clinging on in the centre of such a busy city.

Mid run views, bottom right is everyone walking to the start.

They then did the main briefing before we walked to the start- the course is just over two laps and although they all congregate at the finish area, they then walk back to the start position just before 9. The RD was very impressive in his briefing, naming all of the marshals in each spot and again talking a bit about how special the area was. He also mentioned that the old road running next to the park was part of the 1908 London Olympic marathon route, so that was quite cool to hear about while the Olympics were going on.

The route started on the green dot and was anticlockwise, so you did two laps and then the extra to where the finish is.

Suddenly we were off and both my dad and brother were ahead of me getting swept up in the faster runners! We did try to place ourselves further back but then some people who were walking were stood on the start line, and as it narrows quickly we didn’t want to get in the way, so my brother spent the whole run ahead of us whereas I managed to catch up to Dad and we then ran together. The course was really enjoyable- varied scenery with the scrubland, a little bit of wood, some Gaelic football pitches, and lots of twists and turns. The ground was rock had with big cracks in places, and a lot of it was single file running as the grass was long on either side (and we had been told that because it’s a nature reserve the landowners want to keep it that way). I was quite conscious of not twisting an ankle as a few times my foot would “give” a bit as I trod in an unseen hole, hidden by longer grass. It would be a proper cross country route in the winter but as we are used to both Panshanger and Jersey Farm which don’t really have paved paths, we enjoyed it. I had chosen to wear trail shoes which I think is a good option even in the summer due to the uneven ground.

We saw the RD a few times as we were running as he was walking parts of the course in the opposite direction, and he was so friendly each time, cheering us on and chatting to the marshals too. Again, an event with a really welcoming vibe.

The two and a bit laps whizzed by and soon we were being cheered on, being told we had 400m to go and then being cheered on again at the final corner.

Purple pop up picture post parkrun/ token photo

After scanning, we asked someone to take our post-parkrun photo (red faces all around) and then headed back to the car. We had thought we might get a drink from the cafe/ community centre, but it was at the other end of the park to where the car was, so in the end went straight back home where Mum cooked us pancakes (she is becoming an expert at vegan pancakes). Driving home we got to see a few places from Dad’s childhood including the street he lived in when he was born (briefly), the block of flats his uncle lived in and the school his cousins went to. That was unexpected and really added to the morning as well.

New section of the map has turned purple (which means I’ve been there)- I took the screenshot on the Friday in case the 5K app had problems again!

So that was my 370th parkrun, and event 117. Another London event ticked, although I don’t think I’l ever manage to visit them all.

To continue the parkrun theme, OH ladies had a volunteering takeover at juniors on the Sunday, with most of the roles being filled by our members. It was so lovely to see so many familiar faces and really felt like the good old days of EF parkrun, where you were guaranteed to know lots of people whenever you turned up.

When you are touring, what makes you choose a particular event?

Great Dunmow parkrun

Guess which song I had in my head all the way around this parkrun? Clue? Two women went to mow, went to Dunmow parkrun, two women, one woman and her koala top, went to Dunmow parkrun….

Did you get it?

Anyway, back to parkrunday. I picked up Branka and we drove to parkrun. It took just under an hour and was fairly simple (following the satnav and also a coach with Great Dunmow written on it- very handy to check we were in the right direction! We parked at the leisure centre (free) which was suggested on the course page. It was a huge car park and at 8:30 had plenty of spaces. When we returned it was more full but still fine. We then had a walk down to the start- the directions on the course page were very clear (at one point we had to walk for 635 metres) and we could see the parkrun through a gap in the hedge.

I had watched a little run through on You Tube of the route (Branka had sent me a link to Mark Runs), and I had noticed their huge pop up “Finish” sign. This was a parkrun with all the pop ups. They had their old large pop up, the new mini one (both with Start on one side and Great Dunmow on the other) and then a huge one with Start and Finish on each side. I’ve never seen one of these before- from some googling it looks as if they are older signs from before the event pop ups were introduced.

Start as seen from the road/ main briefing/ giant pop up and Christmas in July top!

I listened to the first timers welcome while Branka checked out the facilities, and then we listened to the main briefing. It was a really friendly event and even in those few minutes I chatted to a few people at the start. I had opted for trail shoes due to the terrain being mostly grass and unpaved paths. I think road shoes would have been OK in the summer on a dry day, but I prefer trail shoes if the ground is a bit uneven so it was the right choice for me here.

A few scenes from the run, including the pink flowers and marshal.

It wasn’t long before we were off. I decided to run and Branka was walking. It was a hot day so we did need to take it gently. I really enjoyed the route of this. It was two laps with the first lap being slightly longer, but after a few hundred metres I had no idea which way I was facing. I think I saw the same marshal twice as he must have gone through a gap in the hedge to direct further on, but I am not 100% sure on this. There was some shade on the course, and some lovely open wide sections where you could see runners in the distance. Parts were around playing fields, but other parts were through slightly less manicured parkland, with paths mown through the long grass. We ran alongside a little stream, there were huge tall pink wildflowers at points (matching perfectly the pink high viz of the volunteer stood by them) and even a twisty section through some woods where you had to watch for tree roots and long stinging nettles. I really enjoyed it. The wide open parks gave me vibes of Bury Fields, the laps, wooded section and friendliness made me think of Canons Park, and the mix of playing fields and more wild areas made me think of Pocket parkrun.

Here’s the route- I had no idea where I was most of the time but really loved it!

I was wearing my parkrun adventurers koala top, for Christmas in July, and in December and July they have an Ugly Christmas Singlet or Shirt day at parkrun, and this happened to be that day. I did get a few comments from marshals on the way around and had to explain “Christmas in July” as I ran past!

Finish area at the end/ my red face matching my red top about 10 minutes after I had finished!/ giant pop up and finish token

You can see above how much bigger the finish pop up is compared to the location pop up! As I was scanning, one of the people from the new runner briefing had scanned and was asking about what happened next, so I explained that he would get the text or email later on. I jokingly was offered a volunteer credit by one of the scanners! Once I had put my token away I walked over to find the toilets (very close to the start but in a separate building to the pavilion) and did some stretches. One of the timers then called me over as she wanted to know about my koala top, so we ended up chatting. Branka had checked our pop up photo en route and realised that it had missed off the bottom of the word, so we took a new version to make sure it was captured!

As you can almost see, the location was missed off the sign at first (below) so we took a new one after (above).

Breakfast- Branka had scrambled tofu and I had cinnamon roll pancakes

After chatting a little more to the timers, we headed back up to the car park, admiring many of the thatched cottages on the way. It is a very pretty part of the country. We then drove to Letchworth for brunch (I cannot resist a visit to Vutie Beets). Last time I could not decide between the cinnamon or fruit pancakes, and as I was deciding they ran out of the cinnamon ones, so I went for those this time. I was a bit worried the ice cream would give me a bit of a sugar coma (even if I go to the waffle house I don’t have ice cream- it seems a bit much usually)- but I think with the heat it was good to have something cool, plus it was not too big of a scoop. They were delicious anyway and I am very glad I had them.

If you were anywhere on social media at the weekend you would have seen that the 5k app was down. I had taken my screenshot of the “before” map on Friday, but had to wait for the update to be able to do the “after”. Great Dunmow has a nice big section on the map so it was very satisfying to see it.

I wasn’t sure how many of the Essex parkruns I’ve done, so I had a look on the excellent Blog 7t, and it turns out that Gunpowder, Harlow, Hatfield Forest (which is sadly now not on any more) and Roding Valley are also Essex, so I’ve done 5 of them. As it goes all the way to the coast I am not sure it’s realistic to aim to complete them all, but it’s fun to have a look at these challenges to see.

All in all, a great morning out.

Have you ever seen one of those huge pop ups before? Are you into collecting parkrun “sets”?

I did all the Brighton ones, and then looked at sort of doing the Southampton ones although it is less clear cut as to where the boundaries are for those ones. I did Herts and all the Beds ones, but other neighbouring counties go a bit far out so I don’t know how realistic they would be.

Local parkruns- Panshanger for the 97th time, Letchworth for the 5th and Jersey Farm for the 40th

The single ton at Panshanger is inching ever closer for me!

At the start of July, after a bit of touring I decided to head to Panshanger and work on the single-ton achievement instead of touring elsewhere. It also means I can run there as it’s about 2 miles, so a good parkrun sandwich distance. It was a bit drizzly when I left, so I took my hat with me and was glad of it. The run there goes through a lovely section of woods so you are at least a bit sheltered, and I got there at about 8:45 so not too long to stand around. At this point it was raining much harder so I sheltered under one of the gazebos (the event team have them for the timers to stand under at the end). I’d bumped into a runner friend (hi Sam) so we chatted under the gazebo until it was time for us to reluctantly go and stand in the rain ready to start!

I said hi to a few of the OH lady crew before the start and then had an enjoyable solo run. The cows were near to the first hill so I attempted a selfie with one of them (anything to mean I don’t have to run up the entire hill!), and the rain eased off during the run too.

As per usual, when trying to get a selfie with the sign someone took pity on me and offered to take my photo:

I don’t look that wet in the photo but trust me, I was soaked through. Other people were having photos taken and saying that they were commemorating running in such heavy rain!

The gazebo was being used by the timers too- a very good idea as it’s not easy to use the phone screen

when it’s raining.

So that was my 97th time at Panshanger- hopefully I’ll manage 3 more this year!

The following weekend I could not decide where to go. I didn’t fancy Panshanger again, and Dad was away so no point in going to the St Albans ones. I was tempted to revisit a Herts one (to move up the Herts Vegan Runner table)- either Westmill or Stevenage, but Branka was going to be at Letchworth and so I decided to head up there as it was around the same driving time as Westmill and it would be lovely to have a catch up.

The sun came out and it was a fabulous walk around the fields and park, and as always we enjoyed a good catch up about parkrun touring, work, Disney and a few other topics thrown in for good measure!

After, I headed to Vutie Beets for a post parkrun brunch. It is so good there- I just wish they did pots of tea rather than cups. I took a selfie as somehow I always end up matching their cups. They don’t just serve yellow cups but it seems I am always given a yellow cup and always seem to be wearing yellow!

After a few busy Sundays I was free in the morning so headed to Birchwood to marshal there. The weather was beautiful, and they had let the wildflowers grow in the park, mowing a path (which was handy for the course as it meant less cones for the team to put out). I had fun messing around with the timer on my phone while I waited for the runners to come by!

The following Saturday I was back at Jersey Farm. Dad was back so we walked there together and then ran around together. I was a bit sad because looking on the 5k app I had been to Ellenbrook Fields 39 times, and this was my 40th run at Jersey Farm so I am now overtaking my EF visits. I did volunteer at EF 22 times but of course some of those would have also been running ones eg I probably did the new runner briefing, so the total won’t be the same yet. But still, it did make me feel a bit sad. Our OH ladies insta feed on Saturdays is full of all the parkrun touring that we all get up to, and that mainly comes from us feeling “homeless” and so heading to lots of places. Anyway, at Jersey Farm the wildflowers had been left to grow and you could just hear the constant chirp of insects in the long grasses- how it should be.

Looking at my event summaries, St Albans is my next visited one (where I started parkrunning) on 31, so it will be a bit of a while before that overtakes EF.

Where are your most visited parkruns? After these local ones, Hove Prom is my next most visited with 11, and then Preston Park with 8, so you can tell I like going to Brighton for the weekend!