Maria Runs - Maria Runs

I can’t cope with a busy weekend!

And this felt super busy! On Friday Andy and I went to the Alban Arena to see Prof Brian Cox do a talk on space. It was so interesting, with a bit of comedy thrown in every now and then (Robin Ince who does the IMC podcast kept coming onto the stage too). I was again a bit apprehensive about going as they were not checking vaccine status, and although you had to wear a mask when walking about, you didn’t have to at your seat. Anyway, I kept mine on, and it was OK. In the interval you could go outside and get some fresh air, and having that break helped. I do know that I have to have some sort of trust in the vaccine- yes I know it does not mean I won’t catch it, but it is less likely, and if I do catch it, the illness should be less severe. But still, I am cautious anyway and these past two years have not helped that at all.

Back to the busy weekend! On Saturday I wanted to do a long run (as I would not fit it in on Sunday), so I ran around near home for a bit, met Dad in a car park and then we ran/walked to Panshanger to do their new course. We’d not been there since the restart, although I have run it on several occasions as it’s so close to home.

We both loved the new route, although I do think part of it will be very slippery once it has rained for a bit as it’s a long steep downhill. We met a few club members too, including Donna (my OH run leader) and again it was so nice to chat to people at the start and end. I’ll be back tail-walking in a couple of weeks so I thought it would be good to have done the new route before volunteering just to check I 100% know the course.

Breakfast/ Taskmaster/ autumn running scenes and painted nails

Once home I’d run/walked 9 miles, so that was OK by me. I didn’t have long at home to sort bits out (plus boring jobs like cleaning) as we were off to London. Ash are one of our favourite bands, and we were meant to see them in March 2020. Since then the gig has been rescheduled so many times (I think it went June 2020, September 2020, Feb 2021, possibly another date, and then finally September 2021). They were at the Roundhouse in Camden, a very cool venue (it used to be a turn table for the trains), so we drove to High Barnet and got the tube in. I could not remember the last time I went on the tube. The last time I went to London was at the start of March 2020 when we saw Reasons To Be Cheerful, but that was right by Kings Cross so we got the overground in. Anyway, it wasn’t too busy and most people had masks (even though it’s a TFL requirement so you would think that everyone would have one on).

We walked around London, popped to Leon to get some dinner, and then walked to the vegan Crosstown. Sadly they had run out of doughnuts- what? So I got a consolation cookie. It was good but I was looking forward to trying a new doughnut. We waited outside the venue for a bit, watching the Stormtroopers (Ash are big Star Wars fans and seemed to have some as security guards!) before I plucked up the courage to go inside. We found a space near the sound desk, I kept my mask on and felt fine. I think people saw me with the mask on and gave me a bit more space which was nice. Before they started playing they had a DJ who totally knew his audience (eg playing songs from late 90’s ad early 2000’s) and then once Ash came out and started playing it was just brilliant. I love live music and I was so happy to be there, singing along and enjoying the music. They even had a special guest in their encore; Charlotte, who was a member of the band for a bit. By the time I got home I’d walked over 42,000 steps- not bad!

Then there was no rest as on Sunday I was getting the train down to Haywards Heath to visit and friend and her new baby. Another friend got on the same train as me at an earlier stop, so we had a fab journey catching up, and then spent ages at our friends’ house. It was so lovely, but by the time I got home I felt like I needed another weekend to recover from the busy weekend!

Are you still wearing masks at all? I don’t tend to go inside many places (eg I might do a click and collect order but I’m not browsing and not eating out anywhere).

When is the last time you went into London or a busy city?

parkrun was nearly like old times

After being out late the night before at Taskmaster, both my dad and I were glad that Jersey Farm parkrun was back on, so we could have a relatively late start to the morning- it’s only a 10 minute walk from their house so I don’t even need to leave home until 8.15am- a lie in compared to tourist trips!

The weather was so warm for mid-September. The wildflowers had been mown down and the long grass put into hay bales, but the mixture of trees and open fields are always pretty. We bumped into loads of OH ladies and people from Ellenbrook Fields- it felt like such a nice social event. Some had run from Hatfield to make the parkrun sandwich their final long run before the London marathon, and so once we finished we waited around to cheer on some of the other runners. I also met one of our runners in the flesh after we have regularly commented on our running posts within the group! It was strange to see someone in person who you think you know (a bit like meeting someone from a blog/ instagram in real life too), but so lovely to finally meet properly. In the end we had to head off as Dad was going to football so we could not hang around for too long but we could have easily chatted for ages. It did make me miss EF even more as so often you’d bump into people you had not seen for a while, and end up chatting and helping to pack away the gazebo/ funnel because you had chatted for so long. I have said it before, but really what am I going to do for my 250th? I don’t really want to be at JF because one of the reasons EF has not re-started is linked to someone linked to JF.

On Sunday morning I went for an OH run- again running to meet them and then we ran down to the lakes and back up. We met more OH ladies (on a virtual 10k race) while we were out too. It felt like a social running weekend, something that I’ve not felt for a while.

A huge mushroom that I saw on my run, sedum in the garden and a hazy sky

Vegan mars bar type thing from my vegan box went well with a cup of tea.

I did a lot of pottering in the garden and even did a spot of baking- a pumpkin spice loaf from A Virtual Vegan (I love her website- she was from the UK but moved to Canada, so I love that the recipes are in grams and not cups because it’s way more specific. Plus every recipe I have tried has been brilliant).

I was not looking forward to Monday as I had booked my flu jab for after work. I know it’s important, and particularly working in a school I am exposed to lots of germs, but I do not like injections (I sometimes faint) and so I have to work up to it. Having already had my 2 covid jabs this year I felt that the memory of the sore arm was a bit too recent and not yet forgotten.

It was OK in the end, and while I was sitting in the chair after (you have to wait for 10 mins to check you are OK) I saw Andy outside- he’d come to meet me with a Starbucks and also a vegan Belgium bun from a bakery that had just opened in town (he’d had his jab the same day but at a different pharmacy). A bit of sugar always helps in the flu jab recovery process! It also helped as I’d rushed away from work quickly and ended up needing to do a few hours in the evening to catch up.

Gorgeous sunrises on my runs

I felt OK after, so I went for my usual morning runs that week (Tues, Wed, Thurs) but took them slowly and kept them to a 5k in distance. I saw some beautiful sunrises, but as we were reaching the autumn equinox I know that soon it will be dark the entire time, so I’ll make the most of the views while I still can. I was feeling tired but I think it was more due to the fact that work was busy and I was working most evenings for several hours (one day we didn’t eat dinner until 9pm because I wanted to get it done before we ate).

Yoga living room set up, another sunrise and Bake Off returns!

Our yoga was focused on the autumn equinox as well and I really enjoyed having that additional focus to the session. I have still been setting up in the living room instead of my office, which gives me a bit more space, but the mat does slip on the rug a bit. It means I can lay on the sofa under a blanket for the nidra session after, which is a bit like guided meditation.

I did manage to find time to watch Bake Off (although I can never fit it all in on a Tuesday so I have to hope that I don’t see any spoilers before I’ve finished it), and of course I was excited for the new Taskmaster (although this series isn’t the one we saw being filmed).

What should I do for my 250th run? Tour somewhere? Or go to Panshanger?

Pumpkin spice season is here!

And by that I mean pumpkin spiced tea, baked goods and just general autumn vibes. Not actual coffee! Of course included in that is my tea club (for September- I’m suddenly a long way behind with posts).

Pumpkin spice sticker on the tea delivery, and yoga set up in the living room

Talking of tea club, my advent calendar also arrived from Bird&Blend- I did ask in the order notes whether I could start in November as this year each box contains 2 teabags, but they said no… (and that Santa would be watching).

I’ve been to a few Sunday club runs on Sundays- this was the one following our parkrun trip to Rushmere.

I ran to the station (around 3 miles), met the others, then we had a lovely loop to some woods and fields that I’d not been to before (Welham Green) before I came home. The total was 12 miles and I was quite pleased as my long runs had tailed off a bit over the summer, and with the Brighton half coming up I needed to get a bit more confidence over those longer distances. Once home it was time for vegan croissants (the bake at home Pret ones are so good, plus an Aldi one).

We needed to collect a click and collect from town, and so popped into Starbucks to get a (coffee free) iced pumpkin spice. The colour is always so alarming, but it does taste of autumn (in the best way).

Morning runs are getting darker- a few pretty sunrises, watch showing zero miles on Thursday morning, and my vegan box.

On the Monday of that week I sat very awkwardly doing some work, and my back was super sore. I managed a couple of walks (and some yoga) but didn’t run until the Thursday morning. Thankfully all was fine by then. That’s the downside of the Garmin showing the total miles for the week- not a good reminder if you’ve not run at all.

On Friday I did an early run too. I don’t usually run on a Friday, but partly I wanted to as I hadn’t all week, but also I was going to a TV show recording (Taskmaster) straight from work, so I wanted to get in some movement. I packed sandwiches to eat after, but the recording didn’t finish until nearly 10pm so it was a very late dinner! I was a bit apprehensive about being inside, but the studio was like a big hanger, and there were only 2 rows of seats (with about 10 in each row) where we were sat, and we kept our masks on (they gave out black ones so that if we were filmed it all looked the same). It was brilliant- my mum had been to see Pointless a few years back (as they were desperate for an audience) and they’d been given priority tickets because of that.

What do you like about autumn?

Vegan food at Disneyland Paris

France has never been the easiest country to visit for vegetarians let alone vegans. When I was vegetarian I would struggle a bit in France as they didn’t ever quite seem to understand that I didn’t want meat, so I approached our trip with a little trepidation. I looked online in advance (for blogs and so on) but again couldn’t find very much. I would say it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be! Disney’s website seemed to indicate that every restaurant/café will have a vegan option, but I ended up going in circles a bit, usually being referred to the “allergy menu”. This lists some restaurants and then has a long list of food apparently available at each place, but it includes things such as gluten free items (which were not all vegan as some contained egg). I felt more confused after looking at that than I did before! You can look at the menus individually (download them as PDF’s) but that takes ages as there wasn’t an easy way to search. Some of the menus seem much older- for example the Chez Remy menu listed a vegetable tofu which seemed like it would be vegan, but marked with a green v, which meant “vegetarian suggestions”- some of which contained laughing cow cheese (remember that? Bleurgh), so I would not be confident that the tofu dish was totally plant-based.

We stayed in an off site hotel, planning to have breakfast in the room before heading to the parks each day, and as I wasn’t sure what the supermarket would stock I took along some vegan pain au chocolate with me. It turned out to be a good decision, because even though I’d read that the big Auchan had a vegan section, I couldn’t find it (of course the fruits and veggies are a big vegan section). We bought some fruit and bread in there to take with us to the parks, and had also taken along a few snacks from home, so we only needed to buy one meal each day in the parks.

The only breakfast option that I could find in the parks was fruit (and some places did fruit cups that were not labelled as vegan, even though other things were- not sure if they just leave it because they think it’s obvious that it’s vegan, or if they contain some preservative that isn’t vegan friendly)- fine, but not really comparable to the croissants, pancakes and waffles available for others. WDW has loads of options including vegan waffles and vegan French toast- Paris really needs to catch up.

Vegan chilli, menu and of course there’s always Starbucks

I was pleasantly surprised when walking around the parks that some places had clearly labelled vegan items on their menus. We found a stand in the studios that sold vegan chilli (when we were there in December 2019 we found it but it was never open when we went to get some- I still have no idea how you find out when it’s actually open…), and Last Chance Café in the main park. It was really good, and would be perfect in the colder months too.

A couple of places sold vegan Magnums but these seemed very limited and most places had just the regular ones. If you want one, buy it when you see one!

Falafels and the menu with the vegan magnum on there too

In the main park, the Fuente del Oro Bar in Frontierland had a good option of falafels with a vegan sauce. I ordered in English here because they also sold chicken nuggets, and my French accent is terrible and I didn’t want my terrible pronunciation of “bouchees aux pois chiches” to be mistaken for chicken nuggets. Anyway, they were tasty. We’d walked past the menu for the Hakuna Matata restaurant, and they had a really nice sounding salad (sweet potato, beans, lettuce, pineapple, tomato, grilled peanuts) but the queue was huge and so I didn’t try it on that visit. There’s always next time. The falafels would have been nice with a salad to go with them.

Earl of Sandwich mushroom sandwich and good old Starbucks

Between the two parks you have Disney Village with plenty of dining options, although again looking at the menus the best option seemed to be tomato pasta- not the most exciting food for when you are on holiday. There’s a Starbucks there, although it didn’t have any vegan food options the couple of times we popped in (it did have a big range of plant milks though).

The Earl of Sandwich didn’t have a vegan item on the printed menus, but I’d seen online that they were doing a vegan one. We went to the screens, and could order “The Portobello” ( 100% VEGAN -Portobello mushrooms, fried onions, green peppers and agave mustard dressing). I’m not a big mushroom fan, but it was OK. I saw it on their social media in Feb 2020, and I can’t find it online now, so who knows if it’s there now. It’s worth looking at the screens though. I was hoping that they still did the tomato, balsamic and mozzarella one that they do in Florida, as you can swap out items, so I could swap the cheese for avocado and have a delicious sandwich, but it wasn’t to be.

In summary, there are vegan options there, but if you are going for more than a long weekend, or eating more than one meal a day in the parks, it’s going to get samey quite quickly. On our next visit I think I’d do pretty much what I did this time- bring along breakfast and snacks, and get one meal in the parks/village each day. The DLP Instagram account released a video a while back of the vegan options that were coming, including a vegan burger, but I didn’t see that anywhere, and it wasn’t clear in the video either. It’s great that they are clearly labelling more items, and having a few options in each park, but I am sure they can do better. They need to sort out the labels on the menus to make it clearer too. So, you’ll find vegan options but it might not be the treat that you are after on a holiday.

Rushmere parkrun for the gong of glory!

So this weekend was time for more parkrun tourism, as both Jersey Farm and St Albans were off due to events taking place. As it was Dad’s 200th parkrun, it was his choice, and he chose Rushmere.

Partly because it’s a beautiful woodland trail run, and partly because they have a gong! My brother was also coming too- he sometimes plays football on Saturdays so doesn’t go to parkrun as often, so it was perfect timing that he could make it too.

We arrived at around 8:45, and Dad revealed his “special t-shirt”. He’d made a 2 with “200th today” written on it, and safety pinned it over the 1.

The run brief was observed in silence, and then we walked around to the start. I’d remembered it as one and a bit laps, but it’s really just shy of 2 laps. It’s through woodland, past bike trails and bridleways (no dogs allowed because of this)- we did see a horse on our second lap.

The route is just beautiful and so peaceful. The pine trees are so tall, and it’s shaded and cool, filled with birds singing and then the gentle sound of runners feet on the soft earth. The three of us ran together and just enjoyed chatting, thanking the marshals, waving at the photographers and saying good morning to the other park users. Andy always asks me why we do this when we could just run a 5k around near home, but I just feel we are so lucky to have places like this nearby and we can experience such a range of parks and places while enjoying running.

On the second lap one of the marshals called out to Dad, and it turned out to be the headteacher from my first school (Dad was also a headteacher in the same town, so they knew each other a bit, and his wife who was also a head). As Disney say, it’s a small world! When we finished we saw his wife and chatted to her too.

Then of course we had to visit the gong of glory. There was hand sanitiser to use first (of course) and then as he hit the gong, lots of people clapped. It was a really nice way to mark the occasion. (Yes we know 200 isn’t an official milestone, but it’s a long way between 100 and 250 even without the long pause, so we are going to celebrate these things).

Then it was time to head home for breakfast cooked by Mum. Our next milestone will probably be my 250th (I’m on 241 now)- Uncle Brian is on 97 but he is injured at the moment so I’m not sure when his 100th will be. I’m not sure what I am going to do about it though, as Ellenbrook Fields is still closed. I did my 50th at Panshanger, which I loved, but that was before EF started, and I don’t feel such a part of that community any more. EF was where I celebrated my 100th and it feels like my parkrun home, so I can’t decide if I’ll go to another local event (I could go back to St Albans where it started for me?) or do a bit of tourism?

What milestone are you working towards?