Dunstable Downs to celebrate a 100th parkrun

Someone in my club (Helen) had chosen to celebrate her 100th parkrun at Dunstable Downs, and of course I was happy to tour. I’d been there once before, on 2nd March 2019 (for my 58th different location), so I was looking forward to the beautiful views.

It was an overcast day, but the views across the downs were still stunning. It’s on National Trust property, so if you are a member, remember to bring your card for free parking (as you need to scan your card in the payment machines). I left my bag in the boot as the car park is very close to the start, but there was a “tarpaulin of trust” so you could have left bags at the start/finish area also.

The route starts off fairly hilly, with a steep drop down the side of the hill before heading steeply back up again towards the start/finish area. You then head off along the side of the hill, still with some undulations but I think the worst is out of the way at the start. It’s one lap and there are just gorgeous views the whole way around.

The cafe had vegan options clearly marked, so I went for a scone and jam, plus Earl Grey tea of course. It rained a bit when we had finished, but the cafe inside had loads of tables so there were no worries about space. It’s a good one for a celebration because they tend to have a small turnout and the cafe is spacious.

I couldn’t hang about for long as I had to get back to meet a friend in town, and then had a massage appointment after that- a busy Saturday for me!

On the Sunday I went along to the club run- the first I’d been to one of those for ages. We met at Hatfield station and at the end ran through some underpasses with this wonderful artwork (the bird and butterfly above)- I love things like this.

Where do you like to have milestone celebrations? I feel like I always say this, but since Ellenbrook Fields is no more, I don’t feel like I have a proper home event, so I like to be a tourist for milestones.

Monsal Trail parkrun, Bakewell

As it’s my birthday in early May, we often have a weekend away for the Bank Holiday, and this year we opted for a weekend in Bakewell. We’ve been to the Peak District a few times, but only ever driven through Bakewell before, so I was looking forward to staying there. We drove up after work on the Friday night, and had an Air BnB right in the centre of the town.

Of course I was looking forward to some more parkrun tourism! Monsal Trail parkrun starts around 1.5 miles from the town centre. I ran the most direct route, but for a prettier route I could have found the end of the trail in the town and then ran that way.

It starts at an old railway station, and is an out and back route on an old railway line. I was there fairly early so opted to run the opposite direction of the railway line for a bit- plenty of runners were using it as their warm up.

The old railway line, a parkrun sign (yay), and the map.

I always feel a bit awkward asking someone to take my photo, but there were lots of tourists there and people were happy to do this, so after watching a few people pose for photos, I plucked up the courage to ask someone to take one for me. I am terrible at lining up the signs in the background when I attempt a selfie, so a photo taken by someone else is preferable. I ended up chatting to a mother and son who had travelled for his first parkrun (not hers)- he even asked “do you have to have a photo with the sign?”- that’s how many people were doing it!

The actual course is gently downhill for the first half, a u-turn and then gently uphill to the finish. Nothing really steep, but it did make the final mile feel a little tougher. Even with that, I somehow managed the elusive royal flush negative split (9:31, 9:27, 9:17 and 8:08). On the way back I had a guy right behind me who was breathing really heavily, which I am not a fan of. (I know people need to breathe hard when they run, but it just makes me focus on my own breathing and I find it off putting). I kept trying to overtake the person in front to make a bit of space, but he kept getting behind me and keeping there, even when I was overtaking. As it’s fairly narrow in places, with cyclists and walkers as well as parkrunners, so you had to be a bit careful when overtaking. At one point I was hanging behind a group of runners, with cyclists coming the other way. A voice behind me went “go now, before the next cyclist”, and I thought it was aimed at someone else, but then he said again “go now!”, and I realised he was talking to me. As we neared the end, the same guy told me to keep running faster, I told him I couldn’t go any faster (briefly) and told him to push to the end, so he overtook me right at the finish. Clearly for him he liked to have someone to pace him!

How good is their token sorting box?

After taking a few photos, I headed back for breakfast, as we were planning to come back to hire bikes later on in the weekend.

So that was event number 97 for me. Another really enjoyable event, such a pretty route, easy to find, everything you would need at the start/finish area. Perfect!

Not Pocket parkrun (yet) and a vegan market visit

The 1st April was the start of the Easter holidays- usually a good opportunity for parkrun tourism due to the weather, lighter mornings etc. The original plan was for my parents to be up in St Neots for the Friday, and I would drive up on Saturday and meet my dad at Pocket parkrun, and then we’d have a wander around St Neots together after before coming home. It didn’t happen in the end due to illness, but it’s still on our list for the future.

We ended up at Jersey Farm instead, for a very enjoyable run together (far less flooding that I had expected after the rain we had in the week), and then breakfast at home.

parkrun number 312 for me

On the Sunday I was off to junior parkrun (via a run through the woods first) as my niece had completed her 11th junior parkrun the time before, so it was time for her to collect her wristband- how exciting!

Then I had to drop Andy off in St Albans, and noticed that the vegan market (that travels around) was going to be there too. I decided I would pop there for a wander around as I’d not been to St Albans for ages.

There were loads of stalls- the vegan hot dog stall was doing a roaring trade with such a huge line. I wandered around for ages before choosing us a couple of cakes to take home for later. My favourite, the Planted Coffee Co (usually in Panshanger park) were there too, so I picked up a chai latte for the walk back to the car. The lady even recognised me so we had a little chat. I am sure all the dog walkers from Panshanger would have missed them as they are always so busy.
Easter holiday running scenes and the website

I was also super chuffed to see that my blog was on a list of the 70 best running blogs here https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_running_blogs/ (is that because there are only 70?). I was looking to see if there were any new ones I fancied following (although I need to find a better system as I used to use Bloglovin but that never seems to work any more), so it was a really lovely surprise.

I was off to France shortly, but I’ll save that for another post.

Celebrating IWD by parkwalking at Stevenage

For IWD I decided to volunteer as parkwalker. I’d not done the role since the launch weekend, so it felt about time to get the blue bib back on. It was a really cold day, so it was hard to work out what to wear as I would warm up while walking, but obviously not as much as if I was running. As a last minute thought I took my RU2C hat with me and was very glad of it- I kept it on the whole time.

Stevenage is a well resourced parkrun with a free car park, a cafe and toilets all there in the centre of the park. The start and finish area are in slightly different places, and at first I walked to the start before realising that the volunteers were collecting at the finish funnel.

Volunteer team photo, sunny views and my token- with 2 people behind me they were just shy of 300.

I loved the welcome chalk board close to the start.

When I arrived, there was another parkwalker (recovering from a hip operation) and we ended up chatting with the tail walker rather than being a big ahead. Just ahead of us were a couple who were walking it, but they were chatting to each other and so we just hung behind them.

Amazing brunch plate from Mildred’s, sticky toffee pudding, the tea chest and a latte.

When I finished I could not hang about for too long as I was off to London to meet with some friends. We were going to lunch at Mildred’s, and as I got there a little early I had time to pop into Bird and Blend.

I’ve been a member of their Brew Societea for ages, and one perk is that if you are in store, you can ask to see the tea chest and take a sample from it. I have been to the stores plenty of times, but never been brave enough to ask before. As they were preparing my drink, I plucked up the courage to ask. Of course they were fine, and I was very excited to find some mulled cider tea- usually a Christmas only drink (but a lovely apple and spiced fruity blend) and we had run out at home.

At Mildred’s I could have chosen so many things, but in the end went for one of their brunch plates with scrambled tofu, black bean mole, sweetcorn fritters, blue corn tortillas, pink pickled onions, avocado and salsa- so many delicious things. We chatted for so long that we even had space for dessert, so I had the sticky toffee pudding and it was amazing.

Sunday running through the woods to junior parkrun, vegan strawberry cheesecake doughnut from Crosstown and lunch at Caffe Nero- I really like that their vegan ‘sausage’ roll has lots of veggies in there rather than a fake meat filling.

Sunday was another parkrun themed day, this time meeting our niece and nephew at junior parkrun. I ran through the woods first which was lovely but also very muddy! I thought it would be better as the weather had been dry for a few days.

Andy had been into London too, and popped to Crosstown (he was after the St Patrick’s Day Guinness doughnut so got me a doughnut too), so I had that to enjoy on Sunday.

Preston Park parkrun and a weekend in Brighton

I was signed up yet again for the Brighton Half Marathon, one of my favourite races, so of course no excuse is needed for a weekend in Brighton around the race.

As we headed down on the Friday, it meant I could go to parkrun on Saturday morning. After going to all the parkruns in Brighton (there are 5), I tend to go between the two most central, Hove Prom and Preston Park. Our hotel was closest to Preston park, so that was where I headed to. This also handily works on my p-index (the number of parkruns you have visited for that amount of times, eg if you have been to 5 different parkruns 5 times each, your p index is 5). (Currently my p-index is 6, as I have been to 6 parkruns 6 or more times- Panshanger(87), Ellenbrook Fields (39), St Albans (28), Jersey Farm (30), Hove Prom (9) and Preston Park (6). To get it up to 7, I need to get the lower ones up to over 7 visits, so the Preson park visit would help. (My next highest is Westmill at 5, so I need to go there 2 more times…)

Preston park parkrun, the statue at Hove, Bird and Blend tea, and parkrun token

I headed to the parkrun, taking my time as it was not far from the hotel. There were loads of runners there, including lots of people down for the half marathon weekend. They had pacers and I was very tempted to go for a faster time, but then I had to be sensible as I had had a bit of a cough and didn’t want to make my cold any worse. In the end I ran 29:02, which I am pretty pleased with as I have barely been below 30 minutes this year.

Andy had been to the Flour Pot bakery to get breakfast for us to have in our room (delicious vegan croissant) and then we were off for our traditional walk to Hove. It was glorious weather so we made the most of it. Of course we had to go into Bird and Blend for a tea latte to accompany the walk.

The pavilion at dusk, a walk by the sea, Purezza pizza and Crosstown

Crosstown had recently opened so we bought a couple of treats, and had dinner at Purezza- good carb loading.

The forecast for Sunday included sleet, so it wasn’t that great. I could not decide what to wear, as one year I was way too hot, but equally you don’t want to be freezing cold for a couple of hours. In the end I went for capris, t-shirt with my club vest over the top, buff and gloves. I wore my jacket to the start and at the last minute gave it to Andy, and at the end he walked to meet me with it.

The race was enjoyable, although I got a bit of a stiff leg at one point. I stopped to stretch a few times, but it just wasn’t right. I think the adverse camber of the start just aggravated something. I didn’t have any aims for time, but estimated I would be similar to the last two years (2:08:23 in 2021 and 2:07:37 in 2022- I had to look it up on the text message). I finished in 2:07:04, so pretty consistent with those times, and if I had not had the sore leg I would have been a little faster too.

I do love this race, but the start/finish area is what needs working on. This year they tried to have a dedicated runner space close to the start pens, to try and help with the congestion, but at the finish there was nothing. I timed it on my watch and it was 30 minutes from finishing to meeting Andy by the pier (which is right by the finish)- we were given foil blankets and thankfully the forecast sleet had not made an appearance, but I was really freezing by the time I met up with him.

Medal and Kermit at lunch, race finish, amazing mega latte and marmite fries.

We went straight for a cup of tea to warm up a bit as I was not feeling great, and then to lunch at Oowee burgers- it’s all vegan and they do marmite fries which is just what you want when you have finished running. Tp stay hydrated we also went to Bird and Blend- they were advertising a mega latte with their seasonal strawberry and nutella pancakes tea, and even offered vegan squirty cream (who even knew that was a thing?) so I had that and it was just what I needed.

Since January I have stopped working Mondays, so to make the most of this we actually stayed down in Brighton for the Sunday night and travelled back the next day, which was a revelation!

So, a weekend of running, fresh air and eating delicious vegan food.

I ended up resting for the entire next week as my leg still had a tight muscle and I didn’t want to do any damage. By the next parkrun, I was OK to take it gently and thankfully felt fine.

Are there races that you love to do each year?