Running - Maria Runs

Heading up to Manchester

Last weekend we were off to Manchester. We had originally looked at driving up most of the way on Friday, and then doing some parkrun tourism before driving the rest of the way, but we could not find anywhere suitable (eg a parkrun close by to a hotel) on the way, and didn’t really fancy that drive, so we booked train tickets instead.

It meant I headed to Panshanger parkrun- now it’s very local to me and took me 6 minutes to drive there! I think it’s about 5 miles away so potentially I could run one way (and get a lift back if my dad is going) but the only way I know is on dual carriageways with no pavements, so I need to look into that. Anyway, I was still aching after body pump, so I started at the back, although this ended up being very stop-start as it’s very narrow. I enjoyed it though. 31.20 (my 72nd one).

Then it was a bit of a rush to get showered, finish packing and drive to the train station (Milton Keynes)- we stopped on the way to get some lunch for the train. We had a bit of a panic in the car park, as it was pay and display (honestly, what a stupid idea for a train car park- what if the train is delayed…), and the machine would only do one day tickets, not the weekend rates as advertised. I tried to call them but got no answer, and I didn’t want to miss our train so I took photos of the signs and then rushed to the platform. (I called them later and they were not worried and said we could buy a new ticket online after midnight).

Anyway, the train journey was lovely- we had seats in the quiet carriage so we listened to the film podcast and looked out of the window.

After checking in to our hotel (this took about 30 minutes- Disney has shorter queues!) we headed out for a little wander and to find some dinner- in the end we went to Northern Soul for an epic grilled cheese sandwich- they are so massive we easily could have shared.

Then we walked out to the city stadium to see The Stone Roses.

First up were Public Enemy, which was just very confusing- a lot of shouting the names of people in the group- I don’t think Flava Flave even knew what day let alone what time it was (and yes, he still had his massive clock on).

It was lovely as the sun was going down – a bit like a festival.

Then the main event- they were awesome although there were lots of idiots in the crowd letting off flares the whole time. Ian Brown even had a go at some of them- they are really dangerous, but people still kept doing it. It was so weird though as so many people were getting up and going to get more drinks the whole time- seeing drunk people try to negotiate steps carrying four pints was amusing at first, and then got annoying as I was right by the steps so kept having to move so I would not get soaked. Plus even though they claimed it was a non-smoking venue (even electronic ones) but so many people were blatantly ignoring it. We saw one person told to stop, even though the same marshal was watching the whole time. Anyway, the band were great- my ears were ringing after.

We walked back to the centre as the trams were totally rammed.

The next morning we went to Bill’s for breakfast- I was very sad to see they don’t do the peanut butter French toast any more, but they still did the pancakes and they were super.

We then checked out of our hotel and had a few hours wandering around the shops before getting the train home- another good journey with podcast listening.

Do you like train journeys? It is so much easier than driving, plus you get right to the city centre.

Muggy runs

So, suddenly after getting back from holiday, it seemed like summer had arrived. Well, the warmth anyway. We arrived home on Sunday morning (I will get around to a recap of the safari because it was pretty special, but that may take a while)- our flight got in around 5am so we were home by 6.30. Because there is only one hour of time difference, there isn’t any jet lag, which after a 12 hour flight was new to me. We had a very efficient day doing lots of unpacking, but I didn’t really fancy a run that day.

My running since then has picked up:

Monday- A loop that turned out to be 4 miles- it was so hot I had to keep on stopping to cool down, as a lot of it wasn’t in shade.

Tuesday- Club run- we had the most awful violent thunderstorm at work, so I thought that our planned 8 mile route would be changed to something shorter, but over this way there was no thunder so we did a hilly 8.3 mile route (normally reserved for a Sunday morning longer run)- it was so sticky and sweaty, and we all had flies stuck to us by the end. Good, but super tough.

Wednesday- Walk after work.

Thursday- Attempted a different route which I thought would be shorter than my Monday route- turned out to be 4.3 miles so a bit longer! Again, very hot.

Friday- After work I did a lot of unpacking, collected post from our old place, popped to town to spend my birthday vouchers (got a Sonos for my office), caught up on work, and all before Gogglebox!

Saturday- A mile run from town, a mainly walk with sprinting thrown in tail run at parkrun, and a walk into town later on.

Sunday- 9 miles in the rain. I tried to use mapometer to sort out a route, but as I went off road around the lakes for a bit, it got confused, so in the end I had to loop around a bit more to get the miles in. I have a 10 mile race in a few weeks time so wanted to make sure I was OK doing that distance still. The rain was refreshing and luckily didn’t get too heavy. We did a bit more unpacking and were pretty much done! Not too bad at all.

Monday- Little walk to the shops after work, avoiding the showers.

Tuesday- Shorter club run. This was fantastic- we were allowed to run in the grounds of Hatfield House as most of the people had passes, and it was lovely to be off road and away from the traffic. The scenery was stunning too- the sun came out and at some points you are running through woodland, but other times it is huge fields of wheat, almost shimmering in the sunlight.

Wednesday- I finally found a loop that is just over 3 miles long! That is the minimum distance that I think is worth a hair wash, and I am not really keen on out and back routes (plus they look so boring on Strava) so I was keen to find a loop. Although I do enjoy running, sometimes if I am tired after work or have lots to do, the temptation is to cut it short, whereas on a loop, once I am on it I keep going (even though I know I could turn around). It doesn’t quite make sense, but I prefer it. Anyway, it was sunny and hot when I left, and as I turned one corner I could see the most enormous black cloud- luckily I was home before it emptied!

Today I have booked onto body pump- this is the first time since I fell over in the half marathon and hurt my back. It has seemed fine, so I am hoping it will be alright although I am going to use very light weights. Fingers crossed!

How have you been coping in this muggy weather? Are you good at finding new walking, cycling or running routes or do you stick to the same ones?

Tail running around the lake

So this weekend my car was being serviced (over in St Albans) so when I booked the date I had offered to tail run, as I had to drop it off at 8.30am, a mile from the parkrun start. Perfect. I thought I would potter around in town after (partly why I thought I would tail run as I didn’t fancy wandering around town all sweaty) but it turned out my parents were back from holiday the day before, so Dad said he would do that parkrun, the drive me home for breakfast at theirs. Even better.

It was a rather sticky morning, and by the time I arrived at the start my glasses were fogging up from the warmth- not sure why that happens as they are fine when I run, but as soon as I stop they fog up. Anyway, I collected my fitbit tail runner vest (more like a dress, you’ll see) and chatted to one of the scanners who I work with. Then over her shoulder I saw my dad- they had been in Namibia for over 3 weeks (before our house move) so it was great to see him. My brother had also come along for the run, so we had a chat before the run started. There was another tail runner (tomorrow is the St Albans half marathon so I think they had a lot of offers for volunteers)- I quite like that, it’s happened at Panshanger before and means you can chat and not impose on the last few runners as some of them don’t like you hovering behind them.

There was a big turnout (343 runners) including this person wearing a full on lion costume (in support of the remain campaign). Much respect in that heat!

From their facebook page.

As we started it occurred to me that it was going to be a bit harder, because this route goes along the path to the lake, three laps of the lake, then back along the park. I’ve only even done it at Panshanger which is one big loop. Keeping track of the back runners would be more challenging. One guy told us he had MS and that if he overheated his legs would go numb, so we were not to worry if he was on the ground so long as he was talking. Another guy (who is one of the RD’s) was coming back from a knee operation so wanted to walk it in under 50 minutes. He thought he would be with us for the whole time, but in fact he went a long way ahead as there was a lady with her eight year old son (we learnt he was eight as she was shouting at him after a few hundred metres things like “you are so unfit for an 8 year old, you should be able to run more than 100m/ if you don’t do any exercise you’ll get fat… later someone heard her say “no pudding for a week”- that poor boy is not going to have fond memories of running…)- he was struggling and kept stopping, so we had to stop a bit of a way back because it was a little awkward.

We chatted to the marshals briefly on our way past (it was strange thinking “we will see you twice more”)- one guy was great and cheered on “the fitbits” each time we walked past!

On our first lap my dad and brother went past on their second (or possibly third). I did think then that perhaps a one lap course has advantages. It was nice to look around the lake and see a stream of runners, but as we started our second most of the runners were peeling off for the home straight. On the second lap we came across the guy with MS, who was sat down. He was worried he was at the back, but we reassured him we were only on our second, and soon after he overtook us and headed to the finish. Then the lady and her son decided to stop, so then we had to find the next final runner- he was right at the other end of the lake so in our final lap we had a bit of a speedy run to catch him up. We walked the rest of the way together, and he was very pleased to finish with 49.08- well under his 50 minute target.

See! Look at my vest- more like a dress!

After that we headed home for pancakes cooked by my mum (Andy drove around to meet us there), and a look at their amazing safari photos before I went to collect my car.

I was having a look and the last time I ran at St Albans was March 2015, when I was marathon training- Dad picked me up, we ran parkrun and then I ran home from there. It was the first parkrun I did, and it was my only one until Panshanger started up, so it was good to go back there. I think I should go in the autumn sometime and see if I can get close to my pb, as it is a faster course, but most weeks my local ones are going to win out I think.

(That was run number 71 for me, 21st time of volunteering)

Did you like exercising when you were a child? Do you have a junior parkrun near you? Apparently there is a group of people keen to set one up, but because of all the parks being used for football on Sunday mornings they are finding it hard to find a suitable location.

Packing and parkrunning

Are a bit of a tiring combination!

This weekend was the inaugural Ellenbrook Fields parkrun (look it up if you are in Hertfordshire)- our running club had a lot to do with setting it up, particularly our super coach Carrie. A lot of our club were going to be there, whereas often there are only a few of us at parkrun each week. It was novel for me because the start is jut over a mile away, so I could run there instead of driving. I got up a bit later, pottered about and then jogged up to the start. I wore my hat because it had been raining, but I didn’t need it in the end. There were loads of people swarming towards the start- I knew it would be busy as word seems to spread quickly through our running community- there are lots of running clubs nearby, and plenty of towns with clubs but no parkruns (Welwyn, Ware, Harpenden to name a few), plus they had mentioned it a lot of times at Panshanger as the Panshanger team had mentored the Ellenbrook team and been involved in helping with the start up too.

Our club had a banner out near the start. We love a bit of extra support.

I was there at about 10 to in the end, so had a quick chat with a few of the marshals and runners from our club, before Carrie did a super welcome speech from a fence (as it’s so flat there- no nice hill for her to stand on).

Then we were off! I realised right away I had started a bit too far back, but I wasn’t going for any pb (of course the first official one would be my pb for that parkrun)- I quite liked the idea of beating my time from last week but as I had already run up (and used my Garmin) I could not really work that out. Anyway, the course starts with a little loop (around a km I think), and so during that I took my time overtaking a few people at a time. It was so lovely because I knew most of the marshals (by name too, not just by sight) and so they were cheering all of the OH runners on by name too. I saw a few OH runners up ahead so ran to catch up, and the after chatting for a bit heard someone else call my name- it was someone I used to run at Sweatshop with- I don’t think we had seen each other for over a year, so it was good to have a little chat. Once the first little loop is done, you do the first part of it again before carrying on in a much larger loop. By then it had thinned out and so I could focus on where was best to run (the ground is a bit uneven). I may be biased but the best marshal (the lovely Donna, my run leader) was yelling at the top of her lungs at around the half way point. Her opinion (which I agree with)- no point being a marshal unless you’re going to encourage people on. She certainly did!

Nearly both feet off the ground I think!

Then it was through the cow field, and along a very rutted bit of grass, where I caught up with someone I know a bit through the facebook DRYT (Did You Run Today?) group, and Strava, so we said a quick “hello”. Then (passing two more lovely OH marshals) it was onto the old taxiway (Ellenbrook fields used to be an old airfield) to the finish. I ended up running next to a guy who chatted to me for a bit, and then up ahead I could see a few more OH runners (one of them is a very fast runner so I did wonder about my time at that point) so I decided to try and speed up a bit to catch them. I could not quite manage it, and crossed the line 2 seconds behind one of them (and 10 seconds behind the speedy one) with a time of 27.52. I am rather pleased with that- I have only run quicker than that once this year (my pb at Panshanger) and because of the crowds at the start I wasn’t pushing it as much as I could.

Look at the huge queues for scanning! There ended up being 273 runners, not too shabby for the first event. The tail runner came in at 41 minutes too, so a very speedy one (I think I have been around 55 minutes for my tail running).

I stayed around until the end, chatting to people from my club, and cheering in the other runners. One person gave the RD feedback about there not being any km markers (I had wondered but I also thought perhaps they were there and I didn’t notice them- Carrie said that they didn’t get any as they are not included, but they are in talks with the owners of the land to have permanent ones- I think I have seen pictures from a few National Trust ones which have them, and I think it’s a fab idea. When I decided to head home (packing loomed) I passed Neil and Eleanor Draper (they are from Garden City Runners and I often see them at Panshanger- they were interviewed on marathon talk before – lovely and inspirational people)- so I asked them how they had found it they had really enjoyed the route which was good to hear. It’s strange as since running around those fields with Sweatshop it’s one of my favourite summer running places, but I suppose lots of people still don’t know about it.

Also, I love looking at the results, and it was great to see that it was parkrun number 1 for so many people- hopefully one of many! That was my 8th different parkrun venue (70th run)- I heard someone say that once you have been to 20 different ones you count as a parkrun tourist! A few more to go then! Although there is one at Stevenage starting next weekend, but I don’t think I’ll be able to get up there until July as I am either away or volunteering at St Albans, Panshanger and Ellenbrook. Busy times ahead!

So, onto the packing. We’re moving house on Tuesday this week, and some boxes were delivered on Friday so that was basically our weekend planned for us! We had packed up a few boxes before, but had soon run out of space to store the packed boxes. Yesterday I parked my car outside so we have spent the day packing, and putting the boxes into the garage (I normally keep my car in the garage). We had to pop out to get a few bits of food for the next couple of days, and I bought us a cinnamon swirl from Starbucks to share as an afternoon treat after a lot of packing. This was very much needed- perhaps running 5 miles was not the best preparation. Mary’s page about moving has been very useful and I’ve been writing all the boxes down in a note book (although we are getting a company to actually move the things), and we are now up to box number 40. How do we have this much stuff? And where did it all fit? I’ve also been trying to do things like change my address for a few places- we have signed up to the Royal Mail re-direction as I am sure things will slip through the net.

Any moving tips?

Track session round 2

This is a rewind to last weekend! Our club had hired out the local track (at 8am on a Sunday), and then we were heading to brunch afterwards in case anyone needed more of an incentive!

It was such a hot morning, and of course there is no shade around the track, so our leader decided to ease off on us a bit.

Pictures from our facebook page- look at the concentration!

We did plenty of warming up- a jog around the track, lots of kicks, jumps, lunges and other things (very technical terms here).

Then we did a version of what we had learnt before- a 3-2-1 session where you run at 10k pace for 3 minutes, 5k pace for 2, and then as fast as you can for 1, with breaks in between. We only managed this a couple of times before it was time to cool down, stretch (including laying on the track!) and head out to brunch.

It was really good fun! Hopefully our club are going to have a more regular session (they mentioned once a month) which would be great as we do sometimes do interval style training, but it’s much easier on a track than on uneven pavements where you have to dodge people and dogs and things too.

We had booked at Bill’s (the same as our festive run and brunch) and it was lovely to have a chat- some of the ladies had run the London marathon so it was good to hear their tales (mostly- as someone who avoids public toilets at all costs I did not like the sound of the she-wee things in the starter pens…). It was so warm I went for a juice instead of my regular breakfast staple of tea, and had the most delicious French toast with a chocolate peanut butter sauce, fruit and a berry sauce- it was so good.

Although I turned my Garmin off, it seemed to keep tracking where I was, as it tracked my drive into town, and then my drive home- more records I shall never beat….

Also, look what arrived earlier in the week! A marathon talk hoodie! It has my Brighton time on it from last year- I really wanted a Brighton marathon hoodie but I didn’t want to buy one before, just in case it was bad luck. Then they stopped selling them on-line, so decided to get my MT one personalised. I love it! Although it is very huge- I emailed them as there was no size guide on the Xempo website, and they thought a small would be OK, but it is very large and I think if I were to get another one, I would try the XS. Better to be too big than too small though.

And this came too! I had signed the two of us up for the May the Fourth virtual run, as Andy is a big Star Wars fan- it was a couple of days after the Cakeathon so I didn’t run very fast, but it’s the doing it that counts. Good old Virtual Runner UK!

Are you a fan of track sessions? What is your ideal brunch food (and drink)?