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!

Cannon Hill parkrun- why we always check social media

We had tickets to a comedy gig in Birmingham on a Friday night, and as it’s a fair way away, decided to stay overnight after. Of course this means a new parkrun on the Saturday morning.

I’d not been to any Birmingham parkrun before, and it seemed there were plenty to choose from. In the end I went for Edgbaston reservoir as it was the closest to the hotel. It was 1.5 miles away, which meant a nice warm up in the morning.

I’d checked the future roster and added it to the planner in the 5k app, and it was good to go. For some reason on the Thursday night, after packing, I checked their facebook page, only to see a cancellation message- due to some event (rowing?) happening that the event team didn’t know about. On to find a plan B. Thankfully there are loads of parkruns, and the next nearest one, Cannon Hill, was only around 2 miles away, so still a nice distance for a warmup. I’m so glad I checked, as if I had run there, I would not have had enough time to get to a different one.

Cannon Hill in the sunshine- everyone meeting at the bandstand in the park

Confusingly, Cannon Hill parkrun was by Edgbaston stadium- I checked that many times before setting off. Our hotel was on one of the canals, so I did get slightly lost when heading out, and I think the tall buildings confused the satellites as part of my run was a straight line through several buildings. Anyway, after the initial getting lost it was a fairly simple route. My phone battery has been getting worse and worse (I did take it to the shop for them to have a look at and to see about it being replaced, but they said it wasn’t worth it)- by the time I got to the park I had used over half, so had to remember the way back without using google maps which is always challenging for me.

The park was very pretty- a manicured park with plenty of flower beds, a band stand (where the volunteers were meeting), a lake and various buildings, cafes etc. It was a sort of two lap course, with an out and back bit too. It reminded me of Stevenage parkrun in that it’s a similar park, all flat apart from a little hill up to the finish funnel. It was very busy, with 668 runners that day. The finish funnel was very long, and one of the volunteers told me that they usually have around 500, but probably with Edgbaston being cancelled they had a few more. It was well managed, and with wide paths it didn’t feel that busy after the first few metres. At one point I was running along and a buggy runner passed me, and then a toy dinosaur fell out. I picked it up and called out but they didn’t hear, and another runner told me to catch them up- I had to sprint very hard as he was going super fast! I handed it over, and then as soon as he handed it to his child, they dropped it again so I picked it up again! Thankfully that was the end of catch the dinosaur!

The canal by our hotel, penguin art in the centre, parkrun magazine and of course a postbox.

At the end they had boxes of the parkrun magazine- this was the first time I’d seen this issue, so I picked one up for me and one for my dad. I managed to get back to the hotel and only had to get out my phone to look at the maps once, so that was not too bad.

After a shower, we headed into the centre as we’d booked lunch at The Ivy (as we had vouchers), and then had a little wander around the centre. It reminded me that I am not a Saturday shopping person. We did see some cool penguin art by the station.

That was my 96th different event. Another really enjoyable one (aren’t they all?). And an important lesson to always double check social media in case of cancellations!

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.

Leavesden Country parkrun for my Wilson Index

The gap between official parkrun milestones is now a long one- having achieved my 250 in 2022, it’s going to be a good few years before the big 500, so I like having other challenges in the meantime to occupy my time and to help me decide where to go.

This also stems from feeling slightly parkrun homeless as Ellenbrook Fields is still not back- I do like volunteering and visiting other local events, but they just do not feel like home like EF did.

The 5k parkrunner app (purple icon) is great for organising and locating parkruns. However, it also has loads of other challenges that are not from the original Chrome extension, so I try to track the main ones through the app.

The Wilson Index links to the event numbers that you have been to, working at event 1 and working consecutively. If you have been to event numbers 1,2,3 and 5, your Wilson Index would be 3. It can be a bit contentious as it can be seen to encourage people to go to inaugurals, whereas that is discouraged now. I’d been lucky enough to go to both Panshanger and Ellenbrook Fields first events when they were encouraged (there was a poster up in the Sweatshop about Panshanger), so I had bigger numbers that needed filling in. The app also tracks your floating Wilson Index, which is the largest amount of consecutive events, not needing to begin at 1, so if you had been to event numbers 2,3,4,5,6,7,8, then you would have a floating Wilson index of 7 as you have 7 in a row.

I’d filled in number 9 by visiting Bartley Park (Southampton), and 10, 15 and 18 at Henlow Bridge Lakes. My next gaps were 21 and 22, and with the newest local one at Leavesden only starting in the autumn, I was keeping an eye to see when their events 21 and 22 would be.

Happily they were both on weekends that I was around, and my dad agreed to humour me and come along. When we had visited before, we’d headed home as Mum was making us breakfast, but we liked the look of the cafe, so for event 21 we arranged that I’d pick up my dad and we’d drive there and run together, and then my brother would pick up my mum and meet us in the cafe after.

It was raining hard and we both got soaked, but loved it. Dad does like the cross country style runs, and I think Leavesden is great as there is a mixture of terrain- it’s basically 3 laps, with each lap going through woodland on hard paths for a bit, and then looping around a football pitch on muddy grass. Trail shoes are ideal, and thankfully the cafe didn’t mind muddy shoes!

We got chatting to one lady who was also coming for event 21, although it transpired that she was doing the Fibonacci challenge (not an original one). It would have been a coincidence if she was hunting the same numbers as me.

Blueberry croissant and tea in the cafe, soaking wet at the finish, muddy shoes and finish token.

We were so soaked through when we finished! The sound of everyone running across the wet muddy grass was quite something. The cafe was lovely- I was very impressed with the vegan options and had quite a few things to choose from. I went for a blueberry croissant in the end which was really good.

I cleaned my trail shoes after the first revisit to Leavesden! They were so stiff from the dried mud.

The following week we were back again, but this time Mum was making us breakfast at home, so it was just a parkrun and then coming home. It had rained loads in the week, but the course was drier than the previous week.

Wood and field section of the course, and the two of us at the finish. Eyes closed in my photo of course!

The RD mentioned that it would be quieter this week as the previous week was a Fibonacci number- it’s funny how these challenges are permeating parkrun gradually.

I took a few photos mid run of the course to show my club mates as some of them as rather opposed to any sort of mud! Stevenage gets a lot of visits from us in the winter as it’s all on hard paths. As we were coming towards the finish, Dad mentioned that he felt like we were running faster than last week, and wondered if we were on for course pbs. I hadn’t looked at that point, but we ended up being about a minute quicker than the previous week, and only about 6 seconds slower than our course pbs- we shall have to revisit when it’s even drier!

So here we go- screenshots from the 5k app. (Bottom right is where I started, bottom left after I had been to event 21, and then the top one once I had ticked off number 22. The purple bit is called the floating index, which is the longest amount of consecutive events visited that does not need to begin at 1, so now I have filled in so many, the purple and green ones match for me if that makes sense).

So next up is event 29. I was wondering about a different event (eg Lordship Rec) but I am not sure I am around for that date, whereas I will be around for Leavesden 29. We shall see. My attention is turning back to my cowell, as I am on 95 events, so only 5 to go.

Do you have one event that you always go to, or several local events to choose from?

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.