Stuff I love! - Maria Runs

The Pastures parkrun- three quarters of a Cowell!

If you are not familiar with the parkrun tourist term, a Cowell is 100 different events. The Pastures was my 75th, so I am 3/4 of the way there now. This seems crazy to me. Yes, I do love parkrun, and I do love going to a new one if we are away for the weekend, but still, 75 different ones- it seems like a lot. I have not even got my 250 shirt yet, and I have been to my local ones (St Albans, Panshanger, Ellenbrook Fields, and more recently Jersey Farm) regularly. But then, when I start to think about it, I’ve been doing lots of little challenges – completing all of the parkruns in Herts, doing things like the Compass Club (parkrun names containing North, South, East and West), the alphabet challenge, the name challenge (all the letters in my name), Pirates (7 C’s and one R). All of that adds up!

So this was on our way back home from Scotland- we drove from Edinburgh on the Friday, stopping at a few Northumberland beaches on the way, and having a nice wander around the town in the evening.

Our hotel was less than a mile from the start (the start is just outside the castle) so it was a leisurely start for me. It isn’t a big parkrun (100 people did it on that morning) and it had such a lovely feel with people catching up with each other. The field did have a “beware of the bull” sign on the gate, but I didn’t see it- hopefully the sign is there all the time but the bull isn’t. There were lots of cows in the adjacent field, and plenty of cow pats to dodge during the run! Just before the run brief, someone dressed in a kilt stood near the sign and began playing bagpipes. He played Chariots of Fire and the theme tune of Star Wars, which answered a question that Andy and I had had in Edinburgh- are there other tunes that you can play on the bagpipes?

When he finished playing, everyone clapped, and then the RD did the briefing (no explanation of the bagpiper though). This course was the kind that I love- totally simple (2 and a bit laps of the field) with easy instructions- run to the tree, then turn right and run to the river, then back up to the start.

The marshal by the tree was trying to keep count, saying to everyone “One lap to go/ I think it’s your last lap now?”. The people manning the finish funnel were so enthusiastic, cheering us on each lap, commenting on the dog that was running, or the big smiles of the runners, or encouraging you to do a final sprint at the end.

It really felt as if this parkrun had minimum impact on the surroundings – not many cones or flags or signs to put out, the use of one field, a few cars parked in the street next to it but most people seemed to walk over from the town. In a good way, you could have walked to the field just after 10 and seen no evidence of parkrun being there- they went to a café in town to process the results.

My legs were feeling quite heavy, and the uneven ground (mole hills, tussocks of grass) meant I took my time. This was not a course for a pb, but it was my 75th different parkrun course so I was going to enjoy it. I took a few photos as I ran around, and just enjoyed looking at the castle, the river and the cows in the field next door.

I finished in 31:07, and took a few photos at the finish but then the drizzle got harder so I didn’t hang about. I did briefly chat to someone heading back to her car, but it was time for a quick shower and breakfast before the long drive home. So there we go, 3/4 of the way to a Cowell!

(One thing that did throw me a bit was as I was coming in to the finish I could hear some people charging up behind me. I was speeding up at this point, and never mind a sort of race to the finish, but these 2 guys ran past me literally at the finish line- they were going so fast they carried on straight through the funnel without getting a token. When the person handing out the tokens looked confused at them, pointing at me with the tokens and looking at them (maybe they thought we knew each other?). I pointed to the 2 guys and asked if they needed one, and the volunteers were trying to sort it out, counting out the tokens for the missing people, but then the guys came back again and grabbed some tokens. I do not at all mind which token I get, but this sort of thing makes it harder for the volunteers. I am not quite sure why they had to sprint by right at the end and confuse everyone. When I looked at the results, there are two unknown runners, one just before me and one after me, so maybe they were new to parkrun?)

How many parkrun courses have you visited? Are you working through any challenges at the moment?

The Lavender farm, baking and EV fun

I was well and truly in the summer holiday mode by this point. I did have to catch up on some work one day, but mainly I was properly recharging the batteries. I even had a couple of afternoon dozes (which is most unlike me) so I think the busy end of term/year had really worn me out.

I had ordered us some buns to have over the weekend from Random Buns of Kindness– a plant based bakery. You could order different amounts and types, so I ordered a mixed box with some almond ones (amazing), cardamom (just like a bun from a Scandinavian bakery), plus one chocolate orange and one cinnamon one. They were really delicious and a real treat (they lasted a few days after the day of arrival, and you could warm them up in the oven for a few minutes too).

I did a bit of baking too. In the previous week I had picked around 400g blackcurrants from the bush in our garden, and in the end made these vegan crumble bars. They are very tasty but very tart (I just used blackcurrants but a mixture would make it sweeter).

I checked the weather at the start of the week, and with Tuesday looking like the best day weather wise, I pre-booked a ticket to the lavender farm. I love going there- you can just wander around the fields or pay a few pounds more to pick some while you are there. Last year it was a bit different due to covid (there is usually a barn with a shop and café, but they were both closed), but this year they have come up with solutions- lots of trailers/ food truck type things in the main field, so you could get a drink/ buy lavender themed gifts without going inside. I did have a bit of a stress dream the night before about the car running out of battery (still getting used to it), but I had 118 miles left and when I got there after driving 18 miles, I still had 108 miles of battery left so I knew I would get home with plenty to spare. (I think the stress dream was linked to several news articles, as the climate spokesperson for the government had said that that a diesel car suited her better than an electric, saying the time it takes to stop and recharge on a long journey is too much- all then disputed because the range of most EV’s are over 200 miles, and if you are driving further than that then you should have a break for safety anyway. It made me so cross- in 9 years you won’t be able to buy a new petrol or diesel car so they really need to start encouraging and supporting people to switch over instead of complaining.). The journey tipped the car over 1000 miles too, but a weekend in Suffolk and the drive to Hastings would have made up a large portion of that. My annual mileage was usually fairly low (6-7000) but now we have one car instead of two it’s bound to go up a bit, as we would do the longer journeys in Andy’s car.

I realised when driving that I’d forgotten my water bottle. “Never mind”, I thought, “I’ll buy a lemonade from the café”. When I got there, I spent time picking the lavender first, and then made my way down to the shop and café. After queuing for a while, I was very sad when I found out they had run out of lavender lemonade- no drink for me! I was very thirsty by the time I got home. (I could have queued up at a different place and got a hot drink, but I didn’t fancy something warm when the weather was so hot).

They did have two vegan cake options though (both chocolate, not sure on the difference), so I got a piece for us to share later on.

One day I decided to have a bit of a practise at a local parkrunday- Panshanger has changed the route, and now starts much closer to home. I’ve run to and from the start point, and attempted doing the new route, but I’ve tended to add bits on or not take the most direct route. Although I won’t be going there for a while, I thought I would run there, run the route (as best I could work out) and run home to see how long it would be.

It ended up being just over 2 miles to the start, so just over 7 miles. I think this is perfectly doable on a Saturday morning, as I would not need to leave very early, 2 miles would be a nice warm up, and then I could take my time on the 2 miles heading home after. Also good to know that I can get to parkrun if Andy has the car.

The weather was so much nicer than forecast, so I decided to have breakfast in the garden. This is something I did a lot a few years ago, but got out of the habit and also just seemed to miss the best weather days (eg it can’t be too hot).

After some cleaning and admin bits, I decided to sit in the garden and read. I’m reading a book that is not that great to read before going to sleep (I’ll Be Gone in the Dark- we’d watched the documentary series based on it- the author Michelle McNamara looks into the case of the Golden State Killer from California in the 1970s and 1980s), so reading this in the sunshine felt like a better option.

One day I met up with a friend in Panshanger park- she drove over and met me in the car park, and we spent ages walking all the way through the park, up to the big old oak tree (450-500 years old!), down to the lakes and along the river, through the nature trail…. she’d not been before but loved it and am sure will head back. Then it was time to charge up the EV and get ready for a little holiday up to Scotland.

What sort of books do you like to read? I do like detective books but nothing too graphic as I read before I go to sleep! I also love travel books, eg Michael Palin or more recent “adventure” books such as Anna McNuff travelling tales.

Could you be tempted by an electric car?

Summer holiday time including Christmas in July and parkrun!

I’m still not over the novelty of parkrun being back in England (hold on Scotland and Wales- not long for you guys too I hope).

Vegan biscoff flapjack from the festival, vegan box and CIJ teas.

A few years ago we were in Canada and they had a huge Christmas in July celebration, with floats going past, food trucks, decorations, live music and other fun things, and ever since then I have really loved the idea. I think that this year in particular our government could have sorted something when they were going to have to “cancel” Christmas (eg more restrictions), but anyway- eg an extra bank holiday in the summer when cases were lower. Anyway, a few places seem to take it on board (eg Pret released their “normal” Christmas sandwich this year, not the delicious vegan one sadly), and Bird&Blend have been doing a Christmas in July sale for the past few years so of course I ordered some teas (some of them are usually only available for a month – eg Snowball which is black tea with coconut and vegan marshmallows).

I’d saved this Santa gingerbread from December too

After spending all day Sunday at the festival, we drove home, getting back at 2am. The next day was really just a day of recovering and washing. I headed out on a run at lunch time, as it was meant to be cooler (it wasn’t), but mainly because I had not had anything to drink while at the festival (a few sips of water) as I have a bit of a fear over using portaloos, so I knew I was quite dehydrated and wanted to have a lot to drink in the morning before I went for a run. The run was hot as the sun came out and so I spent the rest of the day relaxing inside.

Views on my run and blackcurrants growing in the garden

The week was out of routine, as I’d usually do a longer run on the Sunday, but obviously didn’t. As it’s the holidays, I can be flexible, so in the week I did a couple of 5 mile runs and a 9 mile run, as well as lots of walks.

One day we headed down to Hastings to meet up with Andy’s family, as they were renting a house by the sea for the week. We had a lovely day walking by the sea, having a picnic on the cliff tops and generally enjoying all of the fresh air. I think they were a bit worried about me finding some food, but there seem to be vegan options everywhere so it wasn’t an issue. We found a nice bakery which had loads of options (vegan pasty, vegan sausage roll, vegetable bake things, even a vegan raspberry croissant).

Hastings views

Run scenes and rainbows in our drive in a storm

Muddy running route- but I have actually remembered to order some new trail shoes as my old ones have holes in them!

I was getting into the Olympics a lot too- I have a nice routine going of heading out on a run first thing, pottering around at home for a bit and then watching some of the coverage in the afternoon. Of course on Friday I had to get out my parkrun wristband again- DFYB people! When watching the Olympic highlights they mentioned that there was going to be a mixed triathlon relay, which intrigued us (who does which section? in which order? how does a team of 4 do an event with 3 sections?) and so we decided to stay up late and watch it- it didn’t start until 11.30pm and was around 90 minutes, so it was a bit of a late night before a parkrun, but it was so exciting. (And if you missed it, each team has 2 men and 2 women, and they each do a mini triathlon, in the same order- female- male- female- male. Sometimes these longer events can feel a bit samey, but it was so exciting as each section only seemed to last a few minutes before the next part of the race/ next transition/ next team member).

After the tourism of last weekend, I was really excited to be parkrunning closer to home this weekend- of course Ellenbrook Fields is not existing at the moment, but Jersey Farm had become another “home” event as it’s so close to where my parents live. I couldn’t remember what time I needed to leave to be there on time though!

Comedy garden in and after the rain, parkrun token and parkrun field

We walked along to the start together, and it felt like a normal Saturday, in the best way. As Dad is a faster runner than I am, he would sometimes run off ahead, but he decided to run and chat with me, and it was great. The park was looking beautiful, covered in wildflowers with paths mown into the long grass. One of my club mates was doing her 100th parkrun (how frustrating to be so close to a milestone all during lockdown) so at the end we cheered her across the line too.

We walked back for breakfast in the garden, but I couldn’t hang about for too long as we had tickets for the comedy garden in St Albans in the afternoon. It was a bit of a shame, as originally Aisling Bea was meant to be in the line-up, but she had cancelled (been pinged?) so they had replaced her with Simon Amstell- we’d just seen pretty much an identical set from him at Latitude. Ah well. Kiri Pritchard-McLean was very funny as the compere, and Sara Pascoe was great as the headliner. It did rain a bit though- we were glad of our umbrella (we were in the back row so not blocking anyone, although most people put theirs up anyway).

Sunday was time for a long run, this time 9 miles to Panshanger and back. In the afternoon, Andy was watching the Grand Prix so I went back to the tradition of watching something on Disney+ , this time Aladdin. I watched the original one, and it did make me laugh when I finished that it suggested the newer Aladdin. I mean, I can sort of see the logic, but I am not going to watch a shot for shot remake straight after watching that version.

Have you been enjoying the Olympics?

Are you a fan of Christmas in July? I was going to do some more things but as we were at the festival it didn’t pan out and I still have an unopened bag of chocolate lebkuchen that I saved!

The end and the beginning

The end of term and the start of the summer holidays was finally here!

The end of term is always a bit frantic, with so many things needing doing and less and less time to fit them in, and this year has been filled with extra challenges (hello online learning), and that coupled with more and more bubbles “bursting” meant the sense of relief at reaching the finish line unscathed and un-pinged was just huge.

I was given some gorgeous gifts from colleagues and from the children- including a selection of penguin themed things. (The top right is a badge with a penguin having a cup of tea- there is not anything more perfect for me than that!)

I had a lovely run on Tuesday morning with the sun looking beautiful across the fields, but the brambles were so overgrown and I ended up with loads of scratches all over my legs.

On Wednesday I did a similar run- out and back so avoiding the worst of the brambles, and in the evening we had our final yoga session of the term. It was super warm and so we did lots of slower poses, focusing on hips (always needed).

On Thursday I did my regular Saturday route- 5 miles through the woods- although I won’t be running it on Saturdays any more (as parkrun is back, hooray!). Later in the morning I parked outside town and walked in, as I’d booked a massage. I was going to go to Pret to get a drink (and maybe sandwiches for the Friday) but they were closed (due to the “pingdemic”- although in fact we should not be blaming the app but blaming this government for letting the virus get out of control….) so Starbucks it was for the walk back.

Friday was another run in the woods (a different route and more overgrown brambles) and then time to pack as we were off to Suffolk for the weekend. We drove up to where our hotel was, dropped off our bags and then headed to Latitude festival.

We were hoping to see Adam Buxton, but by the time we got in (the walk from the car parking to the site was longer than we had anticipated) they were not letting anyone else in. Never mind- there was loads to see. We went to the comedy tent and watched Simon Amstell, saw The Staves in the BBC Sounds (baby sea clowns) tent, went to the Waterstones tent to watch a talk on films by Mark Kermode, got some dinner (there were so many good vegan options- we had a peanut butter burger each) and then watched Wolf Alice headline on the main stage- they were brilliant. At first I was a bit apprehensive about being with lots of people, but you had to show your vaccine passport or a recent negative test, and it was all very spread out. I’ve not been to that festival before, but it had lots of tents and stages all spread out, and everyone seemed very respectful of giving each other space.

On the Saturday I was off to parkrun (hooray), and as we hadn’t bought Saturday tickets, we had a day pottering around Suffolk. We drove down to Sutton Hoo (made famous in the film The Dig), and then went to Southwold (via a short stop to charge up the car a bit).

We sat by the sea for a bit and realised that we’d not seen the sea since October last year, when we went to Cornwall. There is something so refreshing about the sea air- it properly clears away the cobwebs.

The Sunday was another festival day- we got there much earlier (as we had to check out by 11am anyway), and managed to see loads of comedy- Joel Dommett, Reginal D Hunter and Jo Brand, plus lots of music (Tim Burgess regretting his choice of wearing a jumper)- the day was forecast to have thundery showers, but somehow we totally escaped. At around 8pm there were a few spots of rain, but that was all (unlike Standon Calling which was called off due to the site flooding). We had to find places in the shade (I watched some of the comedy from the shade of a big oak tree nearby) and were both very glad we’d put on suncream. We’d brought along a blanket so spent some time sitting in the shade near a tent, listening to the music and relaxing, and then later on wandering through the woods and finding some of the smaller stages (one stage was like an open air hipster coffee shop with random sofas strewn about in a clearing in the trees). The night ended with Bastille in their Re-Orchestrated show, playing music alongside an orchestra and amazing singers. It was a brilliant weekend and I am so glad that we decided to go. We didn’t get home until 2am and I don’t know the last time that I’ve been awake at that time!

Do you like going to festivals?

Lowestoft parkrun- parkrun is back!

Unless you have been living under a rock, you will have realised that last weekend, parkrun was back in England (it was on TV, on the Guardian, in local newspapers…).

The date kept being pushed further back in the year (legally they could have come back in March, but getting the landowner permission ended up with it being tied to Step 4 of the restrictions being lifted), and for one of the comeback dates we were due to be down in Brighton for the half marathon, although that ended up being postponed and the parkrun date was changed too. I was looking forward to a run with my dad, but then it turned out that the return date coincided with a weekend in Suffolk as we had tickets for the Latitude festival. Our tickets were for Friday and Sunday, so with the Saturday free it was perfect.

We were staying about 10 miles away from Lowestoft, so it meant a short car journey (easier now we share a car, as my car was always deemed “too small” for a weekend away, and I didn’t like driving Andy’s car). I was out of practise though- navigating myself is something I try to avoid as I find it difficult, so parkrun tourism was always a good thing to push me out of my comfort zone a bit. I only went wrong once, and nearly missed the entrance to the car park (the sat nav was telling me it was on my right, as it was directing me to the postcode on the event page, whereas it was on my left about 10 metres ahead of where I was…). I was relieved to arrive and so full of excitement.

The weather was forecast to be showery, but ended up being perfect, with some clouds and a slight breeze to help you feel cool. The car park was right on the seafront, and I could see loads of high viz vests out already(I was there at about 8.30am). The route starts a little further down the prom, so I did a little warm up along the seafront too, before starting to walk along to the starting area. I briefly chatted to a runner who usually did ultras, and then in the start area was asked my home event by one of the volunteers (I think because I had on my apricot top they thought I was a tourist, although it was my “it’s still parkrunday” one and not Panshanger/ Ellenbrook one. Even though I’ve had to change my home event now (it had defaulted to one beginning with A, so I’m back to Panshanger being my home now), I still feel like Ellenbrook Fields is my home event, and that is what they wrote on their run report.

I wasn’t sure how I would feel surrounded by lots of people, but it was all outside and people kept their distance- I hung around near the side and I felt that everyone gave each other plenty of space. I also have to trust in the vaccine – I had my second dose over 2 weeks go, and yes I know that you can still catch it after the vaccine, but there is much less chance, and I also trust in the research that parkrun did a while back showing that there was a very low chance of it being spread at an event.

The run briefing was listened to by everyone (they had volunteers spread out to ask people to listen), and it was brief, including a clap for NHS and key workers, and then we were off. I did feel a little emotional as we started running- I think for a while I had lost hope that parkrun would actually come back again, and it was just so happy to be participating in something alongside so many other people.

The route was super simple- along the seafront/prom for a mile (past lots of beach huts), up a slope (walk on the left, run on the right) to the higher level path, back along the seafront to some little gardens (next to the car park), then back along the seafront again, past the beach huts, up the slope again and then finishing in the gardens. As I was heading out of the gardens (just over half way) the first runner was coming in to finish- impressive! The first little part was a bit busy (we were asked to self-seed, and I had no idea of my time. Yes I’ve run some (not)parkruns, but never as fast as actual parkruns. I found that I was overtaking quite a few people initially, but it was wide enough to do so and once I was along the seafront by the beach huts it was all nice and spaced out.

The finish bit in the little gardens was so well organised with a nice long funnel and volunteers keeping everyone moving (but spaced apart). I couldn’t see the scanners straight away but they were just across the cycle path on the beach. Some of the scanners had gloves and masks on (which is of course perfectly OK), but the app seemed to work well from a distance (you hold up your barcode and the token for them to scan).

I was finisher number 163/ 350 runners, and amazingly when I got my text trough later on, I had the exact same time as my last parkrun before the pause- 28:17! I’ve never managed Groundhog day in the challenges (two identical times on the same course, two weeks in a row)- this is the closest I’ve got!

Time to head back to the hotel- I’ve missed this so much!

Where were you last Saturday? And Scotland and Wales- my fingers are crossed that you are following in our footsteps soon.