Category: Stuff I love!

Some of my club mates had been doing a “Stay in Beds” parkrun challenge- all the parkruns in Bedfordshire, so I joined in. When I looked, I only needed 2, Bedford being one of them. After we’d driven up there for the George Ezra concert and I’d seen that it wasn’t to bad of a journey, I decided to head there. The Cambridge and MK Vegan Runners were having a meet up there too, so another reason to head there.

parkrun were celebrating 75 years of the NHS, and had asked everyone to wear blue, so I wore my Ware 10k race top.

The drive up there was fine, apart from me going slightly wrong in the centre and then having a bit of a diversion, but I arrived with plenty of time, to find that the car park had free parking for 3 hours on a Saturday, you just had to get a ticket to display. I had a bit of a jog around the park first, and then got very confused as to where the start area was, as I found the finish area but could not work out for ages where it started. It turned out to be close to the car park, so when I had run past in my warm up, I hadn’t noticed it as not many people were there yet.

I saw a few of the vegan runners, so had a little chat with them. We asked someone to take our photo, and then the weirdest thing happened- after they had taken our photo with one of the VR’s phones, they got their own phone out and asked us to stand still while they took one with their phone. It’s a public place but that felt a little strange.

The RD at the start gave a wonderful little speech about the NHS, and pointed out a few of the team who were NHS workers. I saw a couple of people running in their paramedic gear which didn’t look like the most breathable fabric- kudos to them.

I loved the wildflower meadows that were part of the park. It was a varied town centre park, with a little lake (featuring cygnets), a few wooded areas, a band stand and a cafe. It tipped with rain at the end!

The route was just under 3 laps (I think they said two and a half), starting lower down in the park and finishing in the centre. It felt like a well supported event with lots of marshals on the route, and loads at the finish area (reminding us to keep right as faster runners headed left into the finish). It was pretty flat, but as you went past the lake it then went gently uphill- all fine but the third time up there I was feeling more tired.

After I’d finished, I ran back over to the lake to see if I could spot the cygnets again, as I’d seen them while running, and while I was there is started tipping it down with rain. I had seen a nice vegan cafe in the town centre, and was originally planning on going there before driving home, but I was soaked through so quickly so decided to just head home instead.

I’m there in blue with the other VR’s. Plus cakes, matcha and pistachio butter.

The vegan market was in WGC, so in the afternoon I popped in. I got myself a strawberry matcha (so good), picked up some pistachio butter (I’ve not yet opened it) and bought some cakes from Kim’s Vegan Cakes as they were half price.

102nd parkrun visited, and only one left for the Beds challenge now (Great Denham)- that will be in the autumn I think.

Do you like different parkrun challenges? Did your parkrun do anything for the NHS 75?

For May half term, the two of us had a trip to Norway booked, and I had requested a parkrun on one of the Saturdays that we were there.

We flew to Oslo on the Friday night, staying until Sunday, so this meant I could visit an Oslo parkrun. I had already been to Tøyen parkrun back in November of 2019, so if possible I was keen to visit a different event. There are 3 parkruns in Oslo (only 7 in the whole of Norway though), but of course cancellations happen for various reasons so I wasn’t sure it would all go ahead.

Anyway, happily it was all fine. Our hotel was only a couple of miles from the parkrun, but the route was hilly and not straightforward, and a bus went right to the start, so I opted for that. Various parkrun tourist tips (from With Me Now pod and the tourist facebook page) meant that I downloaded the transport app in advance, and even went through the motions of buying a ticket (just not clicking on the final “buy” button) so I was confident in how it would work. I’d also finally got a new phone (my old one was 5 years old and the battery sometimes lasted all day, and sometimes lasted a few hours which was very stressful when needing it for navigation, and I had been to the store to see if they could replace the battery but they said no)- this meant that I was a bit more confident at using it for the maps and so on while travelling around.

I couldn’t decide what to do about breakfast until the final moment. I much prefer running first thing without eating, and only really make exceptions for half marathons where there is plenty of time from getting up to starting running. Our hotel had breakfast included, and food is expensive in Norway (although not as bad as we had feared- basically London prices) so I didn’t want to miss it, but it was only being served until 10:30. parkrun in Norway starts at 9:30, so if I took half an hour to run it would only give me 30 mins to get back to the hotel before they stopped serving, which seemed to be cutting it fine as the transport app estimated 25 min bus journey. Previously I had walked Tøyen, but partly this was because we went for a weekend with hand luggage only so I had no room for running things as it was freezing so would have needed many layers. I was keen to run this one, particularly as it was my Cowell, but also because I didn’t run the other one in Norway.

In the end I went for breakfast at 7am, when they started, and then went to get the bus at 8:30. Andy decided to come with me (I was quite relieved about that as I was a bit nervous about missing the bus- I think he sensed my panic)- the Ruter app worked really well and even directed you via maps to the bus stop. The bus stops were clearly labelled so you were on the right side of the road, and the screens on the buses announced the stops so it was all very clear.

We arrived nice and early so had a wander around the park before I went over to the parkrun start. I didn’t fancy announcing the milestone (Cowell- 100 locations), but I did chat to the RD and there were a few tourists there so we had a nice round of applause at the briefing.

The route was two flat laps of the park, and the day was just beautiful so there were lovely views in all directions. I loved it! I ran most of it just behind a parent and child with a dog, so I wasn’t on my own, but it was a fairly small field. One tourist from the UK had run up from the centre, but he’d been there a few days and had tested this out the day before to check he didn’t get lost, so it is doable.

After finishing we of course took some photos and then headed to the other part of the park, across the road, as this is a sculpture park. Andy persuaded me to do the “footballer” pose of pointing at the shirt.

We’d been there on our previous trip and it had been covered in thick snow, so it was strange to visit the same place but in totally different weather- glorious sunshine and blue skies. The park is close to the water, on a hill, so there were beautiful views across to all the little islands.

After wandering around the park, we were by the tram stop rather than the bus stop (I think it says it’s around a 25 min walk on the parkrun course page- the bus is definitely easier as it takes you pretty much to the start). We found some e-scooters and Andy was very keen to have a go. I was reluctant, so he hired one and I ran behind him. Apparently they were limited to 5 miles an hour, but I could not keep up with him on the downhill so they were faster than that! The 1.4 miles back to the hotel took us 14 minutes- and then it was time for a shower before heading out into Oslo again.

It’s crazy to think that in just over 300 parkruns I’ve been to 100 different locations. There have been a few where I’ve wanted to do a particular one so we’ve made a weekend of it (for example Queen Elizabeth Country Park for my Q) but generally I’ve been to them if I happen to be somewhere near to one anyway. We are lucky that there are lots fairly close by, so lots of my list have been Saturday morning trips on a train or up the M1. They’ve mainly been in the UK, but I’ve been lucky to visit parkruns in Ireland, USA, Canada, Norway, Denmark and The Netherlands. A few other plans have been cancelled over the years (I was meant to do one in Germany a few years ago but our flight was cancelled and we had to fly out on Sunday), and we had a long weekend in Finland booked but that was summer 2020 so we all know why that didn’t go ahead. There will be lots more parkrun tourism in the future anyway. For now I shall enjoy hearing my name being read out on With Me Now!

How many parkrun locations have you visited? Which one is top of your list for one you would love to visit?

The final part of lining up my 100th event for Norway was completing my 99th event before we went away. Dad had been to Sunny Hill parkrun earlier in the year as it was close to a tennis tournament that he was on, and said it was such a gem, and loved the look of the cafe, so it was on our list.

My mum came to watch, and my brother even came to run. Dad drove there, and I have to say I was relieved as although it wasn’t a complicated journey, the entrance to the car park to me looked more like an alleyway rather than an actual road. It’s a tiny car park but we arrived at 8:30 to lots of space, with the cafe right by the car park (including toilets that were open) and the start to the parkun just past the cafe. Everything you need right there.

As the RD did the briefing, they explained that they had more tourists than usual due to the event number being a Fibonacci number (event 144)- I’m not doing that challenge in the app as I tend to stick to the original chrome extension ones, so it was just a coincidence but it’s happened a few times! The start and finish areas are at slightly different places (maybe 100m from each other), and so when we walked to the start I noticed the purple pop up sign and asked for a picture. The RD noticed and explained that they move it to the finish area so we could get pictures then (I don’t think they wanted the start delayed by loads of photos, which is fair enough of course).

The course was hilly, and the sunny weather of course made this perfect. It started off with a short lap, and then two larger laps, each one with a couple of hills. The second main lap didn’t feel as bad, I think because in my mind the hill in the first mini lap was part of the first main lap. At the top of the hill you had fantastic views across London- if we looked behind to the left we could see the Wembley arch.

We kept a good pace, finishing in just under 30 minutes, not bad for a hilly course, and with negative splits too. The nature of the laps meant that we saw Mum in the finish area as we went past- the front runners had just finished as we started our second main lap- very impressive. There was a group of very serious looking runners all aiming for pb’s (from Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers according to the results)- we saw them sprinting across the park as a cool down (? or more training?) once we had finished.

Once we finished of course I needed pictures by the purple pop up, and then we headed to the cafe. I had looked at the menu and couldn’t see anything vegan on the breakfast menu, but plenty at lunch, so I had messaged them and they had replied saying that a few options could easily be made vegan. I went for the avocado on toast, which came with loads of tomatoes and tahini over the top- so good.

We enjoyed a lovely breakfast- the pitta breads that came with the scrambled eggs looked amazing. Definitely a cafe to recommend. All in all another super morning, and such an enjoyable parkrun for my 99th venue!