Stuff I love! - Maria Runs

A parkrun in the rain, getting cold and finally using our fire!

On Saturday I met Dad at Ellenbrook for parkrun. It was pretty miserable weather- only about 5 degrees and raining, so I sat in the car for a bit before finally braving it. Dad had driven (he often cycles but not surprisingly didn’t fancy it)- I was heading to theirs for breakfast after, so I told him not to wait but we ended up running together. I’d worn a visor to try and keep my glasses dry, but the rain was too hard. I didn’t even spot my friend Elaine (she was marshaling) until we called out “thanks” and she said “hello”- I recognised her voice but couldn’t see properly!

Flying feet! It was slippery and very muddy in places, although the worst part (the “water feature”- a muddy track that is under water for a good 10 metres) has been filled with sand so it wasn’t so bad any more. Also, the cows were standing up. I thought cows sat down in the rain? Or is it when it is about to rain?? I had worn gloves and took them off after around a mile (my hands tend to warm up fairly quickly)- I did offer them to Dad as he had forgotten his and he really feels the cold, but apparently he wasn’t keen on wearing the flouro pink ones!

Anyway, an enjoyable run, finishing in 27.44 and 1st in my age cat! That doesn’t normally happen (I think the rest of the people stayed at home in the dry!).

Our lovely tree is still so colourful- not tan lines but mud lines! And watching the rain from my car…

I’d packed jogging bottoms and a jumper, so after driving to my parents I changed- I wished I had packed a proper change of clothes though as then I could have had a shower- not sure why I didn’t. I had to spend ages wiping the mud off my legs- I thought I just had some splashes but actually it was a proper coating! We then had breakfast (pancakes of course)- my sister came around with her husband and baby, my brother was there, and Andy joined us later, so it was lovely to all catch up.

Mum lent me these slippers (from one of their hotels in China) so at least my feet were warm!

In the afternoon we walked into town and I made some caramel shortbread for Sunday. Then after dinner we went to the cinema to see The Florida Project, which was really good. It’s set in the shadow of Disney World, following a child and her friends- they all live in motels and so it does show the struggle that the parents go through, but the children were brilliant and it was very uplifting at times too.

On Sunday I didn’t set an alarm and didn’t even wake up until 8.45! Crazy! I headed on a run- I ended up doing 10 miles. I’d worn a top and jacket, thinking I’d take the jacket off after a bit and tie it around my waist, but in fact every time I considered it, the wind would blow more and make me feel chilly, so I kept it on the whole time.

This is my “I wish I had worn a buff” face- my skin gets so sore and it looked like I had sunburn when I got home as the skin on my neck and chest was so red and itchy.

After a shower it was time for breakfast- on Friday I had been into town (for a massage) and so I had of course had to go to Gail’s (an amazing bakery). I usually go for the chocolate almond croissants, but they had a sour cherry and pistachio croissant so I got one of each (plus a scone for another time).

I warmed them in the oven while I made the tea (Bluebird Bonfire Toffee tea) and then we had half of each. Mmmm, so good.

We then walked the long way to town (about 3 miles) and I had this tasty smoothie when I got home to give me a bit of a boost to power through some work.

We had tea at Andy’s parents and then when we got home, it was finally time to use the log burner! We had it fitted in the summer but of course we needed to wait for a cold day to actually use it.

It was so cosy, and after getting so cold at parkrun, on my run and on the walks to town it was lovely to relax and feel warm- the perfect end to the weekend.

Do you have a different breakfast at the weekends? I’ll happily have porridge every week day in the winter and muesli in the summer, but I will often have something different at the weekend to make it more of an occasion and a bit more relaxed. Are you wearing gloves on your runs now?

Brighton and Hove parkrun

I’ve done a couple of the parkruns in Brighton before (Hove prom twice, and Preston Park once). Andy (who is turning without being asked into my parkrun tourist planner- he found the hotel near Bushy, and that Andover parkrun was close to our hotel) noticed that Brighton and Hove parkrun is very close to Hove station, so we booked a hotel by Brighton station so it would be easy to get to.

We arrived on Friday night and to save me the stress of the ticket machine in the morning (honestly, why do small things like this make me so stressed? I usually prefer to go to a person because then I know it’s the right ticket…), I bought my tickets the night before (there was an option for “travel tomorrow”), so all I had to do in the morning was get dressed and walk around the corner to the train. I could have run there as it was only a couple of miles, but as we were only there for the day I didn’t want to get back too late. It was £2.80 return so not too bad (I have paid that sort of thing for parking at a parkrun in some places).

To be extra helpful (or because he knows I am not good at travel, who knows…) Andy had sent me a screen shot of the journey times to and from Hove station- I like to be there early so I got the 8.23 train which arrived in Hove at 8.26- nice and short.

Luckily I left the time because for some reason, even though I had looked at a map, I thought that the parkrun would be closer to the sea than the station, so I knew that as the sea was on my left, I had to head downhill (or left). I had maps out on my phone with the pin in the centre of the park, and I couldn’t work out why I was getting further away. After realising I was going the wrong way, I headed back up the hill to the station, but then the map wouldn’t spin around so left on the map was right in real life so I got confused again. It turned out that there was a pedestrian bridge over the railway tracks, and once I had done that, it was an easy run up the hill to the end of the road, left at the end and the park was in sight.

It was a bit damp, but the forecast rain hadn’t materialised yet. I could see a bunch of high viz people in the centre, so I headed over. It happened to be their 10th anniversary, so some people were dressed up. The RD called out for any new runners to head over to “the red vicar”- I think he was dressed as a cardinal? Anyway, the briefing was amusing (he checked we had our barcodes, then that we had the fiver for him….)- and then it was time for the run briefing. Now, usually everyone listens carefully during this, and I feel that not only is it polite to do so, but imperative, because sometimes there are changes to the course or safety information to share. There were a lot of people there (461 runners), but I could not hear a word, so many people were talking. I was quite annoyed and found it really rude. The team give up their time so that people can enjoy a free and timed 5k, so the least you can do it be quiet for a few minutes during the briefing. There were pacers and they waved their little flag things about- I was near the 30 minute one at the start (but again you couldn’t hear at all).

Once we started it was enjoyable- it sounds complicated but you start a little bit before the finish, doing one small lap and then two big laps. There is a little incline on each lap, but nothing too steep and then you have a nice long downhill at the end of each lap too. I try to make a point of thanking each marshal as I run past- I really appreciate them giving up their time to marshal, and I know that when I have marshaled it is lovely having the runners show their appreciation. One of the things I love about parkrun is hearing the call of “thank you marshal” echoing through the park. But I did not hear a single thank you from anyone else. Do people not do that at every parkrun?

There were two ladies talking loudly at the start, and on the second lap I caught up with them- they were talking about a friend of theirs who does Good Gym, and one of them said “I’m too selfish to give up my time to dig up a garden” and I did think to myself “and too selfish to listen to the run briefing”…

Anyway, I enjoyed the run and I think on the first little lap I caught up with the 30 min pacer, and then on the second lap I caught up with the next one (I can’t remember the number though- 29 or 28 mins possibly). I managed to push the pace on the final lap, doing a nice negative split with 27.43 (9.13, 8.37, 8.33 and 7.21 for the little bit- not the easiest to do on not a flat course). The best thing about lapped courses is that you get top 3 personal records on all the strava segments!

It had started to rain quite heavily on the final lap, so I didn’t hang around at all- I took a few photos on my run back to the station. I was about to miss a train, but it was delayed by a few minutes so I still managed to catch it. By 10 o’clock I was sat in Cafe Coho- there was a lovely hot cup of Earl grey tea waiting for me, and the pancakes weren’t far behind!

So another enjoyable Brighton parkrun (Bevendean Down parkrun is the one yet to visit, although that is a bit out of town so I am not sure I’d manage it without a car). I think probably Hove Prom is the easiest one for me to visit, but when it’s super windy it is nicer to head inland.

Have you collected any parkrun “sets?” Do you find train travel a bit stressful? I enjoy it once I am on the train, and I don’t mind if there are frequent trains so if I miss one it’s fine, but buying the correct ticket and getting to the right platform adds to the pressure a bit. Do people thank the marshals as they run past at your local parkruns? Maybe it was too cold and rainy…

A quick recap and Brighton round 2!

Last week I was home too late on Tuesday to make it out to the club run in time, so I had a run on my own- usually this would be fine (and I wore my light for the first time- which meant getting ready took ages as I could not remember which way around the straps went)- but it was also Halloween so I was basically dodging kids (and teenagers who were way too old) all dressed up for most of the run – it made it hard work! There were so many houses decorated too- with that fake spider web stuff and the do not cross crime scene tape. I’m not a Halloween fan, but at least the trick or treaters seem to only go to the decorated houses now which seems better.

Happy once I had finally worked out how to put it on!

Yoga was cancelled for the first week back, and so I took the opportunity to head into town after work to pick up a free drink from Costa (not my coffee shop of choice, but the Three mobile app had another freebie so not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth I went for it). It seems that all the shops had had a Christmas explosion (and some houses too-why????- I love Christmas but just for December please!).

On Thursday I had a nice 4 mile run, and then on Friday evening we got the train down to Brighton. We went a few weeks ago for the 10 mile race, but the restaurant we had booked had a power cut, so we decided to go down again.

As we were staying right by the station, on Saturday morning I got the train across to Hove, to run Brighton and Hove parkrun.

I’ll do a separate post about that as it was a new-to-me course. On the train on the way back I messaged Andy, who was in Cafe Coho, so he ordered breakfast. By the time I sat down the cup of tea was already there, and it didn’t take long for the pancakes to arrive.

Their pancakes are so good- they come with Greek yoghurt, berries and honey. After going back to the hotel for a shower, we had a lovely walk along the seafront towards Hove. It was a bit rainy (it had rained hard on the final lap of the parkrun course) but luckily that didn’t last too long.

There were some huge waves and dramatic clouds (and some people on the beaches getting very close to the waves…). We wandered back to town and around the shops for a bit, and of course had to stop and get some cake. The place we had been to a few times (Catwalk cakes) has closed, so we found another cafe (there is no shortage of cafes- you just need to find one with a seat!), and enjoyed sharing a slice of carrot cake.

After more of a walk (the sun sets so early now- that top right picture was at around 5pm) we headed to Food for Friends- thankfully no power cut this time!

After dinner we got the train back home, catching up on the film podcast and watching lots of fireworks.

On Sunday I had a short-ish run (for a Sunday- 6 miles) in the most beautiful autumnal weather.

We then headed into St Albans for breakfast, as we had to be there later for a family baptism, and wandered around the park (we even found the house that was on Grand Designs recently).

After the baptism, we were off to the cinema to see Murder on the Orient Express. I had heard some people say it wasn’t that great, but I really enjoyed it. I’d not read the book so I didn’t know what happened, so maybe if you were comparing it to the book you might feel like some bits were missed out or different (I have no idea), but it was good fun I though. We were sat in front of some people that talked ALL THE WAY THROUGH! I kept turning around to try and work out who it was so I could shush them, but it was hard to see in the dark. It was so annoying though! I think that the film may attract a type of audience that does not visit the cinema that often…

This week has gone by in a flash- I missed the club run on Tuesday as I had an awful headache. I’d taken painkillers but after a 2 hour meeting and driving home it still hadn’t gone, so a short walk in the fresh air had to suffice. Yoga was back on Wednesday (hooray!)- we did a lot of work on hips including some partner squats- I need to remember these things for when I get back from a run as I do try to do some of them as stretches now. On Thursday I picked Mum and Dad up from Heathrow as they had been in China. I was really not looking forward to the M25 at rush hour, or navigating around the airport, so I was very pleased with myself when I managed it (I was telling myself “you are a thirty-something year old person, you should be able to drive to an airport…” but these things make me anxious still). Anyway it was lovely to find out how their holiday had been.

And here we are at Friday! I don’t think I’ve been up to date with this blog since the summer!

Any plans for the weekend? Are people near you going Halloween crazy? Or have you seen any Christmas decorations? Which towns/places do you like to visit over and over?

Andover parkrun and the start of a little holiday (not quite Croatia)

Last week was a busy one (two evenings at work) and I stopped by home on one day to pick up the curtains for our living room as my mum had shortened them for us. It has made a huge difference- making it much lighter in the day (the doors have these so-called clever blinds inside the glass, but in reality it takes about 20 minutes to wind them up or down, so we tend to leave them down but open, which cuts out so much light) and much cosier in the evenings.

I caught up on some of Bake Off one evening, enjoying how cosy the living room now feels (I did not like it before when people could potentially see in).

As a treat for a busy week Andy gave me these amazing peanut butter chocolates- they are possibly the king of chocolates.

We were meant to be going to Croatia on Friday for half term, but we were flying with Monarch, so when that went all wrong it basically meant we had to cancel (the only other airline that flew there were Ryanair and we are not risking them, plus they put the prices up loads anyway). Andy had the great idea of heading south-west to visit the Eden Project, as we’ve both wanted to go for ages but it’s so far (you could fly to New York in the same time pretty much).

After work on Friday I had booked a massage (which I arrived very stressed at, because there were no parking spaces in the normal car park, so I found one further one, ran to the pay machine but it was only a sign and not a machine, ran to the next one, paid, grabbed the ticket and ran back to my car only to realise it was the receipt of the person before me and not the ticket, so then ran back all the time worrying that someone would get there before me as I had no cash to buy a second one, got it out of the machine just in time, ran back to my car and then ran to the building feeling very flustered indeed), and then had a little wander around town to get us some breakfast for the next morning. After dinner we packed and drove to the hotel. We’d booked a Friday night stopover at the Premier Inn in Andover- normally I look into parkrun locations but being busier than usual Andy took this on for me, and found that the start of Andover parkrun was half a mile away- perfect!

The run from the hotel was along an industrial looking road with loads of warehouses and things (Portway industrial estate according to the map)- I was really wondering if I was in the right place. But at the end of the road I could see cars (and people wearing high-viz driving them) turning off down another road, and there was suddenly a huge park. It was a lovely location, but I really should have worn trail shoes as it was pretty muddy in places. I had a bit of a grump (not really a panic) on the run down as my watch wouldn’t find the GPS- I decided I could use Strava on my phone instead (because otherwise it didn’t happen…), but once I got there and googled, I did a soft reset which seemed to work- phew!

My cow cowl worked (once you have run 20 UK events you can buy one- it’s not an official parkrun item like the milestone t-shirts, but it means tourists can identify each other)- I ended up chatting to a guy called Kevin who usually ran at Bedfont Lakes, but was travelling to Exeter to watch the football. He was a total uber tourist- this was his 99th different parkrun event! I had my Panshanger top on and he’d been to the inaugural event there and we chatted about the finish (it used to be straight up a horrible hill, but now they’ve changed it to a zig zag which I think is just as tough as it goes on for longer).

The new runners briefing was great as usual- they had a map but as they were following a different course due to works around the lake, it didn’t matter. Although the person did say the parkrun sin of “winner” (gasp- it’s not a race…)- basically saying that unless you’re going to run it in 15 minutes, just follow the person ahead. It was two laps which I always find passes fairly quickly, and you don’t have the monotony of a higher amount of laps. Plus in the middle you pass by the start/finish area and get a big boost from all the scanners, timers and funnel people.

The course had a few out and back sections with tight turns- it was narrow in places as we had to keep to the right of the path (as other runners were coming in the other direction) but I wasn’t in a hurry so I didn’t mind being stuck behind people for a bit. The lakes had been partially drained, but I imagine that normally it would be really pretty. On the second lap I took my phone out to take a photo of all the mud on the field- it didn’t seem that bad on the first lap but I suppose by the time I got to my second lap it had been churned up several hundred times.

I ended up running 28.35, 162/293- I didn’t expect it to be that busy. As I was on my second lap it began drizzling a bit before easing off, and as I finished it started to rain pretty heavily. I was going to stay around for a bit of a chat, but the rain made my decision for me. On the run back my watch beeped to tell me it was going into power saving mode- argh- I thought I had pressed go but clearly not (for the run back). It was raining pretty hard so I put my cowl/buff thing over my head to keep my hair dry.

After a shower we had a breakfast of a chocolate almond croissant (plus a nuun tab in water for me), before heading towards Exeter for the rest of our little holiday (I’ll save that for another post).

So that was my 31st different parkrun event (30th UK one). To keep track of my parkrun touristing I have made a page of all the links here, which you might find useful if you are planning on visiting any of them.

Do you know of any good hotel and parkrun combos? Any car park stresses? I really don’t like pay and display anyway, I’d much rather pay when I leave because then I am in no hurry and if I need to get change I can get it while I am in town.

The home of parkrun!!!!

On Sunday I was due to run the Bright10, a 10 mile race in Brighton. I’ve run it the past 2 years and we’ve usually stayed in Brighton for the weekend, but this year we could not find any affordable hotels. In the end we booked to stay in Arundel, which is about 20 miles away from Brighton, so we could drive in on Sunday morning. As it’s in the South Downs we could have some nice walks on the Saturday too. We hadn’t booked anything for the Friday night, but Andy had a look and amazingly found a hotel “near to that parkrun that you always want to do”- Bushy parkrun!

So on Friday night after work we drove in to the Premier Inn in Kingston upon Thames.

On Saturday morning I had around a 1.5 mile run as a warm up- I had to run through Kingston (and only got lost once), over a bridge, to the edge of the park, and then along a straight path to the centre.

I was rather excited!

Once in the park I was amazed to see stags (and hear them bellowing)- there was a sign on the gate but they were so close to the path. They were all being followed (rather closely) by people in camouflage with ridiculously over-sized lenses on their cameras.

This was where the run started

I didn’t see that many runners on the way, (they must mostly come from a different direction) but once I reached the middle of the park there were people everywhere and all spread out. I’d worked out one group of people were waiting by the toilets, so as I wandered around looking for high-viz people or a start sign, I was a lady walking along with the new runner briefing sign. There were of course lots of new runners- particularly groups from running clubs on organised trips, and even a few brand new parkrunners. They told us about the famous “double funnel” which Southampton also has (and probably others, but that’s the only one I have been to).

With over 1000 runners it was no surprise that they had a proper speaker (perched in a tree) for the main briefing- I couldn’t see where the RD was at all, but it was quite a funny briefing (warning us that the deer could run faster than us..).

The start was very wide so even with 1233 (why not one more for 1234?) runners it didn’t feel too busy. I didn’t want to go too fast as I had the race the following day, so a little later when I saw a stag sitting in the grass I ran to the side and took some photos.

You can see the runners in the distance as we ran past the deer and then turned left at the end of the path.

The run was so enjoyable- it’s a very flat route and wound through the park, through bracken and fern, running alongside a road briefly before finishing by a lake. There were plenty of marshals out, and I enjoyed spotting some vintage parkrun t-shirts (I saw a few of the black and gold 250 ones).

As I was finishing the funnel manager was shouting at the guy a few people behind me to go into the left tunnel (I had to stay right)- the person behind me was given a letter (Q- they start at A)- so when we eventually got to collect our tokens (about 10 minutes later) they knew to switch over to the other side. All very clever.

I was number 745- my highest (lowest?) placing- I think I’ve only been to one with over 700 runners before.

After having my chip scanned I didn’t hang around as Andy was going to meet me in the park (and it finished in a slightly different place which of course confused me).

I ran a little way but then he’d managed to walk nearly to the start so we walked back together.

As we walked back through Kingston I popped into Starbucks to get a drink to take back to the hotel- Andy had bought us chocolate almond croissants for breakfast.

So, Bushy parkrun- what a great one to visit- one lap, deer, flat course, not too crowded…. My time was 28.52 (26th in my age cat- there aren’t usually 26 in total in my age cat!) and I was pleased to manage negative splits of 9.22, 9.08, 8.59, 8.28.

Then we were off National Trust walking, so I’ll save that for later.

Have you been to Bushy parkrun? What is the largest parkrun you’ve been to?