Category: Travelling Tales

Itchen Valley parkrun – name badge complete!

When Itchen Valley Country parkrun started, I had it in mind for the I for my alphabet, but despite going to Southampton fairly regularly, I ended up going to Irchester for my I. It was still on my list as a parkrun to visit, and as I am having fun with the parkrun Chrome extension, the name badge challenge meant I needed a second parkrun beginning with I.

It all finally fell into place this January- Andy was going to the football, we were going to visit his family down there, and so we drove down on the Friday evening, stayed in a hotel (around a 6 minute drive to the parkrun)- perfect!

Of course, any sort of touring at this time of year is not as easy as that. The cold weather, following on from lots of rain meant that one by one, parkruns were cancelling due to ice. Itchen Valley posted that they would do a course check in the morning but that they should be on. But I didn’t really have a plan B, as the next closest ones had cancelled. There was one around a 30 min drive away that was on, but that was really too far as we had to be out by 11. (One slight worry was that it seemed to disappear from the 5k app overnight- not sure why).

Left is the 5k app on Friday night, right on Saturday morning where Itchen Valley no longer seemed to be there.

I left leaving as late as possible, but there was no confirmation post that they were still on. I then had to scrape the car (had forgotten about that joy) and so despite being so close, I parked up at something like 8:47 am. Rather too close for comfort- as I walked up to the start area the new runners welcome was just about to begin. At least it was on!

The actual park was beautiful. Of course the frosty weather and blues skies all helped, as it was one of those perfect wintery days. The team showed us their new tourist board (a whiteboard for people to write where they were from), but the condensation on it had then frozen so no-one could actually use it. It was a fab idea though- hopefully next time.

The course was described as one lap, but if you look at the map it wiggles all over the place, with lots of twists and turns and meeting points. It did make me laugh when the volunteer said to us to all have a look at the map to try to remember it- there was no way! They said it was clearly marked (it was) and I just need to follow the person in front anyway.

It started off on a field, which was totally frozen solid. Any small ruts were proper ankle breaker bumps, so I heeded their advice and took it as a scenic gentle run, no thoughts of pb’s in my head.

Mid-run scenes-a few icy patches and a beautiful section through the woods.

After going around the field, we headed into woods, and here it was so interesting as some of the puddles were frozen solid, with all the bramble leaves coated in a layer of frost, and then other parts of the path had big muddy puddles. It shows how sheltered some of it must be. At points you could see people much further ahead, as the course loops around- I passed a marshal standing by some tape, and later passed him on the other side of the tape.

It was still super frosty when I finished, so no chance of even a speedy run into the finish funnel. My time was 36:53, and as we had to speedily check out I headed straight back to the car to get back to the hotel. It does seem like a lovely park and I would happily run there again if I was nearby.

The Strava route shows how wiggly the one lapped course is!

On the 5k app it soon showed up that I had finally completed my name badge- I quite like that it took ten years. As I have an S in my name, my first run at St Albans, back in March 2013 is on there, as well as my first tourist run of Crissy Field in 2015 (now sadly closed). I also had a notification that I had achieved another badge, Old MacDonald, which was a parkrun beginning with E, I, E, I, O (the second letter I finished it off for me)- happily that badge contained Ellenbrook Fields for my first E.

That was my 93rd location too- I am still working towards the 100, hopefully this year.

Prospect parkrun in Reading – en route to Bath

For a few years now, the two of us have headed to Bath Christmas markets at some point in December. They haven’t been on the past two years, but this year they were properly back so we decided to visit. Over the years we have travelled and stayed there with various combinations of driving, using the park and ride and getting trains, and the best combination for us is driving to Reading, staying there overnight and then getting the train the next day. The train only takes about 45 minutes from Reading, whereas the drive takes ages and the park and rides get super full.

This also means I can combine it with a parkrun trip. My Bath Christmas market parkruns so far have been Swindon (now called Lydiard but it was Swindon when I went there in 2016), Chippenham (2017), Dinton Pastures (2018 for the D for my alphabet) and Reading in 2019. Handily, we picked a city centre hotel and the closest parkrun was Prospect, one I’d not been to before. We parked in the station car park so it would have been a bit of a pain to drive anywhere, and as the parkrun was a couple of miles away it was a good warm up and cool down.

The run there was straightforward- almost a straight line from the city centre, although when I got to the park I could not work out where the start line was and ended up asking a council worker as it seemed like a big park. This was lucky as I was going in the wrong direction and as it was not a huge parkrun (participant wise) I could have easily missed it!

The morning was absolutely freezing and even though I didn’t have long to wait before the start after arriving, I got really cold. The course was two laps around fairly muddy and fairly flat playing fields. I spent most of it running behind a few people who were chatting away, although at one point a marshal (who must have known them) told them “hurry up stragglers”- not the best thing to hear and could have bothered others but I didn’t mind.

That was my 91st different parkrun course- gradually getting my way to 100! A goal for 2023 I think.

After getting back to the hotel and briefly warming up it was time to get our train to Bath- we’d picked up sandwiches in Reading before getting on board so could have lunch as we travelled.

Christmas Baby Yoda jumper, Bath markets, delicious vegan pizza

The markets were absolutely heaving- often it’s busy but this seemed exceptional. It is always so pretty with lights projected onto the cathedral, a huge Christmas tree and various carol singers dotted about. We’d booked a pizza place for dinner and then went back around the markets in the evening when it was a bit quieter, and then got the train back late that evening.

Do you like Christmas markets?

Leavesden Country parkrun to reclaim Queen of Herts

We’ve not had a new parkrun in Herts for ages, and there was much excitement when Leavesden popped up a few weeks ago.

I would of course be travelling there with Dad. We were in no rush to head to the first one, and anyway had plans (his 250th venue had already been chosen) so we were there for event 4 in November.

Listened to With Me Now in the week I heard that Danny, the presenter, would be heading there, which also meant lots of listeners were heading there too. We’d already arranged it so it was a happy coincidence and of course I had to wear my WMN cooldown hoodie.

I had seen a few posts on their facebook page regarding parking, and chose the main car park as the postcode for the satnav, but it turned out to be OK and not too busy when we arrived at 8:30. I think by then the tourists had died down a bit, meaning they didn’t have such huge numbers as in their first few weeks.

The starting field was full of With Me Now merch, and I got to say hi in real life to a few running insta friends (Hi Branka and Holly) which was lovely.  The venue has everything you could need- parking on site, a lovely looking cafe (plus toilets), a playground and lots of interesting sculptures linking back to the history of the park in aviation.

The course was three laps, going around playing fields and then through woods. There is one narrow part where you meet runners in the other direction (almost like the middle part of a figure of eight) so you were asked to not overtake in this section, but it was only a few metres long so it’s easy to wait until after if you were in that position. It isn’t flat, but not hilly either, just a bit undulating. I think trail shoes might be better in winter but at that time the ground was fairly firm and the muddiest part was the field in the start/finish area. I don’t always like lapped routes, but as each lap was varied I really enjoyed it and was quite surprised as we came into the finish.

At the finish, Danny was chatting to someone else about lovely Ellenbrook Fields, so we joined in with the chatting and I asked for a photo. Last time I met him (at Kingdom parkrun) I chatted to him but felt a bit awkward asking for a photo, and regretted that as he always says on the pod that he’s happy for photos. Of course, I am not looking at the camera in the photo, but at least my eyes are open!

Of course I got a picture with Dad too, to commemorate our visit and to celebrate Queen of Herts once again!

That was my 90th different parkrun venue- gradually chasing down the Cowell!

How many parkrun events have you been to? Does your region have any good names? I quite like Champshire for completing all the parkruns in Hampshire! 

DLP October 2022

For the start of October half term it was time to head to the Eurostar to head over to DLP. Originally this was going to involve a parkrun in Paris for me, as we were travelling to Paris on Friday night and had booked a hotel near Disney from the Saturday, but sadly all the parkruns in France are cancelled at the moment (as they wrangle with the legal team about participants not needing medical certificates- they need them for races but parkrun had always published results in alphabetical order as we all know that parkrun is a run and not a race…).

Kings Cross on Friday night with loads of police cars…./ iced tea for the journey/ themed toiletries in our room/ Disney themed packing- the autograph book was a gift for our niece and nephew.

We were meeting Andy’s family on the Saturday as they all travelled out that day, and we then had a few days of fun together in the parks. Our niece particularly enjoyed the animation academy and we ended up in there 3 or 4 times over our few days- I love it too so was very happy to head in there and do some drawing. We also saw the parades as they were properly back, and even one showing of the drone show (D-light)- one day it wasn’t on due to windy weather.

Blue skies at the castle, pumpkin decorations and drawing fun

The weather was glorious with blue skies most of the time- perfect for when we were spending so much time outside. Last year we did a similar trip but it was still full of covid protocols- you had to wear a mask all the time (inside and outside), show your pass, check into places to eat with the track and trace app, no character meets, distancing in the queues….. It was great to enjoy a more normal visit.

Mocktails in our hotel, pineapple whip, vegan croissants and a pretzel

Of course some good food was enjoyed too. DLP is better for vegan food but we tend to eat breakfast in our room before heading in, and even though you can usually buy vegan croissants in the supermarket there, I brought some with me instead. We looked for the Dole whip on all of our days but one day the stand was shut, one day it had run out and only on our final day did we get to actually have some.

Back home on the Tuesday evening via Eurostar (my favourite way to travel) after a brilliant few days.

Blickling parkrun

As previously mentioned, at the end of October we had a weekend in Norfolk. There were quite a few parkruns fairly close, but the most interesting to me was Blicking, at a National Trust venue. On the Friday drive up we stopped in Norwich and had dinner in The Waffle House (they do an amazing hummus and avocado waffle)- this would be good to combine with a parkrun if you were going to any of the ones in Norwich.

Even though our Air BnB was around 10 miles away from Blicking, it was a good half an hour drive through twisty country single track lanes- not my favourite!

Wet in the car on the way, waffles from Norwich, parkrun token bucket and start area

As I walked to the car park I got absolutely soaked and I did consider going back, but I knew I’d regret it. I was dripping all over my notes for the journey, and the first bit of the drive was not fun as the lanes were full of huge puddles, but the rain eased off and when I arrived it had stopped raining altogether.

It was easy to find as I got closer as of course the NT has the lovely brown signs. The car park was nice and big (and free for members if you scanned your card) and the start was close to the car park.

The course was just under two laps, so the main briefing was close to the car park, and then we were all walked to the start, completing the just under two laps. It was through really pretty grounds, with views across fields, a section through wood and with some interesting buildings to see. The paths were fairly wide, it was undulating but nothing hilly. As it was nearly two laps you ran past the finish area on your first lap which was good too- lots of volunteers out clapping etc.

I got to use my new 250 band for the first time- I was so paranoid when I ordered it that I would have entered the incorrect barcode number, so I was very relieved when the results text came through!

89th venue visited and another very enjoyable one. There was a nice looking cafe (The Muddy Boots cafe- what a great name!) but I was heading back to breakfast with Andy.

Tesco Wicked Kitchen cinnamon roll for breakfast, sea views, massive lunch and the pretty stained glass window in the place we stayed in

We spent the rest of Saturday exploring various parts of Norfolk- a walk along the coast to see the seals, an NT place actually called Horsey Windpump (it’s actual name- a sort of windmill that pumped water from the land) and then back to Blicking for a late (and huge) pub lunch and a walk around the water and through the woods.

Walking through the woods and then a cosy cup of tea to warm up

So, event 89 visited and hooray that my 250 band scanned! Much easier than flipping over the blue one (as the barcode is now on the outside but ICE details are on the inside).