Maria Runs - parkrunning and touring since 2013!

Hawaii running

So, even without the race I was taking my running things with me. Last time we came to Hawaii I was training for the GNR, so did a few runs. I don’t normally run on holiday, because we tend to be up and our pretty early, with long busy days and a lot of travelling. But this time we would be in the same place for a while; Honolulu for five days, Kauai for five and Maui for a week.

Due to jet lag I was wide awake at 5 am for our first day in Honolulu, so I went out for a run as the sun was coming up.

Just beautiful.

That was the Tuesday, and after that we did a lot of walking and hiking ( well over 20,000 steps on the Friday), and my race on Saturday.

Then we flew to Kauai. We had a little condo, but we could not walk to the town from where we were. We did lots of walking and sightseeing, about five miles from us was an eight mile path by the coast for walking and cycling which would have been perfect if it was closer. I did scope out a potential route, but on the Wednesday that I had planned to run, I slept badly and didn’t feel too well, so gave it a miss.

On Thursday we flew to Maui, and again having been here before helped, as I knew there was a long boardwalk by the ocean. Friday morning I was awake early, so headed out. I found the path to the boardwalk half a mile from our condo ( if in doubt, follow all the other runners), and enjoyed a 4 mile run.

I stopped to get Andy a coffee and an iced chai for me, so took the pphotoa bit later. I can’t upload my Garmin bits here so I hope it has all stored properly.

Gorgeous views!! I was somewhat desperate for water by the end, so took water with me on my next runs. I saw a hotel ice machine and contemplated getting some just to hold.

My next run was shorter- I had entered a virtual run ( virtual runner uk- check out the fab medals)- someone in my running club was supporting the September charity, and when I signed up for that I saw the summer 5k and signed up for that too.

It was more overcast which helped, although I forgot to put on suncream.

Again, I picked up drinks after and enjoyed them on our balcony. I packed a tube of nuun with me, and bought some coconut water too.

My final run was on the Tuesday, I had set my alarm for 6 to see the sunrise, but was awake before.

I kept stopping to take pictures, and to drink water. It was amazing.

I even attempted a beach selfie – so much sweat!

When I finished I stood on the beach and stretched for a good half hour, I was just dropping and could not face going inside!

I got Andy to take my picture on the balcony after I had cooled. Love my new running top!

So, five enjoyable runs, including one race and one virtual race. Because I run faster than I walk, I get to see more scenery in the same amount of time = awesome.

Certainly more scenic than Hertfordshire!

I am hoping for one more run, the San Francisco Crissy field parkrun, but the logistics of getting there are a bit tricky. I am not keen on taxis and think I might end up getting an uber…. Depends how much I want to be a parkrun tourist.

We shall see…

Hawaii 5-OH k

Hey peeps, I hope you are all enjoying the summer.

Having a little bit of trouble blogging so photos are in random order! Here is the finish area.

We have been having a fab holiday, first to Yosemite national park and then on to Hawaii. A few weeks before going, I remembered that last time we were here, we had just landed on the Big island, and saw loads of people wearing race numbers, and had thought at the time that a race abroad would be very cool. I had my running kit with me then, as I was training for the great north run after having my op, but because of our flight time it would not have worked.

Anyway,after a spot of googling,I found a 5k charity run, in Honolulu, the morning we were due to fly to Kauai. The run started at 6 , and our flight was midday, so after some thought I decided to go for it.

It was the Lea Lea charity 5k in aid of Rainbow kids, which supports children affected by the earthquake and tsunami of 2011.

I had not considered getting my number! It turned out you had to collect it from a running shop on the Thursday or Friday before (although on race morning people were picking up their packets). So on the Friday we went to the shop and I was handed a lovely bag for life with my number, safety pins, fan, flannel,fan and the finishers t shirt. I do find it strange getting the tshirt before, but a lot of people wore them to run in so I suppose that is why. Because it was black cotton ( and on our first morning in Hawaii I was wide awake at 5am so had been on a run as the sun rose, so I knew how hot it would be) I wore my club vest.

Initially I thought I would need to get a taxi there,but the 3.5 miles from our hotel to the start turned out to be more like 2.2 ( we walked back from it on the Friday) plus I find taxis so stressful, so I decided to run there.

With my alarm set for 4.45 am I was questioning my sanity a little! I had half a clif bar, water,got dressed and headed out into the dark. It surprised me how many people were already out at 5.15! Finding the start was OK as I mostly had to follow the sea, although at one point I had to open Google maps as some construction work confused me( I love that the maps can work without the data, so clever ). I arrived at the park with about 15 mins to spare- I was already so sweaty and glad I had worn one of my new sweat bands.

When I signed up it showed me a link to the entry list. I should not have clicked because there were 18 people on it! But there were a few hundred there, phew!

The run was in aid of a Japanese charity and so the guy giving the briefing gave it in English and Japanese. He described the course- my favourite part of the description was when he said that you would see the finish line but you would have 1 k to go, as you looped around the edge of the park, so don’t run too fast then!

Then, we were off. There were loads of families running together which was so lovely, it felt to me more like a parkrun than a race, although there were some speedy runners warning up beforehand, it didn’t seem competitive.

The run went around Ala Moana park, which is right by the ocean. It looped away from the sea for a bit, before heading back to the start, around the headland of the park with gorgeous views out to sea, before finishing. At the finish a band was playing, and as I ran in they were playing “Brown Eyed Girl” which is so summery.

I didn’t look at my watch on the way around, as I was running to enjoy, plus conscious that I had to run back to the hotel. There were plenty of friendly marshals on the way around, and even with the super early start time, some spectators too.

At there finish there was water, fresh fruit ( I had some orange slices) and randomly, doughnuts! They kept saying that in a few minutes they would post the finish times on a tree, but after waiting ten minutes I felt I had to head back as we had a flight to catch.

Later, after some googling I found my time -31.03 ( although I was in age cat v60-65)- good going in that heat.

I ran nearly 2 miles back, stopping at Island Vintage Coffee for two acai bowls to go- an awesome post race breakfast.

I also had a nuun tab in water, plus some coconut water, so much rehydration needed! In the end I had run nearly 8 miles in that heat. Although at times it was a bit stressful, I am so glad that I did that race. Much less stressful than my only other race abroad (Stockholm marathon).

Have you ever raced abroad?

PS, we saw Hawaii 5-0 being filmed the day before, plus I wore my OH vest, hense the title…

Breakfasts and Buzzing

I was looking through my google photos the other day, and it appears I have a lot of photos of the following: Breakfasts, various running clothes and drinks.

I have lost track of why I took the photos, so they are all going to appear here.

Breakfasts:

Muesli and yoghurt I think.

Who doesn’t love pancakes?

Muesli with a sprinkling of Graze granola.

Drinks:

Iced Earl Grey.

Tastes like a melted bounty bar.

Post-race treat.

This is what happens when you don’t take a proper lunch with you to work.

Free! With my www.Bounts.it points I got a Caffe Nero gift card, and this week it was so chilly that for the walk back to my car I bought a chai latte. Not bad in exchange for a bit of running.

Running things:

After Anna posted a photo of her bargains from SportsShoes.com, I had a little mosey and bought several pairs of capris. I was very pleased to spot that one pair matched (well, nearly) my trainers. Those pink ones looked pink on the website, but are really high viz/ luminous! I have not been brave enough to wear them yet! The navy are my favourite as they have two pockets- one nice deep one without a zip, but long enough for my phone I think, and another zipped one, big enough for tissues and car keys. Plus they are not too long- so often capris come down to my ankles- these are all closer to my knees which I much prefer.

Buzzing:

Years ago I signed up to the Buzz agent website, and every now and then I still get an email inviting me to a campaign. Basically, they send you free things in exchange for a review on their site.

This one was about Jacob’s cracker crisps, which are like thin cream crackers, and I was sent one bag of each flavour. The salt and vinegar ones are lovely- I love that flavour but so often the vinegar is not tangy enough. These are very moorish indeed- I tried them after getting home late and being so hungry, and I am sure I ate a lot more than the serving size.

The thai sweet chilli ones were a bit too spicy for me on their own, but I had the brilliant idea (even if I do say so myself) of dipping them in hummus- that was a great match. The only thing was that the cracker crisps didn’t hold up too well to dipping, and kept breaking in the tub. So spreading might be more sensible.

What do you take the most pictures of? I have made my own parkrun album because I have taken so many there!

White chocolate baking

White chocolate is my least favourite chocolate- I quite like it, but I don’t love it. However, I do seem to use it in quite a few recipes- especially at the moment. Perhaps it is more summery than other chocolate. It does seem to go with fruity flavours.

Last weekend I made a white chocolate and raspberry loaf for Sunday tea. The recipe, of course, is from the CCC book, although I subbed a bit of the regular flour for ground almonds as I think that goes nicely (It’s a normal loaf recipe with raspberries added to the batter, then topped with melted white chocolate). As I had the raspberries (they are little freeze-dried ones in a tube) I made some white chocolate and raspberry fudge, as end of term gifts for people at work. Can you believe I forgot to take a photo though? On a side note, I used my KitchenAid for beating the fudge and it was so much easier than using hand held beaters over the saucepan- the way forward from now on.

This weekend I fancied trying something new, and when flicking through the book I came across Orange and White Chocolate Cake- Andy liked the sound of it too, so I went with it.

Basically, it is orange cake, sandwiched with an amazing white chocolate and orange buttercream. In the photo, the buttercream is the filling, but it made so much I put half on top too (and you can see from the blob missing on the top, it touched the top of my biggest container- we took it for Sunday tea and brought home a large piece to share another day.

To make the icing you warmed some freshly squeezed juice, poured it over white chocolate, to melt it. Then left this to cool. Then you need to make a little buttercream, and pour in the white chocolate mixture to the buttercream, and fluff it all up. Really tasty, but so sweet.

Action shot!

There’s cake somewhere under all that icing.

Are you a white chocolate fan?

Workout playlist

I tend to either run with nothing, or listen to podcasts. But when I first started running I loved to have music playing (mainly to drown out the sound of my alarming heavy breathing). I even ran my first couple of races with a headphone in one ear. Pure Gym are running a competition to find out about dream playlists.

I do love going to Body Pump, and one of the reasons is the music. There are usually lots of tracks that I don’t like (I’m talking to you, All About the Base abs track) but there are also plenty that I like- these often end up being the biceps track. So, the songs I like are usually more like rock music- a faster paced song with lyrics I can sing along to (the weird bottle-filling-up track of the current release is so annoying). And yes, I do sing along- the volume is up high during the class!

So, here are a few that I would be having if Les Mills ever phones me (unlikely, but best to be prepared):

Ash were a band that got me through many runs- I had their Supersonic 7’s on my little mp3 player- it got me through my first 10K and first half marathon, and there are so many great songs to choose from, but I think I will go for Burn Baby Burn to get me in the mood for working out (because my muscles are gonna Burn baby).

The Killers- Somebody Told Me – I can sing along to the high bits before I get too out of breath!

Muse- Uprising or Knights of Cydonia (it builds like the pain of lactic acid!)

Hard Fi- Hard to Beat (Just like this playlist eh?)

Kasabian- Club Foot (to remind me not to drop a weight on my foot?)

Bryan Adams (I always think this is Bon Jovi for some reason)- Summer of 69. This was a Body Pump track, and our instructor used to sing “ain’t no use in complaining, when you’ve got some squats to do”- it was the squats track. That amused me. Plus, I like a bit of cheese every now and then.

I am having another Ash track in there- the genius of Kung Fu. This was near the end of the album, and gave me a big boost to keep on running (and pick up the pace a bit).

You have to have a bit of The Foo Fighters in there somewhere, so All My Life gets in.

For the cool down, one of my favourite tracks from Body Pump was another version of Careless Whisper, apparently by Badlands. So often the cool down tracks are some sort of annoying ballad that gets stuck in my head. So this one was great

When writing this post, I have been most amused by the crazy You-Tube comments- anyone who has seen Bug by Adam Buxton would be familiar with them already, but seriously this could amuse me for hours on end.

This is an entry to the Pure Gym Playlist competition- Terms and Conditions are here.