parkrun challenges - Maria Runs

Haga parkrun in Stockholm, Sweden

As mentioned in my previous post, I was in the nordics and aiming to do the special extra parkrun on Ascension Day, which this year fell on the Thursday of May half term- perfect! We’d arrived in Stockholm on the Tuesday evening, so I had plenty of time to explore the city.

I had opted to go to Haga on the Thursday, as this was the most central one. It was around 4km from the hotel we stayed in (again by the central station), and as public transport didn’t seem to go directly there, I thought I’d go for a parkrun sandwich, running there and back.

As same as in Finland, the parkruns in Sweden started at 9:30, and again, I checked and double checked this many times! I left the hotel at 8:30 and ran/walked there. As there was a big road without footpaths right by the park, the maps took me to the west of the park before curving over to the park. It was 2.7 miles, so a nice warm up, and a lot of it was along one main straight road. (But remember this for my journey back…)

My route there:

As I arrived into the park I could see the pop up and high viz vests right away, so I was relived, as with a big park you never quite know where the start will be, and whether it will be obvious or not, but this one was easy to find once there.

*Frame photos and a few of photos of the route*, *plus the most enthusiastic marshal ever.*

There were already lots of tourists there, and as I got to the park (at about 9:10) they called the first timers welcome, although it turned out that they did a few of these, so as I missed the start of this one, I went back to another one- done excellently by the RD who spoke in Swedish and then English for us all. He explained that as it was a holiday, lots of Swedes would be in their summer homes, and in the main briefing after calling out some tourists, called for a show of hands for local runners, which got a big laugh.

The route was fairly simple- run out of the park into the forest, complete two laps of the forest and then run back to the start/finish area. One side was uphill and then as you ran towards the lake it was downhill, but with beautiful views. It reminded me of Panshanger in a way, although that is one lap, because of the up and down nature, and running through woods and by the lake.

Map

I did briefly think I was lost as when I first entered the park there were two marshals, including the most enthusiastic one (he was literally leaping up and down, cheering everyone, running alongside runners and then running back to his spot and then repeating this!). When I got back to them after my first lap, they had split up, and I thought that the other marshal had moved forwards to a later point, so when I got to the liveliest one, I thought I’d need to turn back to the start. However I was following some other runners and they kept on going. I even briefly got out maps on my phone but it wouldn’t show me in enough detail, so I decided to keep going. I then found the other marshal, so it turns out that the one I thought had moved hadn’t. That sounds confusing, but basically after stopping and then going a bit more, I found the exit to the loop to go back to the finish.

It was such a beautiful course, and perfect to have so much shade on such a hot day.

The copper tents were at the top of the hill, and then as you looked down you could see the water.

After finishing I stood around for ages, mainly chatting to other tourists and hearing about their plans for the upcoming Saturday. Some of them sounded disappointed for me that I wasn’t going to another nordic one (as we came home on the Friday) but I had wanted to run in Finland, and now Sweden was my final nordic country (having already run in Denmark and Norway), so I was pleased to have achieved that and also attended a special event. I loved the feel of it- everyone was so excited and there was so much chat and taking photos and just enjoying the atmosphere of the event.

After a few more photos I decided to start heading back. Now, this below may look like the same map, but it is very much not! First of all, maps wanted me to leave the park by the south exit. This was where the majority of parkrunners were going, so I figured that there must be an exit. Wrong. There was loads of construction work going on, and I reached an underpass with the pedestrian exit very firmly fenced in, with big no entry signs and no way around (apart from going onto a busy road that looked like a dual carriageway). After going for nearly half a mile I admitted defeat and retraced my steps, exiting the way I had come in.

I am just so glad that the getting lost happened on the way back, because if I had been directed to the other side of the construction, I am not sure I could have navigated around it, certainly not in time, so may well have missed out.

So this was all fine, but added a bit. Then I got a bit lost finding our hotel. The area around the main station is on different levels, and in the morning I left the hotel, walked along the street for a bit, over a bridge (over the road I needed), down pedestrian steps and then onto the road. The maps took me a lot of the same way as I recognised lots, but then I could see the road going over the road I was on, but there were no steps, so I must have come down a similar one. Anyway, I wandered around a bit, followed signs for the Arlanda express (the airport train) and eventually got into the station and then out to our hotel- 4 miles later!

Stats- that was parkrun 405, my 11th country and 134th event. Another flag added to my profile as well.

But also, it meant I got to go back to Stockholm. The only time I’ve been before was in 2011 when Andy and I ran the Stockholm marathon (coincidentally, it was the marathon the Saturday after we flew home)- and although we did some sightseeing it was not the most fun to be walking around a city while struggling to walk down stairs. It is full of beautiful buildings and again being by the water just adds such a good feel to the place, so we did lots of walking around the various areas of the city, onto the different islands and through different parks.

So that wraps up our little trip north, and what a fab trip it was. parkrun is a great reason to travel somewhere else, and all three places that we visited were wonderful.

Next up- some slightly more local touring and some repeats as well.

Tokoinranta parkrun in Helsinki!

Back in 2020 we had booked a long weekend to Helsinki for July, but obviously ended up having to cancel that trip. It’s been on the list, so I was very excited to finally visit after waiting all this time.

We flew out to Helsinki on the Friday, the train from the airport was fairly quick (30 mins ish) and we had a hotel by the central station, which was about 1km from the start of parkrun. Perfect! We had a walk around the lakes after dinner on the Friday, so I was very confident about navigating my way there in the morning, too.

*Our Friday evening walk around the parkrun lakes*

The parkrun didn’t start until 9:30 am (the number of times I checked that!) but I headed off before 9 so I could enjoy the atmosphere before the start, hear the welcome and briefing and of course take some photos.

I love seeing the signs in different languages. I saw the cones set up as I ran there.

I ended up chatting to lots of tourists- lots of people were over for the Nordic additional day (the following Thursday- Ascension Day) so it was fun to hear about different plans. Lots of people were heading to Stockholm (as were we eventually) but most were aiming for the newer parkrun of Judarskogen parkrun whereas I had planned to go to Haga (more on that another day).

Anyway, the welcome was given in English by the RD who said it was his first time doing that role- he apologised if he sounded nervous but he was fantastic, very clear and welcoming. The route seemed simple- out and back, beginning on one lake (keep it to your left), over the railway bridge and then around another lake (keep it to your right), turn at the U-turn point, and then retrace your steps. I had watched Nicola Runs You Tube video of it previously, but nothing compares to actually being there yourself.

A few mid run photos including the little watermill, and my pic by the sign when I’d finished.

I really enjoyed the route- the parts by the lake were very flat and one nice wide paths.

The second lake had a cycle path next to it but this was clearly divided by a kerb. There were loads of other people out, not parkrunning, but there was always space to pass. I was very happy to spot the little water mill that was generating electricity- I don’t think I would have spotted it on the way back as it was tucked below the path a little bit.

*A few more pictures from the route including the railway bridge and the coned paths*

The part by the railway bridge was tough as that was very steep up and down, but at least it was over fairly soon. There were only a couple of marshals out on the route but they were very enthusiastic, and the course was very clear. (Although after I had finished and scanned I met two people who had gone the wrong way after coming back over the bridge, and I realised that the cone in the centre of the path (basically blocking it and showing you to go left towards the lake rather than straight on towards the train station) had been knocked to the side, so I put it back in the middle of the path so hopefully no-one else got lost!

It wasn’t a hugely busy parkrun- that day I was 62 of 119 participants, and that seemed like a good number with a nice spread of runners and walkers. It was really welcoming, although I didn’t go to the cafe after as we had breakfast included in our hotel stay (and we had to book a time slot so I had to be back for the 10:30 booking).

And the stats: parkrun 404, location 133 and country number 10 (when GB counts as 1 country).

We had a lovely few days in Helsinki after. The city is very walkable, so we spent some time walking around the city centre and admiring the different styles of the buildings, walked to the docks to see the local markets and all the boats heading off to various islands, went to the Helsinki museum (very interesting). One day there was a classic car fest happening in the square so we sat for ages looking at all the Cadillacs and other cars stream in, and then one day we got a boat out to an island with a fort on it, and walked around the island. I am very glad that we visited!

After Helsinki, we got the boat over to Tallinn, and spent two days there, before heading over to Stockholm for the final part of our nordic trip.

Ben’s Yard, Ely parkrun and perfect parkfaffing

My parkrun touring buddies Branka and Holly are rapidly approaching their Cowells (100 different events) and so careful tourism planning is coming into play to make sure they don’t achieve them early. This relatively new event was one that they were both planning on going to, and as I was free I was very happy to head to a new event too.

The journey was around an hours’ drive from Branka, so I left home at 7:15 to pick her up at 7:30. This didn’t seem too early compared to some of our London tourism, and so I was surprised when checking my list of NENDY’s (nearest event not done yet) that Ben’s Yard was number 93 on my list! There are 92 parkruns closer (as the crow flies)that I’ve not been to. Shocking! As I am relatively close to London, all those south London parkruns would be closer even if the journey is a lot trickier and more time consuming.

Amazingly the journey went by without a hitch. After my last time driving into Cambridgeshire (Bug Hunter Waters) where I used the postcode and got us lost in a housing estate, I had finally remembered to pin the parkrun as a starred place in my maps, so the directions took us right to it.

The location is really brilliant for a tourist with everything you need in one place- ample and free parking clearly sign posted from the road, toilets, cafe, restaurant and shops. I am not sure how easy it would be to get to if you lived in Ely (eg could you cycle or run/walk, or would you need to drive) but for us it was great. As we pulled into the car park we saw the “parkrun parking” signs, and then saw Holly in her car. You could see the start area from the car park, so again, a tourists dream! We took our pop up photos and then jumped up and down trying to keep warm- the weather was not living up to the sunshine that had been promised. I can imagine that in the winter it would be quite brutal with cold winds whipping off the fields- you would stay in your car until the last possible moment.

Pop up pic!

We had a super first timers welcome (two laps, keep left until you are about to finish) and then were told to head to the start. As we walked towards the pop up, we were all called back as they wanted to do the main briefing in the same place that the welcome had been, rather than by the actual start. However, we were still at the start line and off pretty much at 9 o’clock (very unlike last week!).

Map- run along the path into the first field (on the right), loop around that field, then along a path and up the slope to run around the lake (left hand loop) and repeat.

I ran with Holly and we had a lovely catch up. The route was so enjoyable. It’s very flat (one hump that you run up, a bit like a bridge- was it a bridge?), around a field and then around a lake and through some woods. The field was quite rutted so I felt I had to keep my eyes on the ground to make sure I didn’t twist an ankle, but the rest of the course was gravel paths and a lovely running surface. I expect in the winter the field part would be very muddy, but the paths would be OK (maybe collect puddles?).

A volunteer took some photos and put them on their facebook page so we got a few mid-run pics which is always nice. Plus the pop up with the car park in the distance, and the token (111- a great number!)

Near the finish area is a huge photo frame lined up with the cathedral in Ely, so I took a photo of that as we ran past on our second lap. Really we should have taken photos of each other but I didn’t think of that until we’d finished. I really enjoyed that you ran past the finish area going into the second loop- the marshals and volunteers were all so enthusiastic so it was a great boost to pass them all half way around. The finish came up so quickly too- I think as the route was so varied.

A few photos taken while running including the frame with the cathedral in the background

Once we had finished and scanned we had a few minutes chatting before Branka came in, and then we headed back to the yard to find some breakfast.

You can see the car park and yard from here- it’s all so compact

They had told us in the briefing that there was a bakery/cafe, and a restaurant, and if you showed your parkrun barcode you would get 10% off in the restaurant. We decided on the cafe, and joined the big queue. (Holly popped out to check out the menu just in case we changed our minds) The cafe was lovely, with loads of pastries and cakes, and very pretty flowers hanging from the ceiling. It had a few vegan items but nothing really for breakfast (rocky road or a brownie), so I got a rocky road for later and was pleased I’d packed a vegan croissant in my bag. They did have plant milk so I could get a tea which is the main objective after running for me.

*Cafe views and the pretty wall of flowers in the yard- they had a few vegan items, and I could get a tea with oat milk*, although we were given takeaway cups even though other people had china ones, not sure why.

We spent ages in there chatting and discussing future parkrun plans- the best way to parkfaff! We had a little leg stretch walking around the yard area- there was a little knick knack shop filled with all sorts of pretty mugs and random Jelly cat toys and that sort of thing, as well as a farmers market style shop where I bought some salad topper (more interesting than it sounds). There was a very pretty wall of flowers so we had to get photos in front of that too. Then it was time to head home- again a straightforward journey and I was home and showered in time for lunch.

Stats: parkrun number 403, venue 132

Question- who is Ben? All I could think of was Ben Folds Five, but I am sure it is nothing to do with that. Probably.

Paced to a pb at Pymmes parkrun!

Last Saturday I was going to stay local, however a few OH ladies were heading to Pymmes, and as I enjoyed it before, I thought I’d go along.

I first visited Pymmes in February 2024, and remembered it being very friendly, flat and quite fast- I ran 28:04. After my recent attempts to get a sub 28, I was happy to see that they were having a pacer event. Perfect- I would try to keep up with the 28 min pacer and push to speed up in the final section.

We car shared, so I drove to Catherine’s house, where her and her husband Dave gave lifts to me and fellow OH lady Carol, (plus their dog in the back who kept licking my ear!). Once at the park we met up with another car load of OH ladies- although we were there so early that the event team hadn’t even arrived yet!

I was so excited as when we got into the park I saw my first ducklings and goslings of the year! This amused everyone else, but made me very happy.

Breakfast in the sun after, our purple pop up group photo, and the finish area with everyone hanging around

After hearing the first timers welcome (3 laps, mind the bumps in the path where the CCTV cameras are) the main briefing started. And went on. And on. I am not kidding when I say we started at 9:15am! The local running club were doing a pacer event to promote a local race, so they talked about that for a bit, and then there were goslings at the start so we had to be warned to not scare them.

Goslings by the start!

Anyway, as we started I could see the 27 and 28 minute pacer but they were a bit of a way ahead and I knew I could catch up once the people thinned out a bit. But I just could not catch them, and could not even keep up with the 29 minute pacer. I glanced at my watch on a couple of occasions but don’t like looking at it as it stresses me out and I get a bit adrenaline rush, so I just had to keep pushing on feel as hard as I could. I knew that some of the pacers were not quite correct, as the 28 was about 2 metres behind the 27 (I could see them in the distance) but I could not catch up with the 29 minute pacer at all.

Each lap seemed to go by quickly- it’s lovely flat paths, fairly wide and fairly flat. You run ever so gently up on one side, and then gently downhill on the other, looping around a little pond and then a short slope of a metre or so up to the start/finish area. A lapped course is lovely when you are there with friends as you see them as you pass them or as they pass you. As I was coming into the finish, Mel’s husband was by the pond cheering us all in which gave me a boost. I was so glad that I kept on pushing as when I got to the finish funnel (behind the 29 pacer) my watch said 27:51! Sub 28! Hooray!

Pacers lining up, finish token, finish line watch and one of the signs

(I totally appreciate how tricky the pacer job is so I am not complaining at all- I am just glad I kept on pushing- official time 27:49, which is a course pb and my fastest time this year. Good stuff.

I scanned, had a photo by the flag and pop up, and then joined everyone else who had finished, waiting for the rest of our group to come in. The event had that lovely feel with so many people hanging about and chatting (helped by the weather I’m sure). After everyone had finished, we walked around the corner to a local cafe that had been recommended to us- no dogs allowed inside though so we got a takeaway and took our breakfast back to the park (I had packed a vegan croissant as I didn’t think the cafe would have good options, but I could at least get a cup of tea with oat milk).

Pop up picture at the end!

So all in all a great revisit there. I love going to new parkruns but I am equally happy revisiting ones if other people want to go there.

The next few weeks are very exciting for me parkrun wise- a UK one with friends this week, and then a flag (or two if all goes well) …

Any exciting parkrun plans for you?

Hackney Marshes for a NENDY visit

I thought I would be staying local at the weekend, but Dad mentioned he was keen to head to a new event, and suggested Hackney Marshes as one that we could drive to, so off we went.

It was around a 45 minute drive from me, so I was picked up at 7:45 and we headed off on a fairly straightforward journey. As we neared the exit, the Olympic velodrome came into view- it is quite exciting to be that close to the park (and then to try not to remember how long ago the Olympics in London actually were!). The parking was free, next to the Hackney Marshes visitor centre (toilets available), and from there it was a short walk, following other runners, across a little bridge and into the starting field.

The starting area had a great feel to it- there seemed to be loads of people, lots of tourists in matching club hoodies (maybe down for the London marathon weekend?) and we saw lots of pacer vests too. The first timers welcome gave us a great description of the route (around the first field/marsh, over the bridge and along the river, away from the river and alongside another field/marsh, and then back around the first field in the opposite direction.

There was a little speech at the main briefing as one of the RD’s was standing down, so she was presented with a framed RD vest which was a lovely idea. We thought they might mention or point out the pacers, but no, suddenly we were off!

The route was very flat, and the grass was lovely and springy, not too energy sapping like it can be sometimes. I had opted for trail shoes but road shoes would have been fine as it was so dry. The first field that we ran around was huge- maybe .75 of a mile before we exited? I loved seeing the colourful runners stretch out in front of us all around the perimeter of it. You could see some of the Olympic buildings (including the Orbit) as well as lots of blocks of housing that have all sprung up in that area.

After exiting the field we ran over the little bridge and then started the section by the river. I had wondered if this was an out and back section, but we had not been told to keep left so thought we were OK, and although we saw lots of runners going along the path in the other direction, these weren’t parkrunners, just people out for a Saturday run. After turning left at the end we realised it definitely wasn’t an out and back, and we skirted another huge field, this one covered in football pitches. The scale is hard to comprehend but it’s a huge green space.

As we passed back over the bridge we saw that the finish funnel was packed with people already, whereas we still had to go back around the first field again.

*The river we ran over, the finish funnel as we ran past, token and pop up sign*

It wasn’t long before we were in the finish funnel too, being reminded to keep in order as the masses finished with us.

After scanning and taking photos we headed back to the car, as Mum fancied breakfast out with us, so we drove back and then walked to a cafe close to their home where I had a very generous amount of avocado on toast (but also tea in a glass- why???).

*First picture- all the runners stretched out ahead of us around the field/ avocado toast/ finish funnel and the path by the river*

Of course, the all important map (after/before):

So, that was parkrun 401 and location 131, 32nd London parkrun (out of 65 currently)- I’m getting close to half way there!

Do you like tea in a glass? Either James Acaster or Dave Gorman did a very funny routine about it- I don’t know why because I drink other things from glasses but tea in a glass is just wrong.