Tag: parkrun challenges

Raphael parkrun

For the final parkrun of 2025, some tourism was on the cards. Dad was free, as were Branka and Holly, and after finding that Harrow Lodge was a relatively straightforward journey before, we headed over to that area again, this time for Raphael parkrun.

(If you look on a map, Raphael, Harrow Lodge and Ingrebourne Hill are sort of stacked on top of each other, towards the east of the M25).

It was a frosty day, and after Dad picked me up at around 7:35 we arrived to park before 8:30. Holly and Branka arrived separately, confusingly in a car park with the same name as ours, but actually a different one (Lodge Farm- I am not sure which one we parked in as I pinned it on the map rather than using the postcode).

Our view as we entered the park- really pretty. I love seeing personalised marshal spots, and Rory let me know that Awtar was a regular volunteer who sadly passed away, so they have this corner to remember them.

We jogged to the toilets which were at the very opposite end of the park, which ended up being about a mile in total (plus waiting in the queue), so only just got back in time to hear the end of the first timers welcome and then people were lining up to start. Be aware if you are going as to their location! We did hear the main briefing which was very well listened to. I was very surprised to hear the park being pronounced as “Ray- fell” as I had been saying it like the turtle/artist.

It’s a very narrow start, so people were maybe just two abreast on the path, which meant it was quite stop-start when we did get going. This does not bother me at all but I think if you were going for a fast time you’d need to place yourself accordingly- I ran with Holly and it took us a bit of time overtaking walkers to settle in to our pace. As there are people lapping you and passing in the opposite direction you do need to be aware and keep to one side (I think they said to keep left but basically follow what they say).

It was a lovely park though with some variety as you ran around- the part by the lake was pretty, and you could see other points of the course which I always enjoy. You can see above how narrow it is though and how many times you are passing others. Dad ran ahead and Branka was a bit behind so we got to see each other on an out and back bit.

A beautiful day for running!

Once finished we got some pop up photos and then agreed to head to a Tesco (guaranteed toilets and a warm cafe) for some parkfaffing. I had a slight fail here, as I didn’t have the best phone reception, and ended up putting a different one in the maps so Dad and I arrived at a Tesco that had no cafe, oops. It had a Costa opposite so we warmed up in there while Branka and Holly went to the actual Tesco!

Anyway, despite the slight parkfaff fail on my part it was a fantastic way to round off 2025.

The before and after:

A very satisfying chunk of the map filled in. I shall now have to go to Ingrebourne Hill in 2026 to complete that set of 3.

Stats:

parkrun 433, and location 147. I had no idea I was that close to 150! A definite goal for 2026.

As this one counts towards Lon-done I have now completed 37 of 66 (currently). I’ve been hovering around that 50% mark but again will aim to do a few more next year and close in a bit on that.

Brockwell parkrun, Herne Hill

It was time for some more London parkrun tourism with Branka, and this one was going to fill a nice hole in our Voronoi maps. Brockwell parkrun is very close to Herne Hill station, which is on the Thameslink line, so I headed to St Albans to get on a direct train from there, meeting Branka at Herne Hill station.

You can pretty much see the park from the station, so we just had to walk into the park and locate the start, which was very simple. It was great to walk through the park so early- we could see lots of the central London skyline from the park, and on our way to the toilets saw the team wheeling their kit up to the start.

It was very windy so we had to hold the pop up while we took photos, but thankfully after what felt like a week of rain, the morning was fairly bright.

We left our bags on a bench inside a sort of shelter (it looked like an old concrete bus stop but it couldn’t have been as it was a traffic-free park), listened to the first timers welcome and then it was time to head down to the start line. They seemed to have a bit of trouble with people chatting during the run brief, even with their speaker system set up (and some people shouting “quiet!” to try to help), but we could just about hear the warnings against funnel ducking and the reminder to keep right rather than the more common left. They mentioned that they had received complaints from members of the public using the park at the same time, and so the compromise was to ensure that the parkrunners kept to the right so that some of the paths were clear for others.

After a few milestone announcements we realised that everyone was moving and the parkrun had started.

It’s pretty much a two lap course, with a little bit of extra in the first lap, and it’s undulating for sure. It is all on tarmac paths which was partly why we had chosen it (so many local runs to me are muddy and we just fancied finishing a parkrun without muddy socks). It was a really pretty park with lots to see on the way around, although I found the circular nature meant I totally lost my bearings. At one point on the first lap I noticed a lovely carved frog bench, and so on the second lap I got my phone out ready to take a photo, but I was so early I kept thinking I’d missed it.

The finish is pretty tough too, as you think all the hills are done but the short section into the finish funnel slopes uphill too. I was happy when I could stop!

The team had moved the pop up to the top of the hill (by the finish) rather than by the start line, so I got a few photos there as there was a lovely backdrop of London behind, plus some nice autumn colours and even a hint of blue sky.

We walked back to the station and popped into a bakery (there are plenty of very posh looking bakeries and cafes near the station) but nothing was labelled vegan and so I said to Branka that I’d get out the train at Kings Cross and head up to Angel to visit British Patagonia (a bakery and cafe that does the most amazing vegan pastries)- Branka decided to come too so we headed straight there. Angel also houses a Bird and Blend, so of course we popped in there on our way past. I had a matcha latte because I need some caffeine after I stop running.

We got the pastries to go, so luckily I had a cereal bar in my bag which I could have with my matcha for breakfast, and then I had pistachio pastry when I got home. Oh my goodness me they are delicious. (Top tip- they sometimes have bags of mixed pastries that are close to their sell-by date- I got one this time to pop in the freezer but they are always a good deal- the one I got had 3 or 4 pastries and was about £7).

Onto the map update:

It was very pleasing because after going to Dulwich and Peckham Rye, I had a little gap in the map, but going to Brockwell filled that one in. We didn’t get our results through until about 10:30 pm, and my placing was quite different to my token number, so I imagine the poor team had a few things to sort (even though they reminded people in the briefing not to funnel duck…).

That was parkrun 429 and location 146. Obviously with more events, Lon-DONE is one of those where the goal gets ever bigger, but this of course helped and was my 36th London event (out of 66 currently).

It does remind me that apart from getting up early (my St Albans train was about 7:15am) it can be really easy to do some London train tourism.

Up next? Well, who knows basically. I am not keen on making big plans at this time of year in case bad weather means loads of cancellations, although the peas do have a trip pencilled in for before the end of the year.

Stanborough parkrun- Queen Of Herts regained and my Dad’s Cowell!

Stanborough parkrun started around a month ago, but due to various weekends away and parkrun touring, this was the week I managed to head there.

(Dad was keen to do his 100th different event soon, and we had originally planned Wendover Woods as a venue, but he had family coming over at 11am today so could not go far, which is why we went to WW last week and Stanborough this week)

Matching 100 tops for my dad, brother and me to celebrate!

It turned out to be an excellent week to visit, as loads of OH ladies were there, either volunteering or participating, and Branka and Holly could make this weekend so we planned brunch after as a belated birthday celebration for Holly.

As we were going out for brunch after, I took a rucksack with me as I wanted a jumper for after (and I was doing a tea swap with Branka), so the 2 mile run there was a bit of a run-walk where each time the rucksack got too annoying I would stop and walk! But it was lovely weather, not as cold as I was expecting, and I arrived nice and early at around 8:30. I think Stanborough is now marginally closer to home than Panshanger is, but I feel very lucky to have two events within running distance.

OH ladies pre parkrun and the three peas after!

The queue for the pop up was pretty big- I was called over for an OH ladies photo, but the rest of us decided to wait until after where it would be a bit quieter. Dad spoke to Jacqui (the RD) about his Cowell, but his name was already on the list (thanks to lovely Nicola- one of the ED’s -as she had already put his name down)- he was very chuffed to have his name mentioned at the start.

Soon the main briefing started (a big clap for my dad) and then we moved a few metres on to the start line. The course is very simple- 3 laps within the park:

Each lap began on a short slope, and then you were up running along a ridge with views down to the lake. I was regretting no sunglasses as the sun was shining right into my eyes as I ran up – not so easy to see the rabbit holes! You then turn right and have a lovely long gentle downhill, a sharp right (almost a u-turn) near the lake, and then run back along the bottom, finishing each lap with a gentle incline.

It really didn’t feel that the uphill matched the downhills in this route. It is all on grass, so after a few weeks of rain it will be more muddy and slippery, but this week was pretty perfect as it was firm enough that you were not sliding about, but not hard rutted earth that can be sore on the ankles.

I run through this park a lot on my runs anyway, but wasn’t expecting to like the course as much as I did. Of course the weather helped- it was a glorious autumnal day. But what really made it for me was all the people- I saw so many OH ladies (and hangers on e.g. partners/ family members), and it almost reminded me of Ellenbrook Fields as I felt like I was among friends.

I ran with Dad, a little way behind my brother, and had a good catch up. We considering the number of people participating (351) we didn’t see too many people overtaking us on our second (and their third) lap, however that was probably down to us chatting as we knew one of the barcode scanners was running first (hi Tim) and didn’t notice him passing us! If you were being overtaken on the ridge it is a bit narrow there, but we were down in the main part of the park where the paths were very wide so there was plenty of space.

After finishing, we took a few photos to celebrate his 100th location, but then they had to head off. Once the three peas had all finished, we visited the purple pop up together, and the started making our way into town for brunch. After Holly changed her shoes (a good idea- mine were muddy but I didn’t want to carry trainers in the rucksack too), Branka drove into town while Holly and I jogged up there. If you are thinking of visiting, the town centre is around a mile and a half from Stanborough, and after running uphill to the Gosling sports centre it’s a flat route from there and was very enjoyable to run and chat. There were a few potential brunch locations, and we opted for Megan’s. They do delicious vegan pancakes so I was a happy bunny, and they even brought out a birthday brownie for Holly! Holly was keen to see the Knife Angel sculpture (pictured below) as it is touring the country and will be in WGC until the end of October, so there was plenty to do during parkfaff time. A police officer said it would be going into storage after this month (I guess no town centres want it next to their Christmas trees) but would probably be back out touring in the spring.

All in all it was such a happy morning spent with friends and family- the best kind of parkrunday.

Pancakes, the knife angel and the fountain that is pink for breast cancer awareness month.

Voronoi update:

So that was parkrun 424 for me, and location 143. Queen of Herts is again achieved after having a gap when Stanborough started, and I am on event 26 of my tourist streak. I would very happily go back there, so it’s fab to now have two events that are so close. If you are visiting and planning on driving, I would recommend that you look closely at the parking information on the course page, as you need to register in advance via a link on their page or send an email (again the address is listed on the page) to avoid being charged for an entire day.

Up next? Well, I have one more week here before a bit more travelling, so of course now the temptation is to go to another event (not already in the streak)- local ones that are not already within my streak include Stevenage, Westmill, Leavesden, Henlow Bridge Lakes… But I might decide that going to a local one with friends will end up being more enjoyable and easier!

Who knows! Are you good at planning ahead or do you just see what you fancy each week?

Wakehurst parkrun- en route to Brighton

We had to be in Brighton for Sunday evening for a comedy show, but at the last minute we decided to head down on the Saturday and spend the weekend there. After thinking we’d head down after I’d been to parkrun, Andy suggested leaving early (to beat the traffic) and doing a parkrun on the way instead. I’d seen Wakehurst parkrun mentioned a few times and liked the look of it, and it had parking and a cafe on site so Andy would have things to look at while I ran, so at 7am on Saturday, off we went. Wakehurst Gardens are a bit like a National Trust place, in that it’s paid entry, but they are linked with Kew Gardens. Our NT cards got us free entry, but the parking is free for parkrunners until 11am, and then after that NT members have to pay.

The journey was great (we have driven to Brighton later on Saturdays before and been stuck in a lot of traffic) and we arrived just after 8:30 so I headed off to find the toilets and start area. Because it doesn’t open until later, there were signs out saying you had to stick to the parkrun route, but the route covers a lot of the grounds so I felt like I saw a lot. The cafe didn’t open until 9am so Andy didn’t head over until after the parkrun had started, but if we went there again I think he’d come to the start area as there were people hanging around.

The start is right by the mansion house, dwarfed by an enormous redwood tree. Next to it is the stump of another redwood that had to be cut down as it was damaged in a storm- seeing the side of the cross section of the trunk was amazing, and it made for some good pop up photos!

I was at event 74, and I think they still get a fair amount of tourists because at the first timers welcome the volunteer said they’d explain the route during the main briefing, so only brand new parkrunners needed to attend. It’s two laps and very well marshalled and signed though so fairly self explanatory.

They did some seeding at the start with volunteers holding up signs (eg 28-35 minute finish times) as the paths were fairly narrow.

I really loved this parkrun as there was so much to see on the way around- all the autumnal colours were appearing and you ran through a range of different gardens.

I wasn’t expecting it to be quite so undulating though! We were warned of a hill that was “worse in the second lap” but I think all of it apart from the section by the mansion house was either uphill or downhill.

After finishing and scanning I met up with Andy at the finish area (a quick photo by the tree) and we headed in to the cafe.

The queue wasn’t that long but the wait was. It looked like an NT cafe with a fridge with ready made sandwiches, stands with cakes (not personally a fan of the help yourself in these types of cafes after seeing the handles of the tongs touching the food etc), hot drinks and some hot food including croissants. They had labels on some items, but not others, so I wasn’t sure what was vegan, so I opted for a tea (I had packed breakfast with me in case). The wait to place our order was probably 15 minutes, and then after ordering the wait was probably that again. I’d bought a change of clothes with me, so after waiting for a bit, I changed in the toilets, came back, and Andy was still waiting for our drinks. We were keen to have a look around the gardens after, but I think it was around 10:20 by the time we had our drinks. They seemed to have a lot of staff there, but maybe it’s busier in one go than it would be usually at other times of the day?

We had time for a quick walk around some of the other gardens (and of course a look in the shop) before heading back to the car for the final part of the journey into Brighton. We’d both go back for a longer visit as you could definitely spend a long time there- both exploring the gardens and visiting the Millennium seed bank.

As it was a new location, it kept my tourist streak going for another week- that was the 24th different one visited without repeating.

That was parkrun 422, and my 142nd location. It was a satisfying chunk on the map too!

Below are a few photos from Brighton- of course walks by the sea were enjoyed (as well as a nearly 12 mile run on the Sunday morning), lots of delicious food, and the comedy show on the Sunday evening. Combining parkrun with a weekend away is the best kind of parkrun tourism for me.

Lousberg parkrun, Aachen, Germany

After the fun of German Unity Day on Friday, I got the train from Cologne to Aachen on the Friday evening. This was a regular commuter train and took around 50 mins, although I could have booked a faster (and more expensive) ICE train in advance. Fans of the You Tube channel Jet Lag will know that Deutsche Bahn do not have a good rep for being on time (if you are Deutsche-Bahned it means you are delayed by any train company) and I was glad I had not booked because the ICE train was delayed more than the regular train was. My hotel (the B&B chain which we’ve used in France before too) was a 5 min walk from the station, and on the ring road which was handy, as to get to parkrun in the morning I just had to follow the ring road around for a couple of km before I got to the park. Perfect.

As I left the hotel it was barely drizzling, and I enjoyed looking at some of the pretty buildings on my way. My train wasn’t until after midday, so I was planning on going back to the hotel, showering and then having a wander around Aachen before getting my train. The weather had other plans! The route was fairly uphill (it was 1.45 miles there, and in the final .45 mile the elevation gain was 152ft which sounds like a lot?)- getting into the park involved some steep footpaths.

As I arrived I saw Caroline from my running club so we had photos by the pop up and chatted about our parkruns from yesterday as she had been to the other Cologne parkrun, having run at Rheinpark on a previous trip.

At 8:55am, it started tipping it down with rain. Utterly torrential rain. It was so loud in the woods, it was bouncing off the paths, it was such a heavy downpour. There was a little wooden structure (a sort of gazebo) in the woods where the volunteer team had left the tarpaulin of trust, and we all ended up huddling under there. The RD gave the briefing sheltered underneath, and at 9:10 reluctantly got us out of the shelter and to the start line!

The route map shows how GPS struggles with trees and gradients as it was two identical laps on narrow paths so would not have veered about that much.

It’s a two lapper through woods, and it was really pretty. We had been warned to be careful as there were lots of tree roots, uneven paths and steep uphill and downhill sections. Definitely not a pb course and pretty much the polar opposite to the Friday parkrun. It reminded me a little of a mini and tougher version of Haga parkrun. I was taking it very carefully as I did not want to slip over or twist an ankle. I really enjoyed it but I had to concentrate the entire time on where I was going, and it was undulating the entire time. The sections through pine trees smelled amazing, but the trees did little to shelter us from the rain and after a few moments out in the rain I was drenched through. I was trying to remember other occasions when I’ve been that wet while running (and not swimming) and I could only remember one other time.

There were only 43 people taking part, and for long sections of it I was on my own as the main pack had headed off up the first hill a bit quicker than me. My legs were quite tired which was no surprise as we had done over 30,000 steps the day before, including the spiral staircase of the Dom (yes the Dom gave me DOMS), and that combined with the tricky route meant there was no chance of me speeding up and catching up with others. The course was very well marked though, with chalk arrows on the floor, cones marking the way and blocking off paths that were not part of the route, and the regular parkrun yellow arrow signs.

I did have one scary moment where some people came from a side path with some big dogs. The dogs were all milling around the people, so I carried on running towards them, but then one of the dogs suddenly saw me and ran towards me. I stopped and then the dog started barking and jumping up at me, luckily on my back and not in my face. I sort of yelled (what is German for “help”?) and the people tried to call their dog back to them. Thankfully the dog ran back to them and so I said “danke schön” and the people looked very apologetic. I was a bit shaken by that and it was only the first lap so I did consider stopping when I got to the finish area, but by then I was feeling OK and decided that with all the paths in the woods it was unlikely that I’d come across them again, and if they did hopefully the dogs would be on leads (I didn’t see them again).

The run took me 39 mins which I think reflects the hilliness and uneven paths. I really enjoyed it, but I was not hanging about at the end at all! As soon as I scanned I started heading back, passing a huge bough of a tree on the path which was not there on my way in to parkrun.

A memorable parkrun morning at least! It was parkrun 421 and location 141, my third in Germany. Again, I loved it, the team were so friendly and welcoming. They often take photos and upload to Insta (rather than their facebook page) and were apologetic that they didn’t take many photos that morning because it was so wet- I don’t blame them at all! Now on my Voronoi map I have a little gap to fill, so of course at some point I will need to go back to Cologne to go to the other parkrun there!

Read on if you want to find out more about the rest of my morning!

By the time I got back to the hotel I was drenched through, my shoes were squelching, I couldn’t see through my glasses but all my clothes were so wet I couldn’t wipe them with anything. I’d made a tea in the room before I left, and put it in a flask so it was warm, so I warmed up a bit and then had to begin operation dry my trainers. Yes, I only had one pair of trainers with me and I did not fancy wearing wet shoes all day. So after a quick shower and change, I undid the laces, stuffed them with toilet paper, laid all my wet clothes on top of the towels and then rolled up the towels to squeeze out as much water as possible, hung up my wet clothes to air them a bit before packing them, removed the paper from my shoes and sat there with the hairdryer blowing on them. Then I had the fun that my phone wouldn’t charge (I’d used it a fair bit for the maps and podcasts and photos, and wanted to charge it a bit ahead of my train journeys) because the charging port had got wet (I’d never had that message before) so a little stress as my train tickets were saved as files onto my phone too. (I did have a piece of paper with all the info written on, including times of all my trains, booking ref numbers etc. and in fact I didn’t get asked for tickets on either of my trains that day and the battery did last). It meant I didn’t have a wander around Aachen as drying my shoes took ages, and it was still raining a lot, so I didn’t fancy going back out into the rain and getting soaked ahead of my train journeys. I was a bit disappointed about that as Aachen looked really pretty, and I like to visit the place and not just the parkrun, but these things happen. Anyway, a train to Brussels, a bit of time to have lunch in the station and then a train to Disneyland Paris, where I met up with Andy for a few days at DLP before coming home (he had driven to there via the tunnel so we drove back).

Do you like train travel? I prefer it to driving or flying, you can just sit back and relax and look out the window or listen to a podcast. If you want a rec, check out the channel Jet Lag: The Game on You Tube (or Nebula if you want the podcast too)- the presenters play various games (Tag, Hide and Seek) on various transport networks around the world.