Tag: Running

Oaklands College parkrun- marshalling then running

In January, a new parkrun launched in St Albans. I know one of the RD’s so had offered to marshal on their first event, as the date had been leaked online (this seems to happen to lots of parkruns now) and the team were worried about the event being swamped. However, the first event was cancelled due to ice, and as they emailed to ask if volunteers could be there the following week instead, I was happy to help.

Dad came back and even took the selfie- his skills are improving too! My view of the start (I guessed 18- runners, it was just under 250 in the end), views from my spot, and of course a pic with the pop up

Do you think the course looks like a dog?

The course looks very confusing on paper- it’s two laps but one lap has an out and back section, and you pass various points from different directions so I would not know how to run it on my own without signs and marshals. Luckily they walked us to our marshal points on the first event as I would have had no idea!

I was at a marshal point with another member of OH ladies (hi Mel)- we had a bit of a complicated cross over point with runners approaching from two directions and needing to be sent in different ways too, but we worked it out. Once the event is established and most people know where they are going it will be easier too.

Lots of familiar faces were at the first event, including my dad and brother, and I always enjoy marshalling and cheering people on as they pass. It was a bit of an overcast day and sooooo cold- I had wrapped up warmly but my feet were freezing when we finished.

The following week I decided to run at Oaklands College, as Dad wanted to stay local so I thought I’d give it a go and see the whole course as I’d only seen the section that I’d been marshalling on.

A few OH ladies at the start, some of the mid run views, and the finish funnel

Parking is available on site, and when I’d volunteered I had been directed to a small car park right by the start, but this week I went to the normal car park (still only a minute away from the start)- it had signs up with ways to pay, but I could not get the QR code to scan or the website to work, and then someone told me it was free until February. So be aware! (Not that I mind paying but there were no machines so it was app or website only…)

The start/finish is right by the old mansion house, so it’s a nice backdrop to the purple pop up. The week I ran it was cold but glorious sunshine. People were pouring in from the car park- the first week there were around 240 participants and I guessed there were 450 this week- so many tourists with the cow buffs and hats from far flung running clubs. I spoke to one person in the car park who had some from Harlow (not too far) but basically told me he was ticking it off as quickly as possible and didn’t seem that interested in the event at all. There was a big queue for the purple pop up and it felt like a weird atmosphere with lots of people who were not going to be coming here regularly, but then once I saw people I knew (lots of OH ladies and other local runners) it felt more like a normal parkrun morning.

I have to say that I loved the “beware of the swamp” sign!

I had been warned to wear trail shoes when marshalling, so of course I wore them for running, but according to my dad it was way muddier this week! The course is varied- you run around a rugby pitch (despite them saying in the run brief to keep off the rugby pitches the poor marshals were having to shout at so many people who were ignoring this request), on some hard paths, through a little wooded area and over a little hump (the reverse of a ditch if you can picture that), then you had a long out and back section on a stony path, before repeating the rugby pitches and woods again. For the finish funnel you run past the funnel, around some trees and then loop back into a hard path so it was quite nice to have a strong finish. You end up right by the mansion house again, and the scanners were right in front- all very easy to find.

After finishing we stayed around and chatted to people as they finished- one of my friends had nearly lost a shoe in the deep mud, and I had seen that happen to someone as we ran too. It was a proper quagmire in places!

Muddy legs and shoes at the finish!

Dad had cycled so he headed off once he started getting cold, and I hung around a bit longer, enjoying chatting to people as they finished. As I was stood by the purple pop up I ended taking lots of photos for various people so I asked for one in return- I was a bit miffed that they could not manage to frame the photo properly- I made sure that in all the photos I took the mansion house was in the background with the blue sky- it’s not that hard people!

How to take it with the sky vs how the photo was taken for me!

I was doubting my estimate of 450, but it was getting closer and closer. Apparently they only had 448 tokens (must be to do with how many are on each sheet?) so they had some paper tokens, and they needed one as the final total was 449! It’s crazy that event 2 was so busy.

I do think it will be lovely in the summer as it’s lots of grass, it’s varied, fairly flat and there is some shade- it reminded me a bit of Great Dunmow but slightly less wild. Anyway, I was glad to have given the course a go, and very glad I had on my trail shoes!

A new hole appeared in my map but it was quickly filled!

That was location 122 for me, my first new location in 2025, and my run number 388.

Up next? Hopefully a bit more touring!

Festive Five 2024

This is one of my favourite races of the year, and somehow I didn’t even do a post about it!

The Garden City Joggers put this event on each year- it’s a five mile race consisting of two laps around the centre of town- all on pavements but with marshals at all the road crossing points. It’s the type of low key event I love, where you collect your number on the day, and it just had friendly vibes. Loads of people dress in festive gear, lots of the marshals do as well, and it’s just good fun.

The weekend that it took place on in 2024 had big storms everywhere, with lots of parkruns called off the day before, so rather than running there and getting drenched, I took up my friends offer of a lift (she lives around the corner from me and we often share lifts for parkruns or club runs). Thankfully it didn’t rain before the start, although it did rain a bit while we were running.

I absolutely love seeing people run in inflatable outfits- no idea why it amuses me so much but seeing the inflatable Santa run past us in the road just really tickled me.

Before, during and after

I ran with Nicola and we just had a great time- no worrying about times, just enjoying all the festive outfits and wishing all the marshals a happy Christmas. Thankfully it didn’t rain too hard, but there were some huge puddles that I didn’t expect and that you couldn’t avoid so I got very cold wet feet. The rest of me warmed up, as you can see I ended up taking my jacket off.

I tried to get some photos and selfies with the inflatable guys!

At the finish we were given a little selection box- in previous years there has been a vegan option but sadly not this year (so that was donated to the food bank collection at the parkrun the following Saturday), however we had our OH ladies Christmas brunch so post-race treats would soon be coming.

As we had a bit of time in between the race ending and the brunch booking, Nicola kindly offered for a group of us to pop back to her office (in the town centre) so we could get changed in the warm and dry, and even made us cups of tea. I had packed a complete change of clothes, but had forgotten about shoes, so I had to put on my soggy cold trainers as we headed out for brunch.

OH ladies having brunch (I am very hidden on the left in that photo), oat matcha latte, pancakes and my With Me Now Christmas jumper (which is always fun to try and explain- “Maria I didn’t know you liked cats?” ” No, I don’t like cats, but there is this podcast…”)

Brunch was fab- so nice to catch up with everyone, enjoy some food (I had vegan pancakes, tea and then a matcha latte) and chat about our Christmas plans. I really love this tradition.

Do you have any running club Christmas traditions? I always love festive parkruns too.

Hatfield 10K 2025

Long time no posting from me! I didn’t do any parkrun tourism in December, and I have realised that I did the Festive Five but haven’t documented that here. I was away over Christmas so just getting back into routines now. I have a summary of 2024 parkruns in the pipeline but that is coming later…

Anyway back to the race:

I signed up to this race late in 2024, knowing it would be my first weekend back after being on holiday, and not knowing how much running I’d do while away, I thought it would be a good idea to have something in the calendar and a 10k seemed a good distance. I have really enjoyed the Hatfield 5 (miles) in the past, and this 10k looked to be a similar route. The ATW events are always really well supported, and they are quite low key (collect your number on the morning just before it starts sort of vibes) so it sounded perfect.

The few days leading up to the race ended up being sub zero temperatures with lots of heavy frosts and ice everywhere (lots of parkruns were cancelled on the Saturday due to the weather), and the ATW team ended up having to amend the course as part of the original route was flooded.

As they had to amend the course, and part of it was on trail, they offered for people to have an automatic credit on their account if they didn’t run, and I was very tempted by this! It was so cold at parkrun on the Saturday and I felt like I didn’t really warm up all day after, so the thought of going back out into the cold wasn’t appealing. Thankfully some other OH ladies (and Branka, who can be an honorary OH member) were doing it, and as I had signed up to this as part of the OH ladies 12 days of Christmas challenges, I couldn’t really not do it!

The race HQ is right by the parking, and it’s inside (although no heating on in the building I don’t think)- we met by the steps for our traditional pre race photo and then chatted while we waited for the race to start.

The before (all of us) and after (4 of us as Catherine told us not to wait)

We knew a few of the marshals and pacers too, so it felt like a nice social occasion at the start of the year. I kept heading back to my car- once to return my mini scissors and spare bib clips (you have to cut holes in the bibs in order to use them) and then again at the last minute to get an extra coat. Emily and Zena were both going to be jeffing, 30 seconds run, 30 seconds walk, so I decided to join them rather than run alone, and Branka also decided to join, so we ended up with a lovely group of 4 of us chatting on the course.

The route was a lollypop (an out and back with a loop in the middle) where you repeated the loop twice, so on our first lap of the loop we were being overtaken by the speedier runners (momentarily behind the 40 min pacer!), but for the second lap we could spread out and chat as a four a bit more.

The section on the trail was very rutted, icy and frozen, so I struggled to run on that section. I was at the back of our pack of 4 so just caught up once we were back on paths again.

The photos below show the start, where we looped around paths by the uni, the trail section with frozen puddles, views out to the frosty fields, and my face once I’d warmed up enough to take my extra coat off!

As you can see, a very cold day!

I really enjoyed the route, and although it wasn’t the fast road race it was originally going to be, it was great to go off the main path, and it felt as in no time we were already on our second loop. All of the marshals were brilliant- huge thanks to them all for standing around in the cold so the event could go ahead.

As we approached the iciest path for the second time, Emily suggested that we ran side by side as she had seen the photographer at the end (and the photos were included in the entry fee)- however you don’t actually know when the photographer is going to take a photo- so we got the two below- as we are organising ourselves!

You can see my holding my coat (and hat) here- as we passed one of our friends he asked me why I was running with a sleeping bag- I can see why he would think that!

Our aim was around 1Hr20, and we came in in 1:20:26, which I think is pretty impressive pacing. After not running for 2 weeks it was great to do a run/walk to mean I could complete the distance. And despite how I felt at the start, I am so glad that I went out and did the race- it was good fun to run with others and great to be out in the fresh air even though it was absolutely freezing!

You got a nice medal, some Love Corn snacks, and optional water at the finish. I’d made a cup of tea to have in the car before I drove home, and that was a very good decision indeed.

How do you get back into running after you’ve been on holiday?

Happy 20th birthday parkrun!

At the start of October, it was 20 years since Bushy parkrun launched, so the first Saturday was international parkrun day, where all parkruns celebrated the 20 year anniversary of parkrun.

I had planned to run Jersey Farm with Dad, as it was the first Saturday in ages that we were able to run a parkrun together, so it was the perfect way to celebrate, with running together and then Mum making us vegan pancakes for breakfast after.

All the posts made me reminise a bit. My first parkrun was in March 2013, so it’s crazy to me that it’s been a part of my life for 11 years now, but also it’s one of the best things of my life.

Dad got into it via his tennis umpiring, as some of the other officials from Wimbledon were going along to Wimbledon parkrun, so he went with them, and then a bit later found out we had a local one in St Albans. That first year we were very sporadic at going along- my brother would come along too and we tended to go about once a month. However, when Panshanger parkrun launched (and that was back in the day of inaugurals being advertised- I saw the poster in the local Sweatshop when I went along there for a run) we pretty much started going each week, and in fact my 50th was celebrated on Panshanger’s first birthday. Of course once Ellenbrook Fields started we properly found our parkrun home- I knew whenever I went there that I’d know lots of the team and lots of the participants- always friendly faces there and the most enthusiastic marshals. I love that we have regular family time together via parkrun, and although my mum doesn’t run, she does sometimes come along to watch, and is very happy to make us breakfast for when we have finished which is always amazing.

Birchwood junior volunteer team, parkrun tourist crew (Branka and Holly), the visitors at Futakotamagawa in Tokyo, and Dad and I at Jersey Farm at the birthday celebrations (collage has missed out the name though!)

The beauty of parkrun is that it can be so many different things to different people. I am not fussed about times, although every now and then I will aim for a time (usually if there are pacers I might try to keep up with a specific one). However, before my dad moved to a new age category he decided to try and be first in his age cat at various parkruns- a good challenge for him to aim for. Some weekends, like this past weekend, we will go along to our local one, but other times we will fancy touring, maybe for a specific reason but usually just the fun of visiting somewhere new, meeting a new event team, admiring new scenery and discovering a new park that you didn’t know existed. Of course you can work towards the official milestones (celebrating my 100th at Ellenbrook Fields is probably my favourite parkrun memory as my mum came along too and handed out cakes while we ran, loads of the OH ladies were there, it was fantastic), and there are all the unofficial challenges too (parkrun alphabet, pirates, Wilson Index etc).

Lots of my memories come from volunteering too- the first time I did the first timers briefing my legs were shaking as I was so nervous (I am not one for public speaking), and at the end a runner came up to me and thanked me as he remembered me from the briefing, and that little interaction really helped me develop some confidence there, and it became one of the roles that I loved doing.

The fact that it is popping up in more countries is exciting too. Of course if we are on holiday then I’d love to do a parkrun if there is one nearby, but I’m not going to not go on holiday for fear of missing one. The more parkruns there are, the most fantastic places are just waiting to be visited!

The parkrun touring crew meeting Danny (from With Me Now pod) at Birchwood juniors launch, solo tourism in Brighton (Preston Park), Jersey Farm with Dad in the cold, and my 350th celebrated at Lee on the Solent.

More parkruns with Dad, more solo touring and volunteering fun!

Touring with Dad, being on the cover of parkrun adventurers podcast, one of the best ever photos with Branka and Holly walking at Letchworth, and finally claiming my German flag!

(I was meant to run a parkrun in Berlin in December 2018, but our Friday night flight was cancelled and we couldn’t get out there until the Sunday, so I was not there for parkrunday sadly, so a German parkrun has been on my wishlist since then. In May 2024 we went to Germany and happily were not that far from a parkrun, so I finally claimed the flag!)

More touring fun with the OH ladies (Harrow and Leavesden) and with Branka celebrating Christmas i July and the best ever tail walker at Southall.

The parkrun pause was super tough, as by then parkrun had become such a part of my routine, and such a high point of the week. I really am so grateful that it restarted, and I really cannot imagine my life without parkrun. We introduced my dad’s cousin to parkrun a few years ago, and he is now a regular at Linford Wood. He recently had his 80th birthday and he is still running and volunteering. Life goals right there.

How did you celebrate parkrun’s birthday? What does parkrun mean to you?

Futakotamagawa parkrun, Tokyo, Japan

Japan has been on our list of places we’d love to go for a while, and once we booked flights I had said to Andy that I wanted to do one parkrun while we were away. We were away for 3 Saturdays, but the middle Saturday was already taken with Ghibli Park, so I had two others to play with. Thankfully Plan A worked out well, as the parkrun I was planning on visiting went ahead- they were cancelling if the heat index was forecast to be too high. Just the 33C before 8am!

For this part of the holiday we stayed in Shibuya (by the famous crossing) and Futakotamagawa parkrun was about a 20 minute train journey with no changes, so this looked to be the simplest one. I was quite anxious the night before about navigating on my own, as we had only arrived a few days before, and then this was not helped by an earthquake alert on our phones and then an actual earthquake. Anyway, to the morning…

Due to jet lag and feeling stressed I was awake before my 6am alarm, took my time getting ready (lots of suncream) and I packed a bottle of water with a rehydration tab in it, plus a t-shirt to change into for the journey back. Our hotel was a short walk from the train station, but the station itself is huge so I allowed plenty of time to get to the platform (there are just so many). Google Maps was a great help as it tells you the end station, direction, platform number and time of departure so you know you are on the correct train, and then once on the train the screens show the stations clearly in English, so the journey was all good.

I’d watched their You Tube video of how to walk to the start from the station, as the construction work around the river was ongoing, but as I walked I met one of the volunteers, who walked with me and another tourist, and we also saw a volunteer at one point (in front of the bike shop) directing us to the cut through to the river, so no worries about getting lost.

First timers and volunteers photo, and a photo by the artwork under the bridge (no purple pop ups here)

(I used a Suica card, which is a bit like a travel card but you get the app and save it in your apple wallet- you then don’t even need to unlock your phone as you go through the barriers, you just tap your phone on the barrier and it pops up on the screen that you have an active journey and the total amount of Yen on your card)

I was there with plenty of time (around 7:30 for the 8am start) so I chatted with some other runners- one guy had on a Dunstable running top and this is just up the road from where I live, so we chatted for a while. He was intrigued as to how I would get on a as a vegan in Japan (as I had on my VR visor)- he was vegan but was not going to be for his trip. This was only a few days in to the trip but it had been fine until then, and we were there for 3 weeks and didn’t have any issues.

Anyway, back to parkrun. They did the welcome in both English and Japanese, and took a photo of all of us before the main briefing which again was in English and Japanese. We also got interviewed by one of the volunteers- I thought he was taking our photo but then he asked us about our home parkruns, and if you follow them on facebook there is a link to their You Tube (the channel I’d used to see how to get there from the station) and a lovely cringey bit of video of me saying that I was not travelling with the two people I was chatting to, and that Panshanger is my home event.

Heading to the start and then a few mid run scenes.

The route seemed fairly simple- along a path, two laps around playing fields, back along the path, a little out and back section next to some tennis courts and then back to the bridge for the finish. Sounds a little complicated but it was simple and there were lots of cones, arrows and volunteers out.

I really enjoyed the course too- in one direction you could see back to Tokyo and the skyscrapers, but we ran alongside a nature reserve so you could hear the circardas (which was the soundtrack to our whole Japan trip) and I saw loads of swallows and little wagtail birds. There were people paying baseball and tennis, one part of the park had these small man-made boulders which might be for dog agility? Not sure. The volunteers were all so wonderful, cheering us all on. I was still trying to be confident in saying thank-you in Japanese (“arigatou gozaimasu” as just arigatou is a bit too informal) but I waved and smiled and clapped as I passed each one and they were all fantastic at cheering back. It was a real mix of Japanese locals and ex-pats who were on the team, participating and volunteering, and of course a few tourists as well as local first timers.

There was not much shade out there- just this small section (below) under the large tree, so it was quite brutal, but I loved it. I did stop and walk a few times to try to cool down, but also I didn’t want to take too long to finish as then I would be out in the sun for longer.

They also took photos of us and these were on facebook so I have a couple of me out on the course too which is always a real bonus.

They had a tail walker and a few walkers and run/walkers as well as runners, so I felt confident taking my time and trying not to overheat, although I did get a bit carried away in the final finish stretch and felt a bit dizzy when I stopped. I was wearing my Ellenbrook Fields vest and one of the scanners asked me about it as he knew of it, and I think I answered him quickly and then had to apologise and say I needed to get my water as I felt not great at that point, but I did soon recover once I had cooled down.

Red and sweaty face after I had finished, and my token, plus views of the bridge and river.

I cooled down in the shade for a bit before walking back to the train station. I changed into a clean t-shirt as I didn’t want to be all sweaty on the train back. The journey back was fine- I didn’t need maps to get me back to the station as I just retraced my steps and it was simple enough, and the train back was fine as that station only had one line and Google Maps made it very clear which platform I needed, but back at Shibuya I came out of a different entrance (there are so many) so when I was back at street level I realised I was quite a few blocks away from where I needed to be, but then I had my bearings and could get back to the hotel fine, it just took a bit longer! Andy had popped down to Starbucks and got me a blueberry bagel (plant based and delicious) and made me a cup of tea plus another water with a rehydration tab as the aim was to have as much liquid as possible!

Walking back to the station by the river/ changed to a dry top/ back at the hotel/ the train station by parkrun.

I loved getting the results email as it’s all in Japanese! I can see my time (32:57) and if I click to translate I can get more (eg I was 62/76 people).

Of course I had to check the 5K app and now I’ve got a little purple chunk in Tokyo, and a Japanese flag!

I am so glad I got to go along to this parkrun- the experience was really special, every volunteer was so welcoming and friendly (we experienced this with Japan as a whole- everywhere we went the people were wonderful), so thanks to everyone there!

So, my 9th country and again just a really special place to visit.