Tag: vegan brunch

Local parkruns- Panshanger for the 97th time, Letchworth for the 5th and Jersey Farm for the 40th

The single ton at Panshanger is inching ever closer for me!

At the start of July, after a bit of touring I decided to head to Panshanger and work on the single-ton achievement instead of touring elsewhere. It also means I can run there as it’s about 2 miles, so a good parkrun sandwich distance. It was a bit drizzly when I left, so I took my hat with me and was glad of it. The run there goes through a lovely section of woods so you are at least a bit sheltered, and I got there at about 8:45 so not too long to stand around. At this point it was raining much harder so I sheltered under one of the gazebos (the event team have them for the timers to stand under at the end). I’d bumped into a runner friend (hi Sam) so we chatted under the gazebo until it was time for us to reluctantly go and stand in the rain ready to start!

I said hi to a few of the OH lady crew before the start and then had an enjoyable solo run. The cows were near to the first hill so I attempted a selfie with one of them (anything to mean I don’t have to run up the entire hill!), and the rain eased off during the run too.

As per usual, when trying to get a selfie with the sign someone took pity on me and offered to take my photo:

I don’t look that wet in the photo but trust me, I was soaked through. Other people were having photos taken and saying that they were commemorating running in such heavy rain!

The gazebo was being used by the timers too- a very good idea as it’s not easy to use the phone screen

when it’s raining.

So that was my 97th time at Panshanger- hopefully I’ll manage 3 more this year!

The following weekend I could not decide where to go. I didn’t fancy Panshanger again, and Dad was away so no point in going to the St Albans ones. I was tempted to revisit a Herts one (to move up the Herts Vegan Runner table)- either Westmill or Stevenage, but Branka was going to be at Letchworth and so I decided to head up there as it was around the same driving time as Westmill and it would be lovely to have a catch up.

The sun came out and it was a fabulous walk around the fields and park, and as always we enjoyed a good catch up about parkrun touring, work, Disney and a few other topics thrown in for good measure!

After, I headed to Vutie Beets for a post parkrun brunch. It is so good there- I just wish they did pots of tea rather than cups. I took a selfie as somehow I always end up matching their cups. They don’t just serve yellow cups but it seems I am always given a yellow cup and always seem to be wearing yellow!

After a few busy Sundays I was free in the morning so headed to Birchwood to marshal there. The weather was beautiful, and they had let the wildflowers grow in the park, mowing a path (which was handy for the course as it meant less cones for the team to put out). I had fun messing around with the timer on my phone while I waited for the runners to come by!

The following Saturday I was back at Jersey Farm. Dad was back so we walked there together and then ran around together. I was a bit sad because looking on the 5k app I had been to Ellenbrook Fields 39 times, and this was my 40th run at Jersey Farm so I am now overtaking my EF visits. I did volunteer at EF 22 times but of course some of those would have also been running ones eg I probably did the new runner briefing, so the total won’t be the same yet. But still, it did make me feel a bit sad. Our OH ladies insta feed on Saturdays is full of all the parkrun touring that we all get up to, and that mainly comes from us feeling “homeless” and so heading to lots of places. Anyway, at Jersey Farm the wildflowers had been left to grow and you could just hear the constant chirp of insects in the long grasses- how it should be.

Looking at my event summaries, St Albans is my next visited one (where I started parkrunning) on 31, so it will be a bit of a while before that overtakes EF.

Where are your most visited parkruns? After these local ones, Hove Prom is my next most visited with 11, and then Preston Park with 8, so you can tell I like going to Brighton for the weekend!

A revisit to Leavesden and a volunteer celebration!

In the wilderness between milestones (still well over 3 years to my next one) chasing random challenges (hello Wilson Index) is a fun way to occupy the time and also to help me decide where to go. I know I go on about it, but as Ellenbrook Fields didn’t come back after the pause, I do not feel I have a home parkrun. I think Panshanger is my official one, and I do love it there, but it’s not the same.

Anyway, the Herts branch of Vegan Runners UK have a fab stats person (Gary) who each week produces some stats linked to parkrun attendance in Herts- number of Herts locations visited, number of VR’s at each location and so on. I have been to all the Herts parkruns, but not in this calendar year, and so I decided that this weekend I’d head to a Herts parkrun that I’d not been to this year, to move myself up on that table. I’d been to Jersey Farm, Panshanger, Letchworth, St Albans and Aldenham, so my choice was between Leavesden, Westmill and Stevenage.

A couple of other members of my club fancied Leavesden, so it was decided!

It is a super convenient parkrun- there is parking right by the start (you can see the flag from in the car), there is a little cafe and toilets by the start, it’s not too far a journey and not too difficult to find. It doesn’t seem to get huge numbers, but I think that’s a good thing as it’s a 3 lap course with one section where you have to keep to one side as runners come in the opposite direction (almost like a figure of 8 with the middle section where people meet). For us this was fine but if it was busy then it would be harder to pass- we had 99 participants that week.

I ran with Fiona and we had a lovely time chatting about all running and parkrun (and how much we missed Ellenbrook). It was sunny as I left home, but as we drove it had started to rain, and it drizzled on and off during parkrun. Nothing too bad but not really the weather we expect in June! The shade of the trees was still appreciated more as shelter from the rain.

Of course once finished we had to get a few photos. Gary (of VR stats fame) was also there so we got a picture for the VR club, plus of course we needed one of our little touring group too. Gary was also with a guy who used to run at Ellenbrook, so the day felt very themed towards that- lots of our club got into parkrun tourism after the pause because they didn’t have a parkrun home any more.

The cafe at Leavesden is really nice but we all had to head home so just went back to the car after taking the photos and scanning.

When the VR stats came through my name was on several of the categories-

Finished Top 20 for Gender: 13th at Leavesden Country parkrun – Maria W, Fastest Female Times: (I was number 3)- 00:29:57 Maria W Leavesden Country parkrun, Most Herts Finishes -11 (along with several others- the top person has 24 this year), Most Herts locations visited in 2024- I am on 6 which is now joint top of the table! I think this is the one I am most likely to do well at as I could potentially visit them all (although maybe would choose not to revisit a couple…). So it was worth me visiting there just to see my name in lights!

On Sunday I was off to Norton Common junior parkrun (Letchworth), as Branka was celebrating her v250! What a fantastic achievement! It was also their first birthday (which is why we had party hats on). The park is so pretty! I’d been for a little wander around as I sometimes park there when going to Letchworth, but the junior parkrun route is so lovely with all the tall trees. It has a wilder feel than the more manicured parks that other junior parkruns are in. Anyway, I was barcode scanning which was good as I was then at the start/finish area for the event.

Congratulations! Very much looking forward to seeing the green shirt in real life!

It was even more of a celebration as another RD was also celebrating his v250! All the things! Finally the High Sheriff has been making her way around all the Herts parkruns, and she was visiting. I think this is the third time I’ve seen her now- she was at St Albans, Letchworth and now Norton Common juniors.

Of course, if I am in Letchworth I am going to head to Vutie Beets for breakfast after. I opted for a crookie this time (croissant + cookie) and tea, and then bought some buns to take home and share with Andy later. Because the weather was so good (at long last) we had a long walk in Panshanger in the afternoon before watching the football in the evening.

Panshanger park/ breakfast/ on my walk/ the birthday decorations at NC.

How do you choose which parkrun to visit? I know I am in a great situation with so many within a short distance. I am still going for my single-ton at Panshanger so that is still on the cards for when I have a busy weekend too.

Medina IOW parkrun- the parkrun with the most courses?

For the Easter weekend we were off to the Isle of Wight, and hooray, there is one parkrun on the Isle of Wight (Medina IOW), so guess where I’d be on the Saturday morning!

Now, Medina IOW is known for being a bit rogue as they seem to have many locations and many courses. I did email the team to check, as they are not that active on facebook, and it says to check the news page for the current location but I could not see anything referring to it on the course page. The team were very helpful at replying, telling me that the current course page was correct. It definitely was correct for the location, but see below for what I thought I was running:

And then compare it to what I actually ran:

Slightly different! I did think it was strange that there was no mention of a second lap in the first timers welcome, but then I thought I must have remembered the course wrong.

Anyway, back to Friday- parkrun preparation included eating lots of delicious vegan food in Cafe Thrive (in Southampton), having a walk around the park while Andy was at football, and then getting the ferry over on the Friday night. I know some people would do the trip in the morning but I would be quite stressed by that, plus you had to be at the ferry terminal an hour before, and it then takes an hour, so that’s an early start.

Delicious salad for lunch, hot cross bun cookies, chai latte and a magnolia in the sunshine

The Isle of Wight is pretty small, so although our hotel was on the south of the island, and the parkrun was back where the ferry docked, it was only around a 20 minute journey in the morning. Andy came with me as we had our eye on a breakfast place after, close to the parkrun start.

Finding the parkrun signs is always a bonus! The briefing area by the leisure centre, the purple pop up and a tree covered in blossom by the finish area.

It was such a beautiful spring day with beautiful blue skies. I ran through the park and was happy to find arrows and the finish area quickly, but everyone seemed to be heading up to the leisure centre, and this was where the first timers welcome and main run briefing were held before walking to the start. The main briefing was a long one, with the ED playing a song from the olympics over a tannoy to inspire everyone with their run, and then there were many thanks and milestones and other arbitrary things. By the time we had walked to the start line it was nearly 9:10 so messaged Andy to let him know we were about to start, as I thought he would wonder otherwise, (although he had no phone reception so he didn’t even get my message).

The route started with a lap of the field, before heading along the river for an out and back section, and then retracing your steps around the field again. It was pretty flat, but the section by the river had very uneven ground (which we were warned about in the briefing)- the path had been created with the hexagonal plastic grid sheeting, and filled with gravel, only most of the gravel was gone so you were running on the edges of the sheeting, and it had cracked in places so you had to look carefully at all times to check your footing. I would have preferred to have my trail shoes on as they have thicker soles so are easier on ground like this.

The out and back section was narrow and we had to keep to one side as other runners were already heading back. Once the tail walker had passed it was OK to overtake runners when needed, but it was a busy course, a bit like Maidstone where you feel like it should be fast because it’s flat, but it isn’t really because of the number of people. I did like that it had such a welcoming atmosphere and lots and lots of walkers as well as runners. As it was the Easter weekend, lots of the volunteers had various Easter hats or bunny ears on and we were even offered sweets at the finish line.

After the standard purple pop up selfie attempt, when someone usually takes pity on me and offers to take my photo, I walked back to the leisure centre to get my jacket from the tarpaulin of trust, and then walked back through the park to meet up with Andy and to get some breakfast. Although he hadn’t got my message, he realised that he hadn’t seen any runners go past for a while so had worked out it had started late.

So that was my 110th different parkrun course, and 352nd parkrun overall. It was very enjoyable and if I ever decide to work on all the parkruns in Hampshire (Champshire?) then I have one of the more difficult to get to ones ticked off.

Acai bowl, the port, pancakes and a Mermaid matcha

We went to Peach Cafe in Newport- a vegan cafe with lots of delicious options and amazing looking cakes on display. We shared an acai bowl and pancakes topped with scrambled tofu and smoked coconut (I think meant to imitate bacon), plus a matcha and some tea. I was very excited to see that they served Bird and Blend matcha- especially Mermaid matcha which has been discontinued. It was really good, but it was fairly slow service and I was sitting there staring at the pastries the whole time, so I ended up buying a chocolate hazelnut croissant to have later- maybe that’s their tactic?

Views of the coast, posing by the needles, NT tearoom and more coastal scenes

The weather was beautiful so we headed over to The Needles (along with everyone else- we sat in a queue for the car park for around 45 minutes)- we enjoyed a long walk along the coast and up to the lighthouse and were very excited to find a National Trust tearoom still open as we hadn’t had lunch. They were doing hot cross bun scones (their fruit scones are vegan and the guy checked and these ones were too) so of course we had to get those.

We stayed until the Monday so it was good to make the most of going there and seeing lots of the island, which is definitely my preferred way of parkrun touristing- I’d like to be somewhere that happens to have a parkrun, or go to a parkrun and then spend time there seeing what else is there. I think we definitely visited most of the vegan cafes on the IOW while we were there!

Does your local parkrun have different courses? St Albans is trialling a new one at the moment as the lake is so often flooded, and Panshanger has a “cow” course for when the cows are in one of the fields, but both of these start at the same place as the regular courses do.