Tag: vegan food

Clare Castle parkrun to celebrate my 450th!

Due to various factors, I didn’t know that I’d be home for my 450th parkrun until the weekend before, so it was a bit of last minute planning. After finding out I’d be home I looked into some London ones (I really wanted to see some bluebell woods), however rail replacement buses at the weekend just made the journey to any new one a real faff, so I started looking at drivable ones instead. Branka moved some things around too and so she was coming with me to celebrate, and to make it a new event for us both (and a pretty one), Clare Castle was chosen.

It was about an hour drive from picking up Branka so not too bad, the traffic was good and when we arrived in the car park we could see the parkrun flag so we really could not get any closer to the start.

I had drawn and coloured a 450 logo and used race clips to attach it to my 50 top, but I didn’t want it to tear while I was driving so I changed in the back seat once we got there.

The visitors board, my 450 logo and my top

As we walked into the park we could see the ruins from the castle that was once there (it reminded me a bit of Berkhamsted castle), as well as some wooden sheep sculptures, old railway tracks and little wildlife areas. They had a visitors board so I added the two of us, and then soon after the volunteer gave the first timers welcome, explaining the course- it is three laps with each lap including an out and back section. There were lots of narrow paths so you needed to keep left- sometimes you’d be overtaken and other times you’d be having other parkrunners heading back towards you on the other side of the path.

Pop up photo (from before- do you like how our socks match our tops?) and the selfie frame which we found after

We took a few photos of course- the pop up had the castle behind so it was a great backdrop for the photos, and then it was time for the main run brief- as I’d written my milestone up on the board I got an unexpected shout out from the RD which was lovely. (Someone had on the board their 250th and I was briefly worried that I was overshadowing a real milestone but it turned out to be their 250th different event so that was OK!)

Photos of the course

Then we were off! We had been warned that it was narrow and would thin out, and definitely the first lap felt a little crowded. There were lots of tree roots (the team had marked lots of them with cones) and little uneven bits of ground, so although it was fairly flat, not a pb course because of the ground but also the narrow paths. I just loved it though. The park was so pretty, and each lap had a good variety of things to see (play parks, a river, wooded areas, the castle ruins)- there were lots of very enthusiastic marshals out too (wishing everyone a great weekend on their final laps).

The route:

The strava trace illustrates how we must not rely on GPS to measure accurately though (it said 3.09 on my watch but now says 3 miles)- each lap was identical but the tracing is all over the place due to the twists and also the trees.

More photos from the course

It was a warm day and I was very glad of the shady parts of the route. At one point I went past a parkwalker and they said to me “well done- only another 6 months to go!”- I think it’s going to be about 13 months until my 500th!

Token/ finish area/ Found the selfie frame

The finish area was compact with the scanners at the end of the funnel (I just had time to take my routine photo of my barcode before it was scanned) and then I noticed the ‘selfie frame’ so of course had to have a photo. Loads of people were hanging about chatting and cheering, it had such a good atmosphere. Branka actually managed to take the photo with us both in the frame so we can call it a selfie frame when she is using it!

I did look at the cafe on site, but the only vegan options were chilli (not sure I fancied that for breakfast) or a pre-wrapped flapjack, so we decided to head to Vutie Beets on the way back instead.

Pop up photo after so that it actually happened/ Breakfast bap and mango matcha

The journey back home wasn’t much longer than the way there (a little traffic by Duxford)- a bit easier than any M25 parkrun that always seems to take twice as long getting back from. We managed to have our breakfast baps before midday anyway!

Voronoi update:

As you can see I have some big gaps around Cambridge, so at some point I need to visit some of those events to join up some of the orange squash.

So event 450 completed at location 156! And what a pretty event it was too.

Obviously it’s a while away, but I have started thinking about my 500th.

My participation milestones (official and arbitrary) so far have been:

50th- Panshanger

100th- Ellenbrook Fields

250th- Henlow Bridge Lakes

300th- Church Mead

350th- Lee on the Solent

400th- Victoria Dock

450th- Clare Castle

So, no discernible pattern apart from no repeats (and HBL for 250 was because EF hadn’t come back- if EF was still going it would have been there).

Where do you go for milestones?

Southampton parkrun in the sunshine (a revisit)

We were off to Southampton on the Friday afternoon, ahead of visiting family and going to the football on the Saturday. Originally I had hoped for a new parkrun event, as I’ve been to a fair few in the wider Southampton area (Southampton, Eastleigh, Bartley Park, Netley Abbey, Lee on the Solent, Itchen Valley, Winchester, Portsmouth Lakeside, Queen Elizabeth and even Isle of Wight)- I was hoping for Meon Valley parkrun as it looked lovely (along an old railway line) but the hotels near there turned out to be more expensive, and then we were needed in Southampton to pick up Andy’s aunt on the way to his grandma’s, so staying centrally made sense. I looked up my results and the only time I’d been to Southampton parkrun before was on NYE in 2016, so pretty much ten years ago. Predictably back then I got lost on the way, but also really loved going to such a busy event. This is all relative- back then there were 646 people taking part, and apparently the busiest one I had been to before that was 264 at Wimpole. They had a double funnel operating back then though, as someone behind me was given a card with a letter and sent to the other funnel. The course was definitely different as well, but according to my blog there was a winter and summer course- the one I did had two laps back then but I imagine with the even bigger numbers now they would keep to the pretty much one lap that they have now.

The start and finish areas (two bottom photos taken from the same spot but one pointing towards the pop up and start area, one towards the finish funnel), start sign, pop up and Poddington

So, onto the 2026 edition! As our hotel was about 2 miles away, it was perfect for a parkrun sandwich. Although I set off in the right direction, I got slightly lost but when I looked at the map I was on a road parallel to the road I was aiming for, so that was OK. The parkrun starts in the common, but the common is huge. They do direct you to head near to the Hawthorns centre, and as I entered the park at the south entrance I saw the “to the start” sign, however a few runners up ahead turned right at the next junction after this, so I followed them and ended up way over to the east of the park rather than in the centre where it starts. Never mind, I had plenty of time! The start/finish area is pretty huge as they are in the same field but a long way apart. The finish funnel is so long (I walked by it when I finished and it took 1 minute to walk the length of it), and next to it was a tarpaulin of trust so I left my bag there. The purple pop up was by the start area so I got a quick photo, but all the volunteers were meeting at the finish, so I hung around in the middle as I was not sure where the welcome would be- this turned out to be by the start so I had to jog over there quickly when it began! It turned out that there was also a tree trunk of trust by the start area, and this would be closer to the scanners so I could have left my bag there too.

First timers welcome and pop up photo

The volunteer explained the course and it sounded more like a one lap than a two lap. They did tell us about a hill that lasted 1km, that we would then get to run down (I think the other side of) and asked that we didn’t overtaken in the first km due to it being so busy. Soon after was the main briefing- I think this is the trouble with all huge events now, but despite the volunteers holding up the “quiet in the run brief” signs, there was so much chatting. At one point the RD asked everyone to poke the person next to them and remind them to be quiet- someone next to me did this to people I think they knew, but the people just carried on. I was close enough to hear most of the announcements, but it’s a shame people cannot listen for a few minutes- there could be safety issues to share (in fact there was one asking buggy runners to be careful as there had been many instances of buggies clipping the heels of other participants), but also there were some lovely milestones including a family where the dad was doing his 100th, the two kids were doing their 50th and they had also completed 50 junior parkruns. A local running club were also doing most of the volunteering but I could not catch who that was. They also mentioned pacers, so I tried to spot them in the crowd. I had looked up my previous time (30:22) so decided I should try and get a course pb and pacers are always helpful as I don’t like looking at my watch while I run.

Anyway, the briefing was brief and we started pretty promptly (there was a mobility scooter on the path so they let them go before starting everyone off), but as with any large event it was very stop-start. There didn’t seem to be any seeding (for example at Preston park they have little signs by the start area for sub 20, sub 25 etc) and I kept coming up behind walkers and people running at a slower pace, so it took a long time to settle into a rhythm as I felt like I was constantly changing my pace. I did overtake the walkers (when there was space to do so) as it felt like if I didn’t it would just cause more congestion.

Run briefing and then scenes from the parkrun- so many colourful tops stretched out ahead

It’s such a nice park- the paths are pretty wide but and you go past lots of variety- wildlife areas, wooded areas, open grassland, play parks… and it’s pretty flat. There was a slope you ran up (and here I ended up running faster as there was a dog on a waist harness that was all over the place and kept looking like it would trip people up- I don’t like running near to dogs either as I feel like I am being chased, so I put on a bit of a sprint to get past the dog so I could then relax a bit) thankfully it wasn’t too steep or too long.

I was trying to spot the pacers and I think after about 1km I caught the 33 min pacer (there were little km markers by the side of the path). After about 3km the field thinned out enough that I felt like I could get into a rhythm rather than ducking and weaving and speeding up to overtake. I think around the 4km mark I caught up to the 30 min pacer, and he was absolutely brilliant. He had a little pack of runners with him and he was chatting to them, encouraging them on, and as we ran the final km he started a countdown-telling us we had 800m to go, that we should finish a bit under 30 mins, and really motivating everyone to dig deep. As I got to the finish they had just opened up the next section of the funnel (which I think had 3 or 4 lines rather than just a double funnel)- the person ahead of me kept running, as did the person behind me, so to stay in order we all ran the length of the funnel before finally being able to stop.

Super marshals, and the busy finish funnel

I saw 28-something so I was pretty confident of a course pb unless there was some error with processing the results. I then got to admire the funnel manager- it was such an impressive operation to see, although the number of people who could not follow the instruction of “keep walking, right hand out” was mind boggling. We had to stand there for a few minutes while the funnel next to us had their tokens, and even when they switched between funnels the next token person was ready and counted in before they then jumped into position. There were lots of funnel duckers too, so I saw quite a few people offering to take two tokens because a person in front had left. It’s so impressive that the time you get is even close to your watch time when you take into account all of this happening as well.

Celebrating a course pb! And token 554- this was the place I was credited with too which was very impressive with the amount of people takin part- 1100 that morning so I was pretty much exactly half way!

After I got scanned, I had to then go back along the funnel to get my bag (via a quick pop up pic to celebrate the probable course pb), and then returned back to the city centre (not getting lost- hooray!) where I’d arranged to meet Andy for breakfast at a fab vegan cafe (Cafe Thrive)- he had ordered as we didn’t have a lot of time- we shared scrambled tofu, hash browns and a breakfast bap, and bought a couple of peanut butter croissants to have later.

Heading back to breakfast

So of course, no voronoi update as I’d already been here but below is the course map. You started with a small anti-clockwise loop at the bottom, then headed up the east side of the common, back down the west side all the way to the bottom (where the water is) and then back past the start area into the finish area.

Below is the section of the run from 2016 (as I recorded it as one activity rather than 3 separate ones)- even the direction is different as the main loop here was clockwise. It’s very interesting to see how different routes can be created in the same space.

Another very enjoyable parkrun for my 443rd parkrun

What next? Well, hopefully some more tourism soon although a few things are up in the air right now. Hopefully enjoying more of this spring-like weather!

Local parkruns with celebrations and lots of mud!

As well as recent touring to the new parkrun in Watford, and another London one in Barking, I’ve alternated with local weekends.

For the final parkrun of Feb I was keeping in local and planning on going to Panshanger as I could run there from home, however on our Friday club run the discussion (as it usually does) turned to parkrun on Saturday, and lots of people were heading to Stanborough, so I decided to head there instead. The two parkruns are about 2 miles away so either is good for a parkrun sandwich. I’d run through Stanborough on runs, but not been to the parkrun there since October, so I although I knew it would be muddy I didn’t think it would be quite as bad as it was!

Pre parkrun photos with the pop up

As I arrived I saw lots of the OH ladies (including our newest member who was 2 weeks old then!), and when I finished there was a nice bunch cheering me in as several of them had kindly waited. It was a bit chilly and damp for parkfaff so we all headed home (Andy cooked some Pret vegan croissants which we used to get from the Tesco freezer but now sadly seem to have been discontinued in there- possibly on Ocado still for anyone who’s interested!).

Muddy scenes and the new sign for Haribo Corner!

Anyway, back to Stanborough- it’s three laps on grass, and I was expecting the lower part of each lap to be boggy, but I wasn’t expecting the elevated ground to be as slippery and muddy as it was. On my second lap I was being overtaken by the front runners and felt quite nervous as I hate the sound of people coming up behind me- on the downhill slope I just kept imagining that someone behind would slip and then crash into me. At least I could somewhat relax on my final lap! I did get to admire the new sign for Haribo Corner- there is a lovely marshal known as Haribo Dave who offers Haribo on your second and third lap, and this week he had a new sign for that corner! I love personalised touches to parkrun so this brought me a smile each time I ran past. I took it very gently, walking the muddiest parts as I felt paranoid that I’d slip and hurt myself, finishing in just under 40 mins.

When I finished I could not work out why my top had such a large splodge of mud on it (around the front pocket- I tried to take a photo to show but it was not easy to)- anyway I worked out later that as I warmed up I took it off and tied it around my waist so it must have got muddy from being so close to the floor. I also found out that my trail shoes had holes in them as I had cleaned them and this showed up the holes. I ordered a kit called Pair Ups (which basically contained some tools, some KT tape and some glue) and have had a go at repairing them in the following week.

More mud

Then last weekend was another local one as a club mate was celebrating her 350th parkrun, and had chosen Jersey Farm. It was the most gorgeous day, with blue skies and a chilly wind, and Jersey Farm park looked really pretty in the sunshine. I got to try out my newly repaired trail shoes (as the upper had holes but the grip and soles were still fine).

Enjoying the sunshine along with Poddington my wonky bear

It was fairly busy at the start which meant I managed to meet up with Catherine and her daughters (and dog) by the pop up, and only saw the other OH ladies as we walked to the start line.

Pop up and start line pics

As mentioned it was a beautiful day- the ground was pretty good going there with only a small section of path still being muddy (and my trail shoes held up well), and I just enjoyed the scenery and ran with a few other club mates.

Just look at that weather! And I didn’t take photos of the mud but it was pretty much dry underfoot.

After a group of us ran/walked the course, we headed to our prearranged parkfaff location which turned out to be full (no pre booking allowed). I had been looking forward to a big breakfast (our original plan was the Smallford farm shop which does full vegan breakfasts as well as things like granola and hash browns) and so was a bit disappointed, especially as I’d driven there only to find out that everyone had already gone to a different place. I’d changed my shoes and put a different top and jumper on when I got back to the car so that I didn’t have to go inside all sweaty, but at this point I was tired and cold and was tempted to just go home. I am glad I didn’t as the place we ended up at was really nice- I’d not been there before but it was very close to JF parkrun (H and Co Coffee- by the little Tesco), there’s parking right by it but you could easily walk there from JF as it’s about half a mile away.

Parkfaff time!

There we had a little celebration for Catherine and enjoyed a longer catch up in the warm. The cafe did a delicious oat milk matcha and vegan carrot cake so although I didn’t have the breakfast I was looking forward to, of course it’s about the company (and I didn’t need to use my emergency cereal bar that’s in my parkrun bag!)

So that was parkrun number 442 for me, and my 45th at Jersey Farm. Up next? A repeat of an event next weekend (one I last went to in 2016) and then hopefully tourism to somewhere new in the final week of March.

I hope you are enjoying the more spring like weather we have been having.

Greenwich Peninsula parkrun

The quest for Lon-done continues!

On Friday night we were in London seeing Hercules with family, and had planned to go back in on Saturday for some exhibitions at the British Museum, so after seeing that hotels were reasonably priced, stayed in London for Friday night, which of course for me means a parkrun!

I was aiming for Greenwich Peninsula- Branka had already been here so we wouldn’t tour there together, and it’s probably the most central one left that I’ve not been to. However the forecast looked below freezing, and I had seen that they had cancelled once earlier in the year when it was icy, so I was keeping my fingers crossed.

Anyway, all was well, and I got the Jubilee line there from Southwark, arriving at North Greenwich station at about 8:15am. I had allowed plenty of time as on a few previous London trips even going through the train station has taken a while (going to Burgess I spent so long in London Bridge station getting to the tube that I nearly missed the start of parkrun), and although it looked close at the other end I didn’t know how easy it would be to find once there. In the end the train journey was meant to take 20 mins but I am sure it wasn’t that long, and the parkrun start was so close to the tube station, although I was following google maps which was going to take me around the houses a bit, but I happened to glance to the right and saw the big red sculpture that I recognised from all the pop up signs.

After having so many rainy and cloudy days recently, it was amazing to have such blue skies, but it was so cold- my hands were freezing even with my gloves on (not fun taking them off to take photos).

I think I arrived just in time as there was one person by the sign who took a photo for me, but once I moved away the queue built up and did not go away until the main briefing! There were loads of tourist tops, people with Lon-done t-shirts and so I chatted to a few parkrunners (it took my mind off the cold too!). One person was very taken by my Wonky Bear, and at least this time I could explain it (whereas last week a person took a photo and before I could explain they had walked away). I wandered down to the river to take some photos and admire some of the sculptures.

The blue skies were amazing!

We had the first timers welcome before the main briefing, where the RD explained that there was work going on on the path which meant that the start was narrower than usual. He tried to seed the start, but when he said “any sub 16 runners” a lot of people laughed, so he replied with “well you laugh but some people are that quick!” I waited for the 30 min group to be announced but really I should have gone a little sooner as I was behind quite a few walkers (and not speed walkers, normal pace walkers). There was a place for bags under a little shelter against a wall, so I had taken my jacket off at the last possible moment!

Views from the run as well as the funnel queue at the end

I really enjoyed this- it’s basically an out and back (although you start in the middle- if you looked at it from above you go right, u-turn, back past the finish, u-turn again, back past the finish and then a bit further before the final u-turn) you run past the O2 and then in the other direction have views out to the Thames Barrier. There were various sculptures to see, and loads of tourists arriving for the O2 which made it feel very central to London rather than being in a suburb which they often are.

Just look at the map- very central:

You can see from my pacing that I was stuck for a while behind people not at my pace- I do not mind really but it wasn’t easy to run in a rhythm as there was a lot of stop-starting (people ahead avoiding puddles for example), and as it was narrow and for the most part you had people heading back towards you, you really could only have 2 people side by side, which meant overtaking people was tricky. Although it’s flat and a fast course, it was much harder than say Battersea which had much wider paths. Something to consider if you were heading there and hoping for a specific time.

Token/ token sorting/ photo at the finish

At the finish they had a very long funnel which looped around and around, but it moved quickly which I was thankful of as I had taken my jacket off and left it in my bag at the start, and as soon as I stopped I was feeling chilly. I went to get a photo by the sign with my parkrun top, and then headed back to the tube. I really enjoyed seeing all the paving slabs with facts and quotes linked to GMT. I feel like when I’ve been to the O2 it’s usually been for a concert so I’ve not lingered enough to notice these. There were also trees filled with lanterns for Lunar New Year.

Admiring the GMT themed paving stones/ tea to warm up/ breakfast/ Poddington the Wonky Bear

I got a tea to take on the train with me, and then got off one stop early to get us some breakfast (Ole and Steen do an amazing plant based pastry called a social slice, which is sort of cinnamon bun dough filled with vegan custard and chocolate chips- trust me it’s so good). Then I had to text Andy and ask him to drop a pin because I only remembered the way back to the hotel from Southwark station and I’d got off at London Bridge…

Voronoi update! Sadly now Victoria Dock parkrun is paused the map looks a little different, but still after Greenwich I have joined up a few more sections of the map once again.

That was parkrun 438 and location 149

38/65 for London events

It was definitely an easy one to get to from central London, and one I’d revisit if I was in London and needing to be back quickly too. However, my next London trip will be from home so that will hopefully be a new one (not planned yet).

Next up- some more local tourism with all the people (my dad, the three peas, OH ladies, parkrun friends…)

Crystal Palace parkrun plus a couple of local ones in January

Away from the WDW recaps for a bit and back to parkrun! Since getting home, I had a couple of local weekends with Dad, first to Jersey Farm for Dad’s 400th parkrun (he chose the location) and then the following week at Oaklands College.

Jersey Farm

Jersey Farm was glorious sunshine (yes I should have worn sunglasses!), and it was lovely that some of the OH ladies turned up to celebrate with Dad too, although he was off to football later so we didn’t hang around for too long after.

Oaklands College

I hadn’t been to Oaklands College for ages and when we arrived we thought the first timers welcome was going on and that the rest of the runners must have been around the corner, but no, there were only 49 people taking part. There was a lot of mud and the ground was still so rutted so I am not surprised. Rory came along too so it was good to catch up. Newly acquired Wonky Bear Poddington also came along with me for his first parkrun.

Crystal Palace

Then the first weekend in February I was off to Crystal Palace parkrun with Branka. We are both steadily making a dent on the Lon-done events, so a new London event means leaving a bit earlier now. For me this was a train just before 7am from St Albans, meeting Branka on the train. We went into London Bridge, and then changed to an overground train that went to Crystal Palace station.

It was forecast to be quite rainy, but it wasn’t too bad when we came out of the station. It was about a half a mile walk, but the station is right next to the park, so after a kind dog walker showed us the way, it was very straightforward.

Pop up fence fun

There’s lots of construction work happening in the park at the moment, so there were loads of fences up (some with fun artwork depicting various construction vehicles)- the pop up was attached to a fence but the name was facing inwards so we had fun poking our phones through the fence trying to get some photos.

All the cool artwork plus Poddington seeing the course maps

Rory was also going to travel there, and as we met up with him closer to the start line, we found a second pop up mounted on a fence but facing outwards!

The star/finish area is along an avenue of trees- this would be gorgeous in the summer, but didn’t provide much shelter from the rain. They had the finish area at one end, with a tarpaulin that they tried to fold over to keep bags and tops dry. I have a plastic bag inside my rucksack so I took it out and put my rucksack in it to try and keep the contents dry- it’s a fairly waterproof bag but it was raining pretty hard at times. The first timers welcome was at the finish area too, and they even had a large print out of the two main courses that they use. They were a really friendly team and seemed keen to chat to find out where people had come from. It’s a big event (388 people that day) but felt like part of the community.

The course is two laps, although they are not quite identical as in the first lap you do an extra “dog leg” (the little loop on the lower left of the map). On this day each lap was almost two separate sections- the lower section where you started and finished was muddy and slippery (I am not sure if the construction in the park was making it worse, as it should have been tarmac paths but they were really muddy too), and then the upper section (you ran up a short slope to get there) was fairly dry paths. I wished I had my trail shoes on- I’d worn old road shoes so they didn’t have good grip at all- especially on the slope to get back down to the lower level again I really could have done with better soles. Someone next to me slipped over on one of the slopes, so I took it very gently.

Photos of the course- you can see some of the big puddles on the pavements as well as the slope leading to the upper part of the course

There were lots of points in the course where you saw other runners which I always like- as each lap had a narrow two way section as well as parts like the dog leg. It was definitely a friendly event, and the rain even eased off as we ran.

There’s definitely a lot to see in the park too- the huge TV aerial, a blue plaque commemorating a Bob Marley concert, a swimming pool, a dinosaur trail (sadly they were all covered up due to the renovations), a maze… the list goes on.

After we finished we had a quick chat and changed into dry jumpers before heading back to the train. Branka had some errands to run, and I had decided to go to Angel to get some vegan pastries and visit Bird and Blend, so we said our goodbyes. Rory was getting the same train as me (as I went on the overground to Highbury and Islington) so we had a lovely chat on the train before he got off at his stop. I’d packed a cereal bar in my bag so I had that on the train as I was getting quite hungry by that point.

parkfaff- British Patagonia for the best vegan pastries, Bird and Blend for a matcha and a cereal bar on the train (plus the token sorting tubs)

I then had a very wet walk along Upper Street to get my pastries (to take home rather than eat on the train) and matcha before walking down to St Pancras and getting the train back. I was still home before lunch time and it was a morning well spent, although it was only when I got home that I realised how wet and cold my feet were!

Onto the stats- that was my 437th parkrun and my 148th different event. At the time it was the 37th out of 65 London events (but of course that can change).

Up next is more touring- a London one (which I went to yesterday) and some more plans coming.