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 loc ..read more

OH ladies running club is 10 years old this year, so we have been joining in with lots of events to celebrate. One of the chosen ones was the Twin Lakes 10/20, a 10 (one lap) or 20 (two lap) race around the lakes of Milton Keynes. I’d not done it before and really like the 10 mile distance so I signed up. It’s ideal for anyone marathon training as it’s a supported long run, and they let you drop down to the 10 if you’ve signed up to the 20 as well. I was hoping it would go OK, having run the Brighton half at the end of February, but in fact I’d managed one 9 mile run, then I’d been ill so had ..read more

My friend Branka was keen to do Gladstone parkrun, and when I looked at the route and saw all the photos, it was added to my list too as it is in a very pretty park. The day we chose to go was the day before I was running a 10 mile race, and Branka was going to parkwalk, so I decided to volunteer as parkwalker as well so we could walk together (and I could not be tempted to run the day before a race). I am not sure if anyone had done that role there before- it wasn’t on the roster for the weeks before and I couldn’t see any photos on their facebook page for example, and it did take a bit of em ..read more

I know it’s an arbitrary celebration, but I like to celebrate each 50 as it’s a long way to 500 (the next official milestone). I wanted to make it a special event, and it took a while to decide where to go. Initially I realised that Dad was away, so we would not run together, then I found out I wouldn’t have the car (Andy would be at football in Southampton), so I started looking at Cambridge parkruns as the train could have been an option (I’ve been to the parkruns that are fairly easy by train, so now it’s further afield that I have to look) but then Andy suggested going down to Southampton ..read more

Brighton half is really one of my favourite races. I love any excuse to visit Brighton anyway, and the route by the sea is really pretty (although on a windy day it can of course be brutal). The crowd support is always great too- lots of people out supporting but not overwhelming. Before (in the sunshine) and after parkrun (soaked through), pancakes and lovely Hove beach huts. We headed down on the Friday night. After going to my running club’s Friday coffee run (I walked) I decided that I would do parkrun on the Saturday, but take it gently. Preston Park parkrun was slightly closer to the ho ..read more

According to my facebook memories, the start of February half term seems to be a traditional weekend for me to have some solo parkrun tourism. This time last year I went to Highbury Fields for the fun and madness of 5 laps (and of course a visit to Bird and Blend after), but with the trains having engineering works a trip into London wasn’t so easy this year. In the end I decided to brave the drive to Pymmes parkrun. It’s been my NENDY (nearest event not done yet) for ages, so it felt like a good a time as any to head there. It’s only a 40 minute drive away, and fairly straightforward, mainly ..read more

At the end of January I was off to my first new event of 2024. My friend Branka was off there and had offered to pick me up, so of course I was very happy to join in. I was treated to a gorgeous sunrise while I got ready, and even when we had arrived there, the skies were so wintery with that low light you only get at this time of year. The ground was frosty in places, with a few icy puddles. Pink and purple skies, top right the winter skies at the start area, and then all the people on the start line! The parking was on East Heath Road, and be warned, there were no parking machines and I had ..read more

Of course my first parkrun back after having a holiday was going to Jersey Farm and running with my dad. I’d been away for all the extra parkrundays over the holidays, so I was really looking forward to getting back to one. I nearly forgot my barcode, and had to run back inside and could only find this one! Whoops! Jersey Farm was actually not too muddy, as it had rained a lot in the week. There was one big puddle but actually if you stepped gently the water didn’t even go over the top of your shoe, so it was OK. We ran together and after finishing, walked back to the big puddle so I could ge ..read more

At the start of 2023 I had a few parkrun plans- a weekend in Birmingham, a trip to Norway and popping down to Southampton, and I was aiming for my Cowell (100 different events), but I was still surprised when looking at my stats that I had been to 14 new events over the year. I felt like that deserved a post summing them all up. January took me to Church Mead in Amersham- this was my 300th parkrun and so I had chosen a new event for Dad to visit with me. This was one of the nearest events that neither of us had been to, and right on the edge of an acceptable distance to travel on the day (ra ..read more

My friend Branka was keen to do Gladstone parkrun, and when I looked at the route and saw all the photos, it was added to my list too as it is in a very pretty park. The day we chose to go was the day before I was running a 10 mile race, and Branka was going to parkwalk, so I decided to volunteer as parkwalker as well so we could walk together (and I could not be tempted to run the day before a race). I am not sure if anyone had done that role there before- it wasn’t on the roster for the weeks before and I couldn’t see any photos on their facebook page for example, and it did take a bit of em ..read more