Still doing a new-to-me parkrun event once per month!
Ashington Community Woodland was lovely this morning. It’s traily but very runnable, especially in the dry conditions we’ve had recently, and a nice small parkrun community (50 runners today). I will be back in the eventual future for p-index purposes!
It made me feel summery to be running on trails in nice weather. Excited for the months ahead.
I was a sweaty mess in the only photo I took of myself (no pop-up sign so forgot to take a selfie till post-run) so here’s a photo of the finish instead!
For this weekend’s long run, the training plan mandated a 14-miler with a fast bit in the middle. I absolutely loathe long runs with fast bits in the middle, so I decided to make it more bearable by doing a parkrun sandwich. Denton Dene provided the requisite distance there and back.
It was a fortuitous choice as they’d gone all out for the Easter weekend! There was an Easter egg hunt (I did not partake as I was concentrating on my steady pace, but all the kids clearly enjoyed it), bunny ears all over the place, and chocolate treats at the end (which I really appreciated as it provided a bit of extra fuel for the rest of my run).
I did have a gel as well but this was more exciting!
With more bonus Christmas decorations! (And lots of people in the background in winter running gear. It was unusually cold for Florida, even for a Florida winter.)
I did go to see all of these phone boxes in a more leisurely context a few days later, but I’m glad I took the photos in the dark while running the 5k. It was an important part of the race.
One more Disney-related item of interest next week!
Back to my favourite parkrun today! A lovely easy run (well, turned into a bit of a progression run as always happens in the Dene) on an absolutely beautiful spring morning.
First parkrunday of the month is usually pacer week at Town Moor and I like to pace if possible. I used to find pacers really helpful in my early/slow days and so I’m really happy to be able to do it myself now.
I was pacing 30 today (my favourite time to pace as so many people are trying to break it!) and it felt like a nice gentle run, which is a good sign for me at the moment. Geth was taking it easy too and ran with me after catching me up at about halfway.
Under my pacer vest I wore my brand new 250 shirt that arrived a few days ago following my 250th last week! Nice to start the next 250 parkruns off in the proper fashion 🙂
Kicked off my first 250 parkruns here on the Moor back in 2016, kicking off my second 250 parkruns here on the Moor too.
Not decided on next week yet but it’ll be local again.
I’m used to spotting the odd phone box while running races in the UK (and making a mental note so that I can go back and photograph it later if it’s the kind of race where I don’t want to stop!) but it’s less expected to see them during races abroad!
However, Epcot at Walt Disney World (wheretheRunDisneyraces start and end) contains a World Showcase, with mini areas dedicated to various countries around the world. The United Kingdom area, of course, includes phone boxes (presumably original ones shipped across the Atlantic following disuse, though I haven’t done the research into this).
I stopped to take photos as soon as I saw them while running the 5k. Here’s the first, next to the ‘Rose and Crown’ pub!
Red phone box, High Street, Epcot, 9th January 2025.
When Geth and I originally planned our trip to London this last weekend (to celebrate some work milestones for him), he suggested that we finally make the trip to the home of parkrun, Bushy Park. It was a lot later that I realised it would actually coincide with my 250th parkrun!
Thanks to the lovely volunteer who took the photo for us. They have a very efficient pop-up sign setup at Bushy!
(Cue some ordering of something adequately silly to wear. Top tip: if you’re wearing a celebratory sash at parkrun, use multiple safety pins to attach it to your shirt. It was difficult to keep it on while running!)
Between the COVID-19 pause and some long volunteering stints it’s been a very long time since my 100th parkrun in December 2019. Really looking forward to my new t-shirt (ordered as soon as my result arrived on Saturday).
Bushy is a lovely parkrun with great vibes (I expected it to feel a bit big and impersonal but it was so friendly) and it was a beautiful morning – I couldn’t have asked for a better 250th parkrunday!