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.
Most likely back on the Moor next week!
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).
New-to-me parkrun 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.
Fitting everything in around half marathon training at the moment so it’ll be a parkrun sandwich next week.
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 🙂
Not decided on next week yet but it’ll be local again.
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!
(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!
One of the things I try to do once per month at parkrun is work on my p-index (current p-index is 6, meaning I’ve done 6 of my parkrun events at least 6 times each, and I’m now working on getting it to 7), which at the moment means a trip out to Denton Dene. Thankfully Geth is a big fan of this parkrun, and I quite like it too – there are a few hills but it’s a nice fast course!
As I’m still recovering from last weekend’s ultra I decided to take parkrun as it came. I started off at the faster end of steady and gradually progressed so that I could turn my legs over a bit in the last stretch. It felt great after so many months of easy parkruns and I’m really looking forward to giving it a good blast once I’m properly speed training again!
A milestone next week… and a special place for it.
Due to Saturday’s ultra, I wasn’t at regular parkrun this last weekend, so I got my parkrun fix by volunteering at juniors instead!
It had been a shamefully long time since I last did junior volunteering (I’m usually out on a run with the Benchies on a Sunday) so it was really nice to marshal and cheer on the kids. Lots of runners and volunteers in Newcastle United shirts to mark the cup final, a great turnout and a great atmosphere. I’ll try not to leave it too long again!
The Benchies also came down to see me while on the Sunday run, so it was good to chat to them about the ultra while I was waiting for the first runners to arrive!
Back to Saturday parkrun next week, and getting very close to my milestone!
The original plan was to be away this weekend, but plans changed during the week so I managed to grab a last-minute slot on the Town Moor parkrun International Women’s Day pacer team!
I was pacing 34, which I haven’t done for a while, so I did my pace research and managed a fairly steady run. Came in at 34:02, which is not bad, though I did have to sprint slightly in the last 10 seconds as I’d slowed down a bit too much!
Not parkrunning next week due to a rare Saturday race. I’ll be back the week after for my penultimate run before my milestone!
Jesmond Dene is my home parkrun and my favourite. Geth and I did the inaugural back in 2019 so I like to make sure I’m there for any milestones if I can be. Lovely to see this beautiful parkrun reach its 200th event today!
Another easy-ish 30 minute run. Looking forward to getting some speed up again after the ultra is done.
A little further afield next week.
I’m trying to do a new-to-me parkrun once per month in 2025 as that will get me to 50 different locations by the end of the year. This month’s visit was relatively local as we didn’t go away anywhere (a good thing after so much travel recently!).
I researched my first eight NENDYs (nearest events not done yet) and sent links to Geth so that he could choose one (this will be the strategy for all upcoming months where we don’t have a trip away). He selected Prudhoe Riverside, as we’d run along part of the course just a couple of days ago when doing our latest recce for our upcoming ultra.
The course is two laps around part of the Spetchells, which is basically a big manmade lump of chalk from WWII. It was fun running on a chalk trail, though I imagine it would be a bit more challenging after a lot of rain!
We took it easyish for around 30 minutes (this will be a theme until after the ultra) and generally enjoyed the springlike conditions.
We will most likely be back to more familiar environs next week for a special celebration (fingers crossed!).