For our family summer holiday this year, we chose to visit the picturesque Black Forest, looking forward to a week of fresh air, mountain views and getting back to nature. The Black Forest (German: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in south-west Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg. It is the source of the Danube and Neckar rivers. First up, before reaching the Black Forest, we had... Continue Reading →
A long run to Southwark parkrun – and the start of Chicago marathon training!
It seems an incredibly long time ago now, December 2019 in fact, since I heard I had been lucky enough to obtain a Chicago marathon place. This ticket has been rolled over, deferred and reclaimed numerous times, but finally, hopefully I will be able to attend the race this year in October. Which means it... Continue Reading →
Parkrun in the Netherlands! A visit to Karpendonske Plas, Eindhoven
The Netherlands is one of the more recent countries to join the ever-expanding parkrun global family, with the first events taking place in February 2020. With a family holiday booked near Eindhoven during the Easter break 2020, we were very much looking forward to visiting one of these newest events. HOWEVER - we all know... Continue Reading →
50 weeks without parkrun
Saturday 14th March 2020 - an uneventful muddy morning at Walthamstow parkrun as I plodded around the 5km route in a leisurely time of 34 minutes, not knowing that this would be the last parkrun I would take part in for quite some time! In all honesty, when that first parkrun was cancelled, I was... Continue Reading →
Take your parkrunning to the next level with Running Challenges!
One of the many things I love about parkrun is how versatile it is to fit in with the needs of all types of runners. You can turn up every now and then with no commitment, run/walk just for fun, or take it a bit more seriously, it’s totally up to you! Over the years,... Continue Reading →
2019 in review – what a year!
I kicked off 2019 with a New Years Day double parkrun, and haven't looked back! Parkrun was the place that started off my love affair with running, and it just keeps getting better! This year I ran 41 parkruns, in 17 different locations, including my first two international parkruns in Denmark and Germany. I managed... Continue Reading →
Berlin Hasenheide parkrun – and the day before the marathon!
I’m in Berlin for the weekend for the highlight of my autumn race schedule, tomorrow’s Berlin Marathon! But it just wouldn’t be a Saturday morning without a trip to parkrun. Fortunately, Berlin joined the parkrun family last year, setting up a new run location in the beautiful Hasenheide park, a short metro ride from the... Continue Reading →
Brabrand parkrun – my first Danish parkrun!
One of the (many) things I love about parkrun is it's universality. I've run at 18 different parkrun locations now, and each one, despite the many wonderful variations in course and scenery, has exactly the same familiar and welcoming feel. Just turn up with your barcode, and the general process for running, scanning finish tokens... Continue Reading →
Victoria Dock Parkrun, a Huge PB and a Lesson in Mind Over Matter
I was back on the parkrun tourist trail this week for my 95th parkrun. Victoria Dock is just a few miles away from my home run of Walthamstow, and I had heard reports of it being a fast, flat course, ideal for a PB attempt! I had set my parkrun PB of 26:03 a few... Continue Reading →
June Run Streak – or what I learnt from running 5km every day for a month
This month I set myself the challenge of running 5km, every day in June. I wanted to do this as a nice way of kicking off the first month of Berlin Marathon training, to get a decent mileage base in, and hopefully learn a few new things along the way! So, how did I get... Continue Reading →