I thought I'd wait to add my two penn'orth until the ladies had said all they had to say about Dexy5's wardrobe malfunctions and how nice it was to see everybody again ….. which means I can also complete the story of our tourist weekend, which following the RSC, parkrun and cakes continued to include a VRB eatup on Saturday evening at a pub 400 yards from our B&B (first chance to properly get to know Shake-and-run and OH), Armistice Sunday commemorations at Stratford's Holy Trinity church and Garden of Remembrance (featuring Katnap's elder kitten sounding the Last Post and Reveille on the solo bugle ✅ - and I believe the younger kitten did the same job at the Warwick service - what a talented lot), a stroll round the Christmas market and finally a brief visit to a spectacular National Trust property, Upton House near Banbury, en route to joining the inevitable queues on the A34 past Oxford on our way home. So a great weekend was had by both of us ….
For those who pretend they are interested in my descriptions of the actual runs, Stratford's is in a beautiful, if on this occasion rather soggy, setting and comprises 3 laps of a recreation ground bordered on one side by a full-to-nearly-overflowing River Avon. It's a flat course run mostly on a narrow (2.5 person abreast max, but with grassy soft shoulders) tarmac path, with one trip on each lap across a football field to bring the distance down to 5k. Quite what the footballers make of the path worn across their pitch every weekend I don't know …. The run by the river features dozens of swans, and I noticed with interest that one of 3 defibrillators in the vicinity was on the wall of the Bowls Club - bowls is obviously a viciously contested high-stress sport in Stratford .
I got a good starting position, more by accident than design, so started my watch on the O of the GO for once. Bit bunchy at the start 🏃🏽♀🏃♂ but ran wide on the first cut across the soccer pitch and had a clear run subsequently, just taking care not to slip on wet leaves round some of the quite tight corners. All very well and enthusiastically marshalled and briefed. My run was pretty steady, the first 4 ks at an average pace of exactly 5'00"/k and a bit of a push over the closing stages seeing me home in 24'45" (watch and official time in agreement!) - and sub-25 on a tourist run always makes me very happy 🥂 .
I really must run Southsea again one day ….
Written by
UpTheStanley
Graduate10
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Wonderful run, meet up and account UTS. Time I did a Park Run again. Spending a lot of time cleaning wet mud encased trail and running shoes at present. The woods are great but I do seem to bring a lot of them home with me! Better than ice though!👍
I think you have edged further up the parkrun tourism spectrum than Mr C and I. We haven’t yet made parkrun tourism the centrepiece of a weekend away (it mostly builds onto the rugby).
I confess we look for opportunities when we are already travelling, but haven’t yet journeyed with parkrun as the destination centre point itself. We have Victoria Dock (London Excel) on Saturday combined with the tennis. We might find a way of combining Bois de Boulogne with the 6N France v England match at the end of January. Other than that, I don’t know where our next batch of tourism opportunities are going to come from. I think we managed 11 or 12 in each of last year and this year. Need to get on with planning some more rugby trips!
To be fair, we did have Stratford-upon-Avon on our list of places to visit, having called in on our way home from Leicestershire once. I remember it was very hot and full of tourist parties. This weekend was so much more pleasant apart from the torrential rain from Saturday midday till the early hours of Sunday. Having VRBs and parkrun made it even more special.
Really enjoyed seeing you guys again. Enjoy Southsea - I’m running at Eastville next weekend. My car won’t know itself not traipsing up or down a motorway. 🙄
Katnap says that he made 3 minor errors but no-one really noticed (even the most experienced buglers make mistakes on The Last Post I’ve found - look on YouTube at the bugler at a Man Utd match who left a cloth in his bugle as he started to play 🤭). Our hearts fill with pride each time we hear them, it’s going to be strange next year only hearing the one.
Certainly an action-packed weekend UTS - not sure how you fitted it all in. Excellent time on Saturday too!
As you may have seen from my reply to Dexy's post, I'm currently on the IC following a close encounter last Thursday with a woman and her dog which necessitated a last minute change of direction. Feels like a torn hamstring, but awaiting confirmation from a physio.
Love the title!! You ran the football pitch bit perfectly UTS, I always take it wide as it never makes 5k if you don’t. That Bowls Club defibrillator will always remind me of you and Dexy now 🤣 (at least it’s for a good reason!!).
Great to be able to run behind you again and it was a wonderful weekend all round. Now I’ve got to work all this cake and extra food off before we meet up again 😅 x
Sounds absolutely fabulous and what a time Stanley!!! Brilliant 🏃💪
I was at Upton House in the summer. A friend and I had a weekend in the area and we visited it on a lovely summer’s day. The garden was stunning and I stole a few seed heads from a plant that are now growing on my windowsill * shhhhh dont tell anyone* 🤫
Great photo UTS and a fab weekend. Mind you Shake-and-run exacted her revenge by taking me on a 45k bike ride on Sunday surveying flooded countryside. And the promised coffee and cake never materialised because the cafe was closed 😫 Thank goodness for Windoze’s choccie brownie, which I had been too full of cake on Saturday to eat! Where next?
Lovely photo of you both and great running. I’m going to aim for sub 25 next year. Maybe sub 24:30 as my PB is 25:36. I’ve been crazy busy with work recently and was in Manchester over the weekend. But I couldn’t get away to do a parkrun in Manchester as I had to stand at an exhibition stand for the day. Not even been lurking on here. Great post and happy running. I’m going to miss parkrun this weekend too although I’ll be running a 13k race across a mountain instead.
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and how nice it was to see everybody again ….. which means I can also complete the story of our tourist weekend, which following the RSC, parkrun and cakes continued to include a VRB eatup on Saturday evening at a pub 400 yards from our B&B (first chance to properly get to know Shake-and-run and OH), Armistice Sunday commemorations at Stratford's Holy Trinity church and Garden of Remembrance (featuring Katnap's elder kitten sounding the Last Post and Reveille on the solo bugle ✅ - and I believe the younger kitten did the same job at the Warwick service - what a talented lot), a stroll round the Christmas market and finally a brief visit to a spectacular National Trust property, Upton House near Banbury, en route to joining the inevitable queues on the A34 past Oxford on our way home. So a great weekend was had by both of us ….
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Hello VRB'S 🏃♀️🏃♀️🏃♂️🏃♂️
Chris9r Stratford Big 10K
Last chance to run the Keswick Parkrun...
