When in the UK ... a little parkrun tourism!

We participated in a few parkruns while in the UK. 

Wormwood Scrubs

We started our parkrun tourism on 16 August at Wormwood Scrubs parkrun, which happens to be on the field behind the regional jail! Thankfully we didn't realise it at the time. It was just me who ran - Tony has a foot injury so he and the kids took on the role of cheer squad. The run was a two lap course around an oval, completely on grass. It was quite a different feeling running on grass. Time was nothing special but it was a great atmosphere with only 45 runners. The kids managed to get involved, as they often do, sorting barcodes. We joined the group for coffee in the clubrooms afterwards and met some great people and loved sharing parkrun stories. 

Sorting barcodes at Wormwood Scrubs

#DFYB at Wimbledon!

There are several junior parkruns in the UK, where the kids run a 2km course on their own. The format is exactly the same as parkrun, with all kids needing to be registered and receiving a token as they finish. On the Sunday morning, we headed to Wimbledon Park for the kids to have a go. All three ran - the first parkrun for Sophie so she was very excited! They all did a great run and had huge smiles on their faces!

Sophie and Lach at Wimbledon Park

235 tokens!

Saturday 23 August saw us over in Bristol on the west coast of England. We chose to run at Ashton Court, which must rate as one of the most difficult courses in England! The first 2.5km is uphill .... the second 2.5km is downhill! I had a great negative split on this run! About 14 mins for the first 2.5km and about 11 for the second half! Tony also ran this week - his foot felt better for the race, but he did suffer for the rest of the day, being in considerable pain!  The kids once again sorted barcodes, however for 235 runners, this was a much bigger task than they are used to! It is done while everyone enjoyed a coffee, so it kept them occupied!

Sophie at Little Stoke

Sunday morning saw us at Little Stoke for junior parkrun. Just the girls ran this week and once again, did it with great smiles and great times.

Halfway through at Southampton

By Saturday 30 August, we were down south in Southampton. There were several parkruns to chose from in the region, with most of them being very big. We ended up running at Southampton Common, which was a figure eight course in a beautiful park. Tony started .... but that on-going foot injury is still on-going. After 2kms, he was hurting badly, so withdrew and I continued. This was the biggest parkrun we experienced, with 465 runners. I felt my time was slow at 25mins, but I was still 25th female so pleased with that! This parkrun has a large university population, due to two universities in the city. Once university starts, the numbers rise and the average times drop, as the young, fit females tend to run rather fast times!

Liv at Southampton junior parkrun

Finally, we finished our parkrun tourism stint with junior parkrun at Southampton on Sunday. This was an extremely friendly group of people with some very impressive junior runners! They were fast! The fastest runner did the 2km is just less than 7 mins, but missed the course record at 6.43 mins! Tony offered his services as a volunteer marshal on the course, and got to wear a hi-viz jacket! Junior parkrun is a great concept and we hope that it can start in Australia at some stage.

London

We're off to visit the Queen ....

Lizzy didn't invite us in!

Just resting in Trafalgar Square

We flew from Göteborg to London, where we had an airbnb apartment for 6 days. Accommodation in London was so hard to find - small, expensive and some questionable areas. The apartment is fine and we actually have great space, but the surrounding areas are not very pretty. But, fine for a few days.

You'd think after 9 days of relaxing and spending time with friends in Sweden, we'd be feeling refreshed.... but we weren't so much! We took London very gently and just explored a few areas at a time.

The children with familiar with some of the highlights of the city, which made it exciting as we stepped out of Charing Cross Station and instantly met Lord Nelson overseeing the city. They loved seeing Big Ben, London Eye and watching the activities on the Thames.

Sophie did her usual trick of sleeping in an
odd place - a restaurant at lunch time!

Thanks to Sarah (Tony's niece), we've been finding out the colloquial names of some of the more unusual buildings in London town. The photo to the left shows the "cheese grater", the "gherkin", and in the foreground on the right, part of the "walkie-talkie". The kids are highly amused about all these!

As the next post will explain, we have also spent quite a bit of time visiting people. These have been other highlights in themselves and get a post of their own!

People to see in London!

Catching up with friends and family!

A significant part of our time in London was spent catching up with people. This was great fun as we are getting tired on being tourists! It was great to catch up with friends (and a cousin/niece) to renew friendships and meet families.

Tony and Ulrika

Firstly, we met a friend of Tony's from Sweden, Ulrika, and her 12 year old daughter Sofia, in St James Park for a coffee. They were friends way back when Tony was on exchange in Sweden. In just a short time, our kids and Sofia were rolling and jumping around together on the grass, leaving the adults to chat and drink coffee!

myself with Tash

The lovely Quatro family

We had a wonderful night with my friend from uni, Natasha, and her husband Cesare and 11 week old Ferdi. I also spent the next day with Tash and had a great time chatting and catching up on many years. Little Ferdi is just beautiful and the calmest little man! A few readers will know Tash; believe me in saying that she has not changed, is as bright and bubbly as ever and its a delight to see her in the role of a mother! Ferdi is very lucky to have Tash and Cesare as his parents.

Gillian and Tony

We travelled by train to Sevenoaks, just outside the M25, to visit a friend of the whole Wilson family, and Tony's godmother, Gillian Willis. We have visited Gillian a few times over the years (she even came to Aust for our wedding) and she is a delightful host! Shortly after we walked in, Gillian handed Tony the phone and told him to make the most of an opportunity to call home and speak to his mother - which we did, to the pleasant surprise of his mother, Louise. Now in her mid 80s, Gillian put on a beautiful lunch for us all and made us feel very welcome. The children loved the toys and playroom in her house! Tony's niece Sarah came with to Sevenoaks also.

Our team with Sarah on a crowded
tube!

Sarah, who is working in London, then spent the rest of the day and evening with us, coming back to our apartment for dinner. She is loving London and was able to give us some suggestions on different ways of seeing London. Sarah is great fun and the children loved being with her. Sarah needs three sides to her body, as Olivia, Lach and Sophie all wanted to sit beside her on the tube, at the table or while we were walking! It is fun catching up with extended family members in other parts of the world, as we did with another niece, Sophia, in San Francisco.

Girls' shopping trip!

Finally, we caught up with my mum in London. Mum is actually joining us for a fortnight in France, from the beginning of September. She arrived in London and had one day with us, before we headed west to Bristol and she headed north to Scotland for a week on her own. Olivia, Sophie, myself and Gran had a girls shopping trip to Oxford St!

And a lot of chatting to catch up on also!