A blog by @_jen_mo
I hadn’t planned on signing up for Eastbourne but after the fun we had in Anglesey I just couldn’t resist. I was excited about going to another #ukrunchat weekend to meet some more of the community and see a few people that I’ve met before.
Friday
My journey started by bumping into Anna-beth (aka @Glittermousie) at London Bridge. Our train was cancelled but the friendly staff at the station told us how to get there so we waited in the sunshine for the next train. The journey went by in a flash as we chatted all the way there. We arrived in Eastbourne & walked up to the pub where everyone was meeting for dinner. Howard picked a lovely pub, The Lamb, which was great for some lovely food & everyone could start getting to know each other.
After dinner we headed back to the hostel. It was a really nice YHA, with en-suite bathrooms and a good sized kitchen & a dining room/lounge area. I got settled into my room, sharing with 5 other lovely ladies & then some of us settled in the lounge for a while for a couple of drinks & a good chat. We were all pretty tired and had a busy day planned for Saturday so we were all well behaved & everyone was in bed by midnight.
Saturday
Parkrun
We all got up bright & early, had breakfast & got ready to head to Eastbourne parkrun. A few people left early & did the run there. A few people were driving so the rest of us happily fitted in to the cars drove down. It was a big day for the Eastbourne parkrun as they had pacers & had invited local running clubs. It was a lovely friendly atmosphere and at the beginning the race director called out all the running clubs in attendance, including ukrunchat- we definitely gave the biggest cheer. The pacers were introduced to us & we got ready to start.
It was a gorgeous course, and very flat. I’m not used to a flat one as I go to Brockwell park which is full of hills. I did find myself missing the downhill bits. Eastbourne is a beautiful place for a run. We did run past the finish line & still had a mile or so to go which was a bit mis-leading for those who weren’t tracking the ditance, but other than that it was great. My parkrun PB was 26:14 & I was expecting a fairly slow one as I had only done Edinburgh marathon the week before. But to my surprise I spotted the sub-26 pacer and managed to stick near him, I over took him at one point and a bit later he overtook me. I was working hard & was surprised my legs were up for it so soon after Edinburgh marathon but I went for it & went past the sub-26 pacer just before the end. I’m very happy that I got my 5k PB of 26:02!
2 groups took a run back to the hostel, doing a 6 & 10 mile route. I joined those that were driving back. We got back & showered & sat outside the hostel enjoying the sunshine. The runners got back from what sounded like a gorgeous run. I would have loved it but I didn’t feel up to running that long and wanted to save myself for the run on Sunday. Then we all had a bacon or sausage sandwich, which was much needed after the mornings activities.
Yoga
Amrit Singh arrived to do a yoga session just for us. This was Kundalini yoga, which included breathing exercises, yoga postures, chanting & meditaion.
We took our yoga mats out on the grass & did most of the session outside. I’d never tried that type of yoga before and was glad that I got to give it a go. There was a lot of focus on breathing and moving with the breath. Some of the breathing exercises were really hard (I never realised how hard breathing exercises can be). We then moved inside (as the road near us was a bit noisy) so we could go through some meditation. There was lots of chanting involved which was a pretty amazing experience. A few times I did think that we must look nuts but I also managed to switch off & just be immersed by the experince. When we finished the chanting I was surprised to find out we’d been doing it for 11 minutes. I can’t say that I would try that type of yoga again but I am glad that I tried it & everyone should give it a go.
Bake Off
After yoga it was bake off time! Everyone that had baked got their cakes out & laid them out. The 3 judges: @sherieamore1, @jedi58 & @bozenka_m took some of each cake & then went outside to choose the winners. While they were outside we all tucked in. There were some delicious cakes. The judges outside looked like they were taking it very seriously & came to a decision. They came into announce the winners:
Joint 3rd place: Choc Truffles by Karen & Pimms Cake by meeeeee. 2nd ukrunchat bake off & 2nd time I came joint 3rd with a boozy cake (G&T cake in Anglesey).
2nd Place: Davids Medal Cupcakes (his 1st ever attempt at baking) @DavidNFLF1
1st Place: Rachels delicious Nanimos @willrun4cake
Mindfulness and Running
Once we’d all recovered from the sugar intake we took a stroll down to a local park for Anna-beths mindfulness & running session. We started with a quiet moment to become aware of our bodies & the surroundings. Then we were given some different exercises to do as we did a loop of the park. After a loop we discussed what we had all found & then were given another exercise for the next loop:
- How may times our left foot hit the ground;
- How many times our right foot hit the ground in each breath cycle- this was tricky but I was surprised with a bit of focus I could quickly adapt to counting it.
- What we could smell: someone said a BBQ but I didn’t smell one.
- What we could hear- amongst the lovely sounds of the park I could also hear the cake jiggling about in my belly.
- We focused on areas that have given us problems in the past- whlst some found this a great one I didn’t get on with it. Just thinking about an area that’s caused me issues made everything feel like it was hurting.
We finished with a stretch & meditation. It was a great session and gave us all lots to think about & discuss after. It’s definitely a good idea to have some mind games on standby to get through the rubbish moments of a run. I wish I’d had done this before Edinburgh so I could have had some ready for the tough bits of the run last week.
Dinner, wobble boards & Pimms
We went back to the hostel and had a lovely dinner. There was plenty to go round including veggie & gluten free options.
After dinner Andrew Poppleton gave us a talk on wobbleboards. After reading The Cool Impossible By Eric Orton Andrew was inspired to make his own slant & wobble boards for training. His friends requested some too & now he sells them on Amazon. We don’t pay much attention to our feet and these boards help strengthen all of our feet muscles. We got to give them a go. It was good fun, especially trying out the wobble board & trying to keep balance with out spinning around.
Then it was Pimms o’clock & I made a big jug of Pimms for everyone. We had a few drinks & chatted the evening away. Everyone was pretty worn out after an action packed day.
Sunday
We were all up bright & early for breakfast & got ourselves ready for a pack run around the south downs. @karenadams76 is local to the area so she was our guide for the morning, and what a brilliant job she did too. We did a beautiful 6 mile route & stuck together for the whole run so that no one was left behind. We did a pack run in Anglesey too and they are great. It’s so much fun to run as a group & chat our way around. And if you’re considering a #ukrunchat weekend in the future (which I would highly recommend- bags of fun!) you don’t need to worry about being slow as everyone runs together & takes regular pauses to make sure we’re all in the group.
I would have been happy to run out there all day & had definite run envy that Karen runs there all the time. I’ll definitely be back to run here again. But we couldn’t spend all day running, it was time to head back to the hostel & have a sausage sandwich & get ourselves together to head home.
It was a brilliant weekend & was sad it was over already. We all said our goodbyes & started our journeys home.
I’d like to finish with a massive thank you to @Howard50at50 for organising another great weekend. I’m looking forward to the next one already.
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