Sandhurst Memorial parkrun

Sandhurst is a town and civil parish in Berkshire with a population of just over 20,000 people. The name originates from the sandy soils (Sand) and the woods (Hurst) in the area. As with many towns, Sandhurst started out as a small farming community, until in 1812 The Royal Military College, which had been based in Great Marlow and High Wycombe, moved to Sandhurst.

In 1947 it merged with the Royal Military College Woolwich and became The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst; the name it retains to this day. The military own large parcels of land around the town where they frequently conduct training exercises.

The high-security psychiatric facility, Broadmoor Hospital is located nearby, as is the famous public school Wellington College. The expansion of the town really kicked off when the railway came to Sandhurst and the population grew. The town underwent a significant expansion between the 1950s to 1980s when more housing was added. A memorial park was opened in the town in 1949 and the town's existing war memorial (c.1921) was relocated here in 1984.

Sandhurst Memorial Park is home to quite a large number of clubs and organisations such as Sandhurst Town Football Club, Sandhurst Cricket Club, Sandhurst Tennis Club, Sandhurst Gardening Club, Sandhurst Camera Club, and Sandhurst Tug of War Club. Interestingly, the National Outdoor Tug of War Championships were held in the town in the years 2000 and 2013. Also Sandhurst Tug of War Club have been world champions on three occasions, something the town must be immensely proud of as you'll see it displayed on signs around the town.

The park is also home to the Sandhurst Community Hall, a Community Police Point, and Sandhurst Town Council. It has many football pitches, tennis courts, a large playground (split into two), skate park and a balancing pond which is home to the local swans.

The park is also home to Sandhurst Memorial parkrun which has been in operation since December 2019. I joined them for their event number 44 on a beautifully sunny early spring morning in March 2022.

I travelled by car and when it comes to parking, the park has it covered. There is the main Sandhurst Memorial Park Car Park in front of the community hall and council offices - this will hold just over one hundred cars. If it fills up, there is another car park just along the road called Pyes Acre Car Park which can hold about eighty vehicles. The signs say they open from 8am, but they were open when I arrived at 7.45am. The best thing is they are completely free-of-charge to use. Bear in mind that Saturday mornings are busy for the local football teams so there may be quite a lot of vehicles around.

If using public transport you can reach the town by train where you can alight at Sandhurst station. It's about a 10 minute walk to the park from the station. If taking a bus the 125 and 598 seem to stop outside the park. I don't remember seeing any official bicycle racks (I may have missed them) but there were a few fences and poles dotted around that could probably be used. Lastly, the toilets - they are located on the side of the council building right next to the car park, opposite the playground. They should be open from 8am, but when I was here they were open before then.

The meeting point for the parkrun is on the small grass area in between the two playground areas. It is here that the briefings are held. Once they are done, the participants move out onto the adjacent path and line up at the start area.

The course is flat and takes place on a mixture of different surfaces such as tarmac and other hard packed surfaces, gravel, dirt, grass and wooden planks (while going over bridges). The split is roughly 4km hard surface, 1km off-road. As far as footwear is concerned, even though the split of surfaces suggest road shoes, I'd lean more in the direction of trail shoes.

The course here has been tweaked a few times since the event started, and who knows, maybe it'll change again. Anyway, it currently consists of a start tail followed by a small lap around the balancing pond. This is then followed by two full anti-clockwise laps which go beyond the park's boundaries and into the adjacent Shepherd Meadows Site of Special Scientific Interest, home to an abundance of wildlife including over 300 species of insects.

Shepherd Meadows is named after wildlife artist and conservationist David Shepherd. The River Blackwater flows through the site and you'll run along both sides of it as you navigate your way through the meadows.

Around the course there are a few bridges to cross (five, I think) and you cross most of them multiple times. Originally this venue did not allow buggies, however this has now been amended and the advice is to speak to the team in advance of your visit. The issue largely stems from at least one of the bridge crossings which is a bit fiddly to negotiate, but of course contact the team and take their advice if you are considering taking part with a buggy.

Underfoot the paths are generally well kept but are not always perfectly smooth. They can be narrow in places and the adjacent grass can be a tad boggy. The far end of the course goes around a grass field which I'm told can be very muddy at times, and it also seems to have a selection of mole hills, so watch out. There is also a special water feature to splash through which varies in size from week to week - you'll find this on the eastern side of the balancing pond and you'll negotiate it three times.

You will of course find some lovely marshals at various points around the course. Once the two full laps are complete, you head back down the start/finish tail. through the gap in the hedge and onto the grass where the briefings were held just a short while earlier. Here you'll find the finish line and the barcode scanners. On the day I took part there were 134 finishers and the results for event 44 were online a short while later. The average number of finishers is currently 154.5.

In case my description doesn't quite give you the detail you may need, please feel free to take a look at my GPS data on Strava and also my Relive course fly-by video on youtube. After the event, refreshments can be found at Pistachios and you may even find a few other parkrunners there too.

As I was getting changed back at the car, I could here what sounded like gunshots and explosions in the distance which I'm assuming was the army in the middle of a training session, so don't be alarmed if you hear the same. Lastly, many thanks to all the volunteers that made the day's event possible.

Related links:

My GPS course data

Relive course fly-by video

The Berkshire parkrun venues

Southall parkrun

Southall is a district of West London with a resident population of around 70,000 people. The name comes from the Anglo-Saxon 'æt súð healum' and 'súð heal' which reflects on the area being at the south corner of the land or woods. Over the years it has also been known as Suhaull, Sudhale, and Southold (or Southolt) where Northolt was at the northern end.

The area was once part of the chapelry of Norwood when it would have largely been farmland outside of London and the oldest building still standing in Southall is the Elizabethan Manor House. The Grand Junction Canal (Later know as the  Grand Union Canal) was constructed between 1793-1805 and passes through the area. An interesting local feature is the Three Bridges (aka Windmill Bridge) which was Isambard Kingdom Brunel's last major project to be completed before his death in 1859 - it allows the main road, the train line and the canal to cross each other at the same point.

The area has been home to many industries including film studios, locomotive works, Southall Gas Works, AEC who built London buses for 50 years, and to a Quaker Oats factory which produced Sugar Puffs until it closed in 2016. Heathrow airport is close by and from the 1950s this directly contributed to Southall becoming home to a large South Asian community where many took up the opportunities on offer to work in a local factories and in Heathrow Airport itself.

Southall is also known as Little India and features 10 Sikh Gurdwaras. One of these, The Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha is said to be the largest Sikh temple outside of India. It cost £17.5 million to construct and opened in 2003. There are also 2 Hindu temples and 3 mosques. Interestingly, the now-closed pub The Glassy Junction was the first pub in the UK to accept Indian Rupees as payment.

The Southall Rail Crash happened in 1997 when a passenger train driver ran a red signal while travelling at 125mph and despite applying the brakes collided with a goods train at around 80mph. 7 people were killed and 139 were injured. There is a memorial plaque and garden next to the train station.

In the 17th century a prominent family who owned much of the local land were the Merricks. They had a house called either Southall Haw or Shepherds Haw and this was located in what is now Southall Park. The house later became a private asylum but burnt down in 1883 killing 6 people. The grounds were taken over by the local council who then, between 1910 and 1920, constructed new paths, a bandstand, a boating lake, pavilion, various sports areas and a playground.

The modern-day park features some of the original features plus some new additions such as updated play facilities, a water cascade and a mosaic globe. Sadly the boating lake and the bandstand are no longer here. On 8 January 2022 the park became home to a free, weekly 5km walking and running event called Southall parkrun. I visited on 19 March 2022 to take part in event 11.

I travelled by car (after dropping the family off at St Pancras on the way) and upon arrival headed for Green Drive which runs along the eastern border of the park. This is the best place to attempt to park, but be warned that it is extremely popular so a space is not guaranteed. If it is full, you may also find some space on Knowsley Avenue or Argyll Avenue but most of the houses have driveways which reduces the on-street parking considerably. The side streets to west of the park have parking restrictions that start from 10am, so theoretically could work depending on your post-parkrun plans.

Using public transport, you'll find the 195, 207, 427, 607 and the E5 buses will get you to Southall. The closest mainline train station is Southall and this is just a few minutes walk away from the park. Southall is one of only 8 train stations in the country to feature bilingual signage, so you'll see Gurmukhi, which is the official script of the Punjabi language, alongside the English text. Southall is part of the Crossrail project, so once the Elizabeth Line is fully operational this will open up further travel options. If you happen to be cycling, I didn't see any racks, but the park is surrounded by wrought iron fences so I'm sure you'll have no trouble with securing one.

As for toilets, there are none in the park. Alternative options for a toilet could be; the McDonalds on the corner of Uxbridge Road and Greenford Road just to the east of the park (I stopped here on the way to the park) or a different McDonalds to the west on Uxbridge Road - both are approx 1km away from the park's main entrance. There is a Lidl, also on Uxbridge Road. I haven't checked this out personally so cannot confirm, but Lidl opens at 8am and many branches have customer toilets. There are also apparently toilets within Southall Train Station but on the other side of the ticket barriers, so that's another option. Particularly useful if you are travelling by train.

The park can best be described as compact but very well presented, with meandering paths coupled with some wider tree-lined avenues. The parkrun takes place over a three-and-a-bit lap course which is almost entirely on tarmac paths. The only bits that aren't are a very short section on a gravelly/stony path which you encounter three times, and the finish which is on the grass. The start/finish area is on the western tree-lined avenue just next to the central 'roundabout' which looks like it could have once been the location of the bandstand (I've looked at a map from 1940 and I'm convinced it is, you can also see where the water feature was).

To cover the course in more detail, the start is on the western avenue and the participants head to the west and complete a loop of the inner south-western grass field. Upon reaching the roundabout, it is then three full laps which largely, but not exclusively, follow the perimeter of the park. On the way around you'll get to tackle most of the meandering paths, of which I am a huge fan. Plus there is the tiniest bridge to cross that takes you over the water cascade (sadly was not operational when I was here), so tiny that it's little more than a speed bump, but I enjoyed it. You'll also find marshals in all the right places around the course and they seem to come pre-charged with bags of enthusiasm.

There are a few very tight corners (ie more than 90 degrees) so they may interrupt your flow if you are pushing for a decent time but otherwise it is a flat and fast course. Also, as you go along the western border next to the tennis courts, there is a circular brick structure, which I'm guessing is for flowers, right in the middle of the path, so pay attention otherwise you may have a nasty surprise. Also if you look at the official course page, you may notice the lines showing the course have not been overlaid correctly on the map - you can view my GPS data on Strava for a more accurate overlay.

The finish is back where it all started but on the grass and after finishing there were treats in the form of samosas on offer to all to celebrate the Hindu festival of Holi. This brings me nicely round to the locals, and you can feel straight away that there is a strong sense of community here and it was good to see a significant number of walkers and other people that do not necessarily fit the stereotypical image of a 'runner'. It seems to perfectly capture the ethos of parkrun.

The results were published just a short time later and there were 113 participants at event number 11. The average number of participants currently stands at 168.6. With the morning's exercise done, it was time to go and explore the surrounding area, I wandered along the busy High Street with all its amazing colours and smells, I also found the Manor House, the War Memorial, the Southall Rail Crash Memorial Garden, and the huge Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha.

A huge thanks goes to the team involved in putting on the day's event.

Related links:

My GPS course data

The Relive course fly-by video

The London parkruns 

Plant-based Fast Food

As the title says, this page is for fast food and on-the-go foods.

A note regarding Greggs. The sausage roll is always available, but they rotate their other hot vegan offerings, so only one of the bakes/slices is available at any one time. Hopefully this will change one day.

Greggs: Vegan Sausage Roll - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

When this was introduced it was quite a big moment for vegan on-the-go foods and it became an instant hit. It proved that there is a need and market for everyday vegan alternatives. The sausage roll itself is very nice - It has a nice flaky pastry, but I do sometimes wonder if the filling is a little too mushy. That's probably me being picky. It's a great option to have out there and I do find myself popping in to buy one if I'm in need of a quick lunch while out and about.

Greggs: Vegan Steak Bake - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I love the vegan steak bake. Everything is just right. The thick, deep gravy and the tender steak-style pieces are a great combo. Sadly I haven't seen this option available for a long time.

 

Greggs: Vegan Sausage, Bean and CheeZe Melt - ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Another option from Greggs which I quite like. I've never really liked many of the vegan cheese options and this is no different. However it does work. I've always found it to be slightly stingy on the sausage part, but maybe that's just me wanting more.

Greggs: Vegan Festive Bake - ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

As the name suggests, this is a seasonal line. I had a couple during it's first festive season. It's probably my least favourite of their offerings, but that's down to the creamy-ish filling which is not really my thing. Still, if I was hungry and they had this, I'd definitely have it again.

McDonalds: The McPlant Burger - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Finally released nationwide in January 2022, the McPlant packs all the elements of a regular McDonalds burger into a vegan offering. The burger itself was nice, it did lack a little in the meaty department but I can overlook that. The vegan cheese slice was there but it's not a particularly strong flavour. That classic flavour of the ketchup and gherkin was there in the mix. Overall it is great and I'd have it again. Since giving up meat, I never really missed McDonalds (I had stopped eating there years before) but it is brilliant to see this kind of offering in a place like this.

Pizza Hut: Vegan Pizza - ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

I tried one of their vegan pizzas a few years ago. It had jackfruit on it and I remember it being nice enough. The main problem I found is that the cheese (ch**se) is like runny plastic and stuck to the roof of my mouth in a really unpleasant way. I know they now have a few more options, but in general vegan cheese really needs to improve. As it stands I would prefer to have pizza minus the cheese (or just a very small amount of vegan cheese). For the record, the pizza was really nice - it's only the cheese that brings down the rating.

Burger King: Plant-based Whopper - ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

The plant-based Whopper should be available in most branches of Burger King but please be aware that due to the pattie being cooked on the same broiler as meat, it is not technically vegan or vegetarian by the time it makes it into your hands. I was fortunate enough to be able to try this during the 1 month vegan-only trial in Leicester Square, London in March/April 2022 so didn't have to worry about that detail. This one cost £5.49 which I thought was fairly pricey, but I don't really eat or very often so I may be behind the times a little! You'll be pleased to know that it is a great burger - pretty similar to the original Whopper (from what I remember at least). It even has that char-grilled flavour. All Burger King really need to do is sort out the cooking method and I may even pop back for another!

Burger King: Bakon Double Cheezburger - ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

I tried this at the temporary vegan Burger King in Leicester Square, London. The texture and flavour of the two patties/burgers was good. However I was surprised to see how thin each one was. The were a few rashers of bakon on top of the burgers and this was nice, but the flavour could have been stronger. The cheez was there but there wasn't really much flavour. The price was £4.49 and this was obviously a but cheaper than the Whopper (above). Overall it was a nice burger.

Burger King: Vegan Nuggets - ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

I bought the 6pc vegan nugget option which cost £4.29. That works out at 71.5p per nugget and it seemed quite expensive to me. Anyway, they were nice. I must admit, I didn't eat these until a few hours after I bought them so they may not have been at their best, but they were perfectly good nuggets which I would buy again,

KFC: Vegan Burger - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The original KFC Zinger Tower burger was my favourite fast-food burger until I gave up eating meat, so I was pleased to see that KFC had made the effort to put a vegan option on their menu. The burger itself is not a zinger or a tower, but for now it'll do. It consists of a Quorn fillet which is coated in KFC's original 11 herbs and spices, iceberg lettuce and vegan mayonnaise. All in a bun. I really enjoyed it and can't really find any fault at all. I really hope they can one day expand this into a proper vegan zinger tower burger. The main thing to bear in mind when ordering this is that KFC's chips are not technically vegan or vegetarian as they are cooked in the same oil as their popcorn chicken, so don't order them if you want to maintain the a strict meat-free diet. Also the vegan option may not be available at all branches, so have a check on their website before visiting. I got mine in the Bluewater shopping centre branch.

Costa Coffee: Vegan Bac'n Breakfast Bap - ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

This consists of a soft white bap with a vegan spread. The 'bacon' is Naked without the Oink which you can buy from some supermarkets. Overall it was really nice - the bun can be picked up from the chiller cabinet and the staff warm it up for you and I added some ketchup afterwards.

Notes:

Burger King:  The vegan Whopper (and I'm guessing all their beef-style burgers) in their regular stores are cooked on the same broiler as the meat options which effectively cancels out their vegetarian/vegan status. I don't fully understand why they would go to the effort of developing a vegan version only to ruin all of those efforts at the final stage (actually, I do get that this isn't intended to lure in vegans, but to give meat-eaters the option of trying a meat-free version. Still it seems like an incredibly stupid thing to do). The trial Vegan-only branch in London's Leicester Square should remove this issue, but that's not much use to people that are nowhere near it.