Post-Parkrun Market Mayhem

My sister and I had a plan for today, a simple one, a healthy one. We would head over to the Parkrun at Queen Elizabeth Country Park and do a day of juicing. Maybe we would wander to the beach and have a paddle in the sea but generally a fairly chilled, but nutritionally brilliant day in preparation for a half marathon tomorrow.

The day started well. An apple, avocado and banana combo saw us to the start of the run. I did have a few moments of regret as I ran up QE Parkrun's huge slog of a hill at a fairly decent pace and could taste the banana creeping back up from the depths of my stomach, fortunately it didn't manage to creep too far. It's a tough course though and I did feel sick nearly the whole way around due to a combination of going out too hard and completely forgetting any sort of inhaler; the lungs certainly got a workout! After the run, we even avoided the plethora of tasty-looking cakes brought my the QE Parkrun cake club and generally felt very righteous.

The crux in our plan was the Hampshire Farmers Market, which only comes to Emsworth once a month and therefore was an absolute must to visit. We decided to nip in on the way back from the run and just "have a quick peruse". After convincing ourselves that we "definitely didn't need anything", ten minutes of not very quick perusing had us coloured far too excited and dashing to the cashpoint.

Huuuge cakes (with a lime, for size comparison.. not
a serving suggestion)

Naturally, the cake/biscuit/general baked goods stalls were a favourite. One chap (who was very generous with samples and wouldn't let you make a purchase without at least trying some, and it would be very rude not to..) was selling a range of largely dairy-free, vegetable-based cakes and we couldn't resist coming away with a giant butternut squash 'muffin'. We were very easily lured in to another stall, Beceries, that had a good selection of delicious gluten-free treats and a very friendly, chatty man whose business card said he was called Rebecca. We didn't judge him, especially as we came away with the largest slice of bakewell tart I have ever seen.

Just a few purchases...

After cherry tasting, jam savouring, difficult sausage-based decisions, finding out what a "Wight cake" was,  agreeing that a crab samosa sounds far more appealing than a crab pasty and realising Amie only had a single penny left, we concluded it was time to go home. I caught a whiff of my own after-run aroma that had obviously been building as we wandered in the sunshine and knew it was definitely time for a wash.

Despite our over-enthusiastic purchasing, we still came home and made juice. Go us!

Ignore the food, have the juice!

...then had afternoon tea.