Another Virtual Race Series has come and gone. Fourth this year. Just of the podium. Well done to JP, Paul and Naomi. And also a big thank you for JP to organising.
Since November I’ve been losing weight, mostly successfully, and getting back into longer runs. It has given me a chance to explore a bit further afield and while I still end up often doing laps of the park, I am at least lapping a different park now. So far, I’ve been feeling good, which has surprised me a little, so that has been lovely.
Last week I was thrilled to complete the parkrun obsessive challenge. Which is the achievement you get for completing 50 parkruns in a year.
It’s a tough ask, although New Year’s Day and Christmas Day mean you can miss up to four Saturdays if you complete those. I made it to 45 in 2018 and 2019 and then 46 last year. But around September I realised I had only missed two so far and if I could be consistent, I could get to 50.
That made for some nervous times with multiple storms, including Storm Darragh cancelling 16 of the 20 parkruns near me including all of my locals. But I made it! In fact, I managed to end the year on 52. parkrun has been such an important anchor over the last 18 months and I’m looking forward to plenty more in 2025.
For the final club swim of the year we did a video analysis session. It’s so much easier to work out where you can improve when you can see yourself swimming. So we did just that and took the footage to the pub for a Christmas drink and video review.
I’m really pleased with my overall body position. Lots to improve, of course, and some great action points for my hand entry, catch and pull.
On Sunday, Iveagh Sports Ground launched their junior parkrun. I was quietly hoping there would be cake. There wasn’t, but there was lots of very friendly and encouraging volunteers. The course is two laps on grass. It’s flat but still has a few lumps to make it interesting.
Another weekend trip. This time, our first one to County Wexford. Gorey is three laps of a the local park. It’s flat, a nice park and a cafe with toilets in the centre for post-parkrun snacks. Ticked off another G for Staying Alive and my 59th for Cowell Club. Lovely to be there for their 8th birthday and thank you to all of the volunteers.
Another letter ticked off the alphabet challenge! This week I completed the University of Galway parkrun, earning me a valuable “U” and completing the spell “parkrun” challenge. It’s a nice course: a few laps around the field then an out and back along the river before one final lap of the field. Very flat and surface was nice enough for my fast shoes.
On Friday, we staged our first Mini Triathlon. It consisted of a 400-metre swim in the pool, a 10 km cycle in the spin studio and a 2 km run around campus. It was a lot to organise but well worth it. Eight athletes took part and apart from having to invalidate the bike results due to a misconfiguration, everything went smoothly. We can’t wait to run some more events like this next year.
On Saturday we took to the cycle track at Corkagh Park for a coached cycle session. We went through fundamentals including gears, braking, cornering, and then onto group riding skills. We finished with a time trial and then a relay race with matched pairs from the time trial. I didn’t win but I did have a lot of fun coaching!
Last weekend I drove up to Mullagh in County Cavan to tick off my “E” in parkruns. It’s a beautiful part of the world. It doesn’t have the dramatic mountains of Wicklow or the west, but lovely countryside filled with trees, rivers and fields. And people: I had a lovely welcome. Thank you to all of the volunteers who made the event happen.
The course itself is four laps in a figure of eight around the park. It terms of lapping sports fields it was lovely as here were bridges, ponds, streams and lovely buildings surrounding the park.
