Not a real milestone. My running form looks pretty good, though. Thanks Dermot for the photo.
Donabate parkrun takes place at Newbridge House & Farm. It’s a beautiful country house and the drive in passes a ruined tower, plenty of trees and open grass. The house looks lovely from the front (see below) but not quite as nice from the side (see above).
The run is one large lap and then one shorter lap so you don’t repeat too much. There is a nice cafe for on-site snacks after the run, too.
Last weekend I went to River Valley parkrun. It is a lovely course: two laps of the park including running along thw stream in the middle of the park. There is a hill but it is nothing compared to Temple Newsam.
I hadn’t run since Westport marathon so I was pretty pleased to be just over 26 minutes. This one takes me to 348, so only two to go until the next unofficial milestone. I did get sunburnt, though! It hasn’t stopped raining since October and at 9:30 am I managed to catch the sun.
With Storm Kathleen sweeping over our islands I wasn’t sure what parkruns would be on. There was a nervous wait from 8:00 to 8:30 as I refreshed all of the Facebook pages hoping to see someone would confirm their parkrun was on. Royal Canal parkrun were the first to confirm so was delighted to join them.
The course is an out-and-back that starts from the town centre. It is pan-flat with no locks on the course. I set off thinking I would not be able to match last week’s time, especially as there would be more of a headwind coming back. But as it happens, I managed to set another walking PB of:
33:38
It was my first visit to Kilcock and it looks like a beautiful place.
After five weeks of resting and physio, I’m still not able to run. So, thinking about what old man sports I could do, I decided to watch a race walking tutorial and see if I could improve on my 5k walking pb of 35:38 set earlier this month.
It turns out that with only a basic understanding of the technique, the answer is yes! I managed to take over a minute and a half off my time and achieve a new pb of:
33:57
I was expecting some soreness after and I did get it but not where I expected: my arms were the most sore and continue to be so.
I’m delighted to be running again.
Tolka Valley was the last parkrun I needed to tick off the Dublin set. A nice small affair with a field of 38 runners and plenty of volunteers braving the rain to support the event. Nice views over the city, too.
Naas parkrun celebrated their 10th anniversary last weekend. There was cake! The course is on Naas race course and it is 2.5 laps of the ambulance track. They do mean a half: you start on one side of the loop and finish on the far side, meaning an extra 1,500 metre walk back around and through the stables to the car park. A good way to burn off the cake.
I have an ankle issue so I’m walking at the moment. That is a good excuse to do some touristing, though. The course is three laps of the park and it is very flat. I was very pleased with my time of 36:46 given I was walking.
I took an easy joy around Tymon for parkrun this weekend as I was feeling under the weather. It is nice enough: two laps and a gentle slope but no serious hills. The park does run right next to the M50, though, which does make it noisy. I had a lovely time, though, and was glad I got out of bed.
More parkrun touristing this week. I felt pretty ill on the morning but I forced myself to go anyway and once I got there I felt okay. Better than okay as it turns out: I went out taking it easy and backing off when I was really hurting and yet I managed to run my fastest parkrun of the year. Not bad for November.
23:46
The course was a brand new course due to building work so there is a chance it was a little short. But I’m taking it as a good sign that I’m on the road back to my old self.
The park itself is very pretty. It’s urban and under the flight path but the forst on the grass and the duck pond in the centre were beautiful.
