Does anyone remember February 2019?  Good job that’s our latest Retro Roundup then!

2020 Update
As we quietly prepare for returning to training, there’s still no races, so always a good time to look back. Before we get there, the missus and I celebrated her 32nd birthday over the weekend – it was the fastest birthday party we’ve ever had!

Warmup
This week we have our first big half marathon distance road race of the 2019 season – even if it was half way down the country! Our Goats make a welcome return to the fold (see what we did there) on Donard – and we had some parkrun celebrations. Phew – and it is still only February!!! Results on their way in a jiffy – you’ll need a cushion this week!  First, I must tell you about my mate, Humpty Dumpty, he is having a terrible winter – which sucks because he had a great fall!

Flashmob parkrun: Victoria Park
In our 35-year history we never had a member complete 250 parkruns – now in the space of a month, we have our second! We had an Errigle of Dubs rightly coming out on a fine Saturday morning to show their support for Kathy around the popular parkrun route. Feeling a little nostalgic, a little over seven years after her first parkrun at Victoria, she returned with an army of Dubs for her 250th event:

Ah, we love a good flashmob – tell us blue tops that there’s cake somewhere and we’ll turn up in our droves – and why not?! We had the most fantastic reason to celebrate this week with Kathy becoming the first Dub female to cross the landmark. While Kathy may have stolen the show, we had Ryan, Marie S, Catherine, Karen and Aaron all bagging new PBs at the event! We also had newbie Rob, Judith and Anne Marie all being tourists and setting their target times for the Victoria event! Below is a small selection of photos, which you have to check out right here!

Useless Stat Klaxon
We love a good statistic here at Roundup Towers, and Kathy’s 250th parkrun gave us the chance to show off some new stats! Anytime we get a t-shirt milestone parkrun, we’ll publish some totally random, utterly useless, but it fills a few screen inches, parkrun stats:

Diddlers 5K
A charity race hosted by the Newtowncunningham (that’s in Donegal) community to raise funds for Paul Dillion whom recently was diagnosed with a life changing ailment. Commencing at the lower end of the village and ascending to the upper end with a turn into the countryside and around to the main Letterkenny Road and a reasonable downhill finish. Surely there’s only one person for the job?

Nice running Paul – and a fantastic charity effort from the little town just across the border. This was part of a weekend of fundraising events, and well represented by all the North West running clubs with over 1,200 runners and walkers taking part. What a show of strength! I know we ask for obligatory photos, but this time you’re getting a Where’s Wally?

Donard Wood Trail Race
The Dub goats are back, this time in a fund raiser for the Mourne Mountain Rescue (you know, the good guys and gals who come get you when you’re stuck). A short race which included a section called the Granite Steps – think infinite hewn stone steps cut into the foothills of Donard to the peak of Drinahilly – then a frenetic downhill thru the forest on tight paths. Which of our Goats were in action?!

Heart pounding thrilling stuff indeed – and that is just from reading the results! Imagine how our Goats felt. What a team performance – including Bernie rocketing to third place – typical Saturday basically! A fantastic day all around with some good spirits and craic – oh and some photos too!

Tony McGowan Run – Half Marathon
Drumshanbo may be 155 miles away (yes we Googled it, fight us) and in the heart of County Leitrim, but that won’t stop us getting in on the action. This race day is made of a number of distances including, new for 2019, a half marathon! An undulating but beautiful route in some tricky windy conditions for some added spice! One Dub, fresh from some cake made her way:

Back of the net! 250th parkrun one day, half marathon PB the next day – absolutely magic! Cracking running Kathy – and this was just a training run. Outstanding effort with any difficulties along the course made up for by some delicious food at the finish line (along with a bit of craic). What a weekend and what an amazing start to the mini-holiday, you absolutely deserve it!  Kathy sent on this photo with the simple caption of “Proof that I actually did it!”

parkrun
Despite the centre of the universe being at Victoria on Saturday morning – and it’s totally cool that some people couldn’t make. That’s the beauty of parkrun – all friends running together, challenging each other to do better. Even if you’re a few hundred miles and a plane ride apart. If that doesn’t make sense, check out the results:

A nice spread of runners out there and representing in our blue tops. A lot of steady, consistent running – which is a mark of a good winter’s worth of training. Don’t be putting that hat away just yet, we have to start tipping it! We had Marie Mc finishing in third place at Hasenheide (in Berlin) – more on that in a minute. We have a new PB set by James S (at Portrush). We had newbie PBs set by Bernie, Paul and Steven (at Castlewellan and doing the double)! Finally, being uber tourists while on their holibobs – the McCaughey’s ticked a “H” parkrun off the alphabet list – here’s some proof:

Warmdown
That brings to an end an almost RSI-induced wrist injury from so much typing – but wasn’t It worth it! If you want your name in lights (and let’s face it you deserve it) then all you have t do is let us know that you’re racing and our Roundup Towers team of super-secret spies will do the rest of the work for you!  I remember at school when I tried to become an artist, my music teacher heard me sing, she told me I should be tenor – tenor twelve feet away from every musical instrument!

Live long and prosper.

Disclaimer: Every effort was taken to ensure the results above are correct (watch out for GoPros, you never know where they’ll turn up!). If you’d also like to make a complaint, then you’ll automatically volunteer yourself for writing duties next week