From pakrun to marathons – and everything in between. More over the jump.

Warmup
Aren’t we runners supposed to be on our “off-season”?! Could have fooled me – but sure isn’t it all great to see so many of us out and about (and setting PBs)! I heard about that Tollymore race and all the lovely trees that are passed during the race, and I tried to come up with a good joke about carpentry – but I couldn’t think of any that wood work… So, the results:

Run In The Dark
For those who think that there is hard work done in Stormont during the day – should have taken a look at the efforts put in last Wednesday for the annual, now worldwide Run in the Dark race. The loop: up the iconic hill towards Parliament Buildings, through the estate before looping round on the main road (and repeat). We had three Dubs taking part:

Really fantastic running folks – tackling that hill a second time is a very daunting prospect – so really great running (and thanks for coming in together, made my life a lot easier). A special nod to my James Bond bud – Sean, who only went and ran a personal best time for a 10k! Great going folks!

Tollymore
With the road racing season over, it is now time to start to combine the road racing distances with a trail race! Tollymore provides all that and more: the marathon route is two loops with two massive hills (which of course means big downs as well) – with the half marathon being one loop. The race was event described by one entrant as “very much like Belvoir Forest on steroids“… Let’s see who took part:

Fan-flipping-tastic everyone! I know the race started in less than idea conditions, and that they only got worse as the day continued. Collette managed to survive a chesty cough, fall badly and was still able to finish as the 1st female! Really well done everyone, that was a more challenging than it needed to be course – so fair play for racing – I hope you all had a little celebration on Saturday evening, it was very well deserved.

Abbey Dash 10k (Leeds)
If you’re going to go away for a weekend, why not throw is a wee race while you’re away (and no, I am NOT taking any hints)?! That’s what one member of the club did taking on the Abbey Dash in Leeds, which is an out and back, fairly flat course, with a headwind on the way out – but that meant that it was on your back for the return leg! We had one runner in the race:

First off, a fantastic new personal best for James – a PB by just over a minute! Really well done – and we hope that you were able to enojoy the weekend away too.

parkrun
With the temperatures dropping the best way to get warmed up on a Saturday morning is to get up and out of your bed – and to go running – and that is exactly what quite a few of us did this weekend, out in massive numbers despite the cold and the rain. Let’s have a look at how everyone got on:

Special nods this week to Roisin who was first across the line at the Stormont event and Natalie who was third home at Queen’s. Also, big up on the new PBs from Peter (at Queen’s) and Marty (at Ormeau). Finally, as alwayss, newbie PBs this week from Ryan (at Queen’s), Roisin (at Stormont) and Amanda who ran her first ever parkrun at Queen’s!

Warmdown
That is it for another week – and you have all been very busy this week!! Let’s keep up the great work and the momemtum and keep ‘er lit over the next few weeks. At breakfast the other morning, the missus told that she is leaving me because of my obsession with Twitter… I almost choked on my #Brown.

Keep on running!

Live long and prosper