Glens, Tollymore, parkruns and more over the jump!

Warmup
Our first full week of 2019 draws to a close. While not as packed as the previous week’s events, we Dub still managed to find some time to squeeze in some races between ringing in the new year. We’ll have an extensive review of just what we did in the early hours of 2019 in a moment! I had a Canadian friend staying with me over the break and we decided that we wanted to watch a movie one evening. I asked if he’d seen Titanic and he replied, “What’s that about?” I told it was, a big one from here that sank. Results time!

New Year’s Day parkrun
Anyone remember when New Year’s Day used to be about recovering from the night before? When did we those people who get up early and aim for the NYDD – that’s the New Year’s Day Double parkrun. With some cracking conditions on a grand mild day, we started a new year of running:

What a start to 2019 – awesome work Dubbers!  Despite the numbers, we have to tip our hats to our new course PB setters including Kathy (at Lough Key), Dermot (at Waterworks), Catherine (at Stormont), Nessa (at Stormont), Marie Mc (at Stormont), Liam (at Stormont), Julia (at Stormont) and Frances (at Ormeau). Some used the opportunity to be a tourist and set a newbie PB like Edward (at Enniskillen), Jim (at Stormont and Orangefield), Catherine (at Orangefield) and Julia (at Orangefield). Final mention has to go to the 13 valliant Dubs who braved the double: Nessa, Liam, Steven, Jim, James S, Catherine, Ronan O, Marie Mc, Ronan Mc, Julia, Brona, Lynn and Jane!

Race Over the Glens
Some people go out for a nice New Year’s Day walk. Some, including us runners, go for a race. Not just any race, oh no, one that 750ft of elevation change, undulating for the first 2.5 miles, before lulling into a false sense of security, before a steep almost 2-mile climb to the finish. We had one Dub on the start line:

Not a raze to be sneezed at – this is a tough one – so magic running Katherine. First race of 2019 for you and for the club! Rumour has it that you ran your best time of the year so far at that race! A well-earned rest is required after this one – I’m sure there’s a box of Celebrations to be finished off! IN the meantime, here’s a race photo:

Run Forest Run: Tollymore
The series returns to Tollymore Forest Park and for the second time in this batch of races, it is a looped course! With the first half trending downhill, the second half trends uphill, set in some stunning scenery, this is a cracking wee race. We had an Errigle of Dubs take to the line for this special event:

A fantastic Dub team event – eight blue tops taking to the trails and paths and enjoying the sights and sounds that the forest has to offer. Some great running too, with all our runners coming in very close to each other – making for some interesting racing! The next event is on 19th January in Gosford, before that you can take a look at what you missed out on this week:

parkrun
With our recent run of good weather continuing, finding a park and going for a weekend run is that little bit easier. We had what feels like half the club coming out of hibernation and putting the new year’s resolutions in full swing – love it. Right, let’s take a look at where we’ve been this week:

Woah – what a start to 2019 at the first parkrun in the year!  Let tip our hats this week, first home at Stormont was Claire, while over at Falls we had Steven grab the second spot on the podium. Our third place finishers were Niall also at Falls while Bernie took a trip to the beach at Portrush completing the podium. We had a couple of new course PBs set by Anne Marie (at Waterworks), Valerie (at Victoria), Julia (at Queen’s) and James S (at Colin Glen).

Cooldown
With that, we draw a line under the first week of the year, where we can rest happy in the knowledge that it is just 50 short weeks before we get to do it all again! As it is a new year, and being back to work makes it harder to spy and see when people are racing – so if you’re doing some random (I’m looking at you Steven) that you think we might miss, do us a favour, get your name in lights and let us know here at Roundup Towers! I watched a documentary last night on beavers – it’s the best dam thing I’ve watched on TV all year!

Live long and prosper.

Disclaimer: Every effort was taken to ensure the results above are correct (have a go yourself, see if you can do this). If you’d also like to make a complaint, then you’ll automatically volunteer yourself for writing duties next week