Traverse from Greyabbey to Achill Island to Ardboe to all the parks and more over the jump!

Warmup
Welcome along, great to see you here – take your shoes off would you if you’re coming in? Another stunning week for the Blues over the past seven days, find out more soon. Someone has suggested that as a club we should do more stretches and they have suggested lunges – but that’s a big step. Right, let’s go:

Greyabbey 10k
Keep on heading past Ards and you will hit Greyabbey. On a Friday evening, when we’re all thinking about how to relax for the weekend – while one solo Dub made the trip. In cracking conditions, this two-lap, undulating route takes entrants around the streets of the town. Let’s see who it was:

Some great running – especially after such a hard start with all the various distance runners setting off together. Not one to let a humid evening put you off that is a solid time posted – one that allows bragging rights for days to come! With record breaking numbers taking part, we managed to spot our Dub:

Achill Island Half Marathon
They might not have won an All Ireland in a while – but Mayo sure know how to put on a half marathon! If you’re not familiar, this isn’t a flat island, in fact there were in the region of seven parts of the race which could be described a peaking! Undulating this is not – bloody tough would be a better description, so which of our Dubs took a fancy to this one?

An area of outstanding beauty and an outstanding time over the 13.1-mile course – fantastic running Kate! 750ft of elevation change in a half marathon is a task and a half – we hope that you didn’t have to drive yourself home!  A special wave to our Friend of the Dubs, Kate’s sister, Shirley Anne who completed the course in an awesome 02:20:28.  Sisters are doing it for themsleves:

Great Rossa Run
Anyone know where Ardboe is?  Me either, I’ll save you a Google search, it is in Tyrone and just to the west of Lough Neagh.  With a countryside full of scenic roads to pound along – and a mostly flat route – in sunny and bright conditions, made this event something special.  We had just the one Dub running:

Great, great running Sean – what a time!  Brilliant effort!  It must have been a warm run being exposed out in the sun – with my breeze from the lough lost by the time is made its way to you!  Aww, no photos this time, sorry folks 🙁

parkrun
July means holidays – but now holidays don’t mean an excuse to not run!  With parkruns now taking place all over the world, the only reason to miss out is if you (deliberately) forget your barcode!  A lovely fresh morning in the parks will always bring out a strong number of blue tops – this week was absolutely no different:

Yikes – 25 blue tops at, no less than 13 different events across Europe this Saturday morning – fantastic! Grab you at because on the top step this week we had Catherine (at Stormont) and Roisin (at Holy Cross College), while on the second step was Nessa (at Stranmillis College) and completing the podium paying positions was Stacey (at Wallace) and Karen (at Colin Glen). We had one new all time 5k PB this weekend set by Rob (at Victoria) – magic! Course PBs were the subject of the day for Kathy (at Waterworks), Julia (at Waterworks), Brona (at Waterworks), Dale (at Queen’s) and Stacey (at Wallace). A few spots of tourism and newbie PBs were set by Liam (at Victoria), Mark H (at Portrush), Ryan (at Valley), Karen (at Colin Glen), Roisin (at Holy Cross College) and Mike S (at Westpark).

Warmdown
Done for another week! Thanks everyone – another friendly reminder to let us know in Roundup Towers about your sneaky races – let’s face we all deserve some time off over the summer – ourselves included, so things might get missing – and we want your name in lights! Here, has anyone tried the ‘Dire Straits Café’? They’re asking money for muffins but the chips are free.

Live long and prosper.

Disclaimer: Every effort was taken to ensure the results above are correct (I’m getting into holiday mode – so stuff it!) If you’d also like to make a complaint, then you’ll automatically volunteer yourself for writing duties