We were in Dundrum, the Mournes, Amsterdam and don’t forget about the parks – find it all over the jump!

Warmup
Some people have asked why Steven T brought cake at the club last week, he remembered that this week roundup, our corner of the interweb is now five years old! Yep, that’s right I’ve been spamming all your inboxes for five years now – how on earth have you not all asked me to leave the club yet?!  You know getting my drone stuck in a tree isn’t the worst thing tat happened to me over the weekend – but it’s definitely up there.  Let’s get rolling with getting everyone’s name in lights:

Dundrum GR8
The perfectly formulated race of just five different segments, each bringing its own unique terrain to navigate. We have the hilly first section, then there is the stone-y section, followed by the infamous beach, on to the boardwalk, before a final turn onto the main road and a two-mile run home to the finish! Our Errigle of Dubs taking part on Saturday morning was a mere 48 blue tops:

Woah – that was a club day and a half! Two Dubs, Brendan and Philip, in the top five and Collette coming home in second place a tour de force! Outstanding performances from the entire club who ran – lots of determined faces approaching the finish line, followed by the deserved smiles of pride after crossing the line. With the race beginning with a downpour of biblical proportions – it was a miracle that it dried up so quickly and the sun came out for a pleasant finish to the run – there wasn’t even a breeze on the beach this year! We have a gallery of photos from the finish line available to view, but who wants a random selection of them?!

Mourne Skyline MTR
It seems the Newcastle area was the place to be if you wanted to race this weekend! This annual race was over 21 miles, with a whooping over 8,000 ft of elevation change and ten distinct peaks – oh year, it’s the Mourne Skyline MTR! This year’s event had just the one solo blue top representing – and they did the club proud:

A welcome return to the roundup for our Pocket Rocket, Brenie – outstanding effort and running. Over 5 hours on your feet in the mountains and with those rotten conditions earlier in the day too. Not just that, but taking the Donard Descent segment award once again – just the icing on the cake of a fantastic day’s running. Enough taking, let’s get some photos:

Amsterdam Marathon
This popular marathon begins and finishes in the iconic Olympic Stadium and follows the classic Olympic route taking in the Amstel River, stately homes, windmills and stunning rural scenery – most of the things you want to associate with Amsterdam. One Dub made a flying visit to take on the course:

Aw, brilliant Jim! That is some great running around – and some consistent running between marathons too! The main man admits that he had a cracking first half or so of the race but got a little tired from mile 18 onwards – still a top time to be proud of! Time now send through some photos, then relax and enjoy all that Amsterdam has to offer!

parkrun
It started fresh on Saturday morning, but as it got closer to 9:30am the sun began to show its face and started the split the leaves and branches. It was getting warmer as the crowds made their way to the start line – with representation at a handful of different events. Let’s see who went where for their 5k fix:

Great to see fourteen Dubs still out parkrunning despite the massive attendance at a certain other race that was also on on Saturday! I have my hat and I hope that you have yours as John C was second home at the Victoria event while Niall was in third place over at the Oremau event. We had some cracking new course PBs set by John C (at Victoria), Dale (at Queen’s), Niall (at Ormeau), Ronan O (at Ormeau) and Michael KS (at Stranmillis College). There was some tourism this week from Nuala (at Antrim). Just found the one photo this week:

Warmdown
Here’s to the next five years! Who still has the first one?! Dublin Marathon weekend is coming up so if you’re racing – we want to wish you the best of luck! If you’re supporting – don’t forget about photos please!! And of course, best of luck to anyone racing over the next seven days!  Did you know that nurses carry around red crayons? It is in case they have to draw blood.

Live long and prosper.

Disclaimer: Every effort was taken to ensure the results above are correct (you try standing in the cold in Dundrum yourself!) If you’d also like to make a complaint, then you’ll automatically volunteer yourself for writing duties