Racing the elements at Castlewellan, the Dub and many parks – find out more over the jump!

Warmup
Here we go – and just like that we’re into the final edition of February! We have had yet another impressive past seven days at the club, with some firsts to cover this week – all the gossip on that and lots more in a moment.  Firstly off, does anyone know the correct definition of propaganda? Well, its what cockney says when they have a really close look at something.  Let’s have a look at what we’ve been doing:

Run Forest Run, Race 8: Castlewellan Forest Park
The Run Forest Run Series wound up at Castlewellan Forest Park on Saturday for the final race. With the now all too familiar blustery wind and hailstones conditions met anyone who thought they were home and dry too soon! The 5k took in one lap of the lake, while the 10k followed the same course before making a sharp ascent up past Castlewellan Castle and along several kilometers of undulating trails before dropping back down to the lake to finish. A handful of dubs braved the elements:

Well done folks – that is it done for another year! With our Phil coming home in second place and all the other Dubs posting some cool times despite the efforts of the elements. Back to the hall for the final prize giving and six solid performances (from the eight) over the winter saw Brendan made the overall series winner! Quite an achievement and the first time a blue top has held this honour! Here’s a picture of the series winners:

Stroke Association’s Resolution Run
Designed as a run to build up to after the excess of Christmas (did we just mention the C word?!) Set in the familiar surrounds of our summer haunts, it all kicks off at the Queen’s Playing Fields, head down Dead Man’s Hill, along the trails uphill to the track and looping back round. Once around the block for the 5k, twice for those brave enough for the 10k.

“Finish lines, not finish times” was the motto for this year’s event, dropping the official timings in favour of ensuring that everyone crossed the line and had a great time in the process. So give a big hand to Marie S, Mike S and Dale (a fantastic ambassador for the Stroke Association) who all completed the 10k course in some unexpected cracking conditions over Sunday lunchtime. Great running everyone.

parkrun
No named storm this week – but that didn’t stop the weather biting back. Rain, wind and hailstones were on the menu – welcome if it hit you going in the right direction, and very unwelcome when it made you feel like you were running backwards! 11 different events and 27 blue tops went running on Saturday morning:

Leading the pack this week and deserving of a hat tip is our only new PB’er of the week and setting an awesome new all-time 5k PB too was Vic (at Wallace). We had a host of newbies trying out different events for the first time including Nuala (at Citypark), Katherine and Francis (at Castlewellan) and Mike (at Levengrove, Scotland). Here’s a photo of the drowned rats at Queen’s:

Warmup
Enjoy the extra day this coming weekend – it won’t be here again for another four years, so make the most of it! Hope to see a few of you at the Volunteer Flashmob at Queen’s this coming weekend – it will be nice to give a little back to the event that has given us so, so much. Enough soppiness, does anyone know if Audible have any good Stephen King audio books? I’ve heard a few horror stories.

Disclaimer: Every effort was taken to ensure the results above are correct (I’m getting too old for this game!) If you’d also like to make a complaint, then you’ll automatically volunteer yourself for writing duties  !