Lees Rd wouldn't be suitable for a buggy, I don't think, if racing it anyway. It's on a mixture of grass, gravel/trail, and a bit of sand. There's a section through the woods that goes up and down some twisty steep bits too.
Yeah, I've a specific running buggy, which is pretty rugged (and has 16 inch wheels) so can take a certain amount of uneven ground..Gravel/Fire Roads/Smooth Grass would all be fine (if not for all out racing), but potholes, narrow twisty bits etc would be a ballache.
But if it's mostly like the below, it would be grand.
It would be a bit rougher than that in general. Is Mungret an option? Not flat but good surface as is Clarisford.
I haven't done Shannon so can't comment
Got stung there getting a volunteer pin as a gift for a regular. Duty nearly as much as the pin!
There must be a better way of doing things, we need an Irish or at least 'European' merchandise supplier. It's now extremely expensive.
Lees Road is grand with a buggy, once its a proper running buggy. Bit lumpy, but have done far hillier, muddier and more crowded runs with the buggy. Clarisford was also great, although narrow in parts, the numbers meant that wasn't a problem.
Edit : I've not done the Shannon parkrun, not going to attempt to spell it, but I have run along the route a good few times and pushed the buggy around the trails there a bit. Unless the route takes some funny twists it should be grand around there from what I remember for pushing.
Where would people recommend as the best park run location in the ROI for a quick time?
Thanks in advance
My shout would be Naas if it's not windy.
Very biased opinion but I'm going with Marlay, the standard is one of the highest around, it's one big loop and if you manage the opening hill well, it has an electric fast last km.
Marlay is my local and I really enjoy it but it's definitely not one for a quick time. The bottle neck at the start, then the hill and then a couple of sharp U turns will cost you time.
Fair point regarding the concert field turns. I've run Shanganagh and Poppintree, which would both be flat but Marlay still has my two quickest times. I've heard good things about Malahide and it's on my to do.
Yeah, for me shanganagh is miles quicker than marlay. Wide tar paths, pancake flat and reasonably sheltered.
Darndale and Naas both very flat
Of the limited number in the south of the country I've been to, I'd say Killarney is about the fastest.
Midlands/West I would vote for Portumna Forest Park. Is there any official Park Run record?
Yeah we were saying that we'd like to order some of the apricot clothing - maybe a singlet or 1/4 zip. But it costs too much with all the extra charges. I know a friend was strung for extras costs for a barcode band. I manage by local parkrun's social media and I no longer share the details about the parkrun merch because I don't want to be that extra cost on participants. Before Brexit many of the regulars at my local parkrun got parkrun barcode bands and they were very handy.
The Irish parkrun records are at the bottom of https://www.parkrun.ie 16.41 for Meghan Ryan and 14.19 for Sean Tobin.
Unfortunately they don't say at which parkruns they were run.
Malahide's is familiar and 14:19, Sean Tobin, from 16/11/19.
Meghan's was in Marlay 27/11/2021
There are no additional costs on the apricot range or anything from Pro Direct, I think they can ship from EU. The additional costs seem to be on anything ordered from the parkrun website.
Well if you’d only asked Id have recommended Amagerfeld also. 😁Lovely course.
University area is nearby to Ormeau Park (within a warmup jog) and plenty of options on booking.com for a one night stay.
There is at least one regular buggy runner at Leesroad, hard work im sure, but they usually have a smile on their face.
I haven't done it with a buggy myself, as my youngest hasn't taken to the running buggy as well as the older lad did, but it can be done!
Darndale is off this sat. 18th. - made in Darndale festival is on.
Donabate is off 2nd July. - flavours of Fingal.
No parkrun or junior parkrun in Marlay for the next 3 weekends due to concerts.
Just leaving this here....
To give people more context, the ex CEO Nick Pearson was getting a commission from Contra
We discovered that our previous Chief Executive Officer Nick Pearson had an undisclosed and unapproved agreement by which he was receiving a commission from a third party supplier in regard to the creation of the clothing brand CONTRA in 2018. At no point was this conflict of interest disclosed to the Trustees or anyone else involved in parkrun.
Full statement here.
I think Parkrun needs to be more open about how much they get from merch partners and how much gets filtered down to the run events themselves, especially in Ireland. It's bad enough we have to pay a Boris bonus to get our armbands, if I hear most of my money goes towards the nearest run to Downing Street I'd be very unimpressed.
You should be fine in Lees Road if you have a decent running buggy. Biggest issue is the sand on about 50m of the course other then that surface is good for buggies.
While the optics are not good as an ED I think that the ethos of parkrun is driven by core teams and participants and this will pass
I never really got the point of the CONTRA brand. I understand that a portion of the sales went back into parkrun but is that not also the case with any of the offical parkrun merch - the wristbands, bottles, apricot tops, other official parkrun stuff. I would have rather bought something with parkrun on it to support and promote it, rather than a relatively unknown brand with no visible link to parkrun.
