parkrun, lap two

Be careful if you decide to buy into the "support your Parkrun, buy the merch" message that comes up every now and again. Decided to get a barcode wristband and as you do, oh the travel mug looks nice, so does the water bottle. Just short of €80 worth of stuff. Dispatched from the UK. The UK. Just get a lovely text and email from An Post to say they are adding an extra 10% to that for Customs charges. Not Parkruns fault, I know but it will make me wary of getting other merch again.

Many UK retailers sort it so that duty is paid at source rather than on delivery. Prodirect do it for the milestone tshirts. The same could easily be done for the parkrun merchandise but it just seems that parkrun have little interest in doing it for Irish parkrunners. parkrun Ireland has enough events and active parkrunners to be self governing but it still seems that parkrun view Irish parkruns as a subset of the UK rather than their own entity. Sorry, rant over.

Yes friends of mine whom I got into parkrun ordered wristbands after seeing mine (mine is years old). They got stung with customs on it and I felt bad cos I'd recommended they get them - and they aren't cheap. I'm tempted to get the apricot singlet and I find that my apricot tshirt (it's an old one) a bit heavy for this time of year - and the possible additional costs are putting me off.

Thanks, we're down near Spanish point, so about 45 mins from Coole Park, so might be a little far unless Lees and Vandeleur are totally unsuitable! :-)

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.

Got stung there getting a volunteer pin as a gift for a regular. Duty nearly as much as the pin!

My shout would be Naas if it's not windy.

Yeah, for me shanganagh is miles quicker than marlay. Wide tar paths, pancake flat and reasonably sheltered.

Of the limited number in the south of the country I've been to, I'd say Killarney is about the fastest.

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.

University area is nearby to Ormeau Park (within a warmup jog) and plenty of options on booking.com for a one night stay.

Just leaving this here....

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.

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.

He posted an apology on his Twitter account, but his account is protected so only followers can see it, I think.

I never saw the point of Contra either, though I didn't see this coming.

"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."

https://www.parkrun.com/blog/news/2022/06/23/trust-tested-at-parkrun/

"Receiving commission from a third party supplier" ain't no "Corporate Golf trip day"

Is it back this weekend? They seem to have a volunteer roster for 16 July

This should answer the question 😊

https://www.corkathletics.org/news/2597-tramore-valley-parkrun-resumes-saturday-july-16th.html