parkrun, lap two

Yup and naas cancelled also. Not up there yet

Mountbellew is out, a few others I'm looking at, mainly the ones that went ahead last week, are doing early morning course inspections before making a call.

Knocknacarra and Oranmore are off.

Edit All Co Galway runs are cancelled.

Athlone is on.

The fifty dream is over

I'm thinking about doing a challenge next year, thinking of calling it 32in23 where I plan to do one parkrun in each of the 32 counties of Ireland over the course of 2023 (gives me 20 weeks to volunteer locally) but of course the dumb question is, are there Parkruns in all 32 counties? No point in taking this up and finding out they don't have any in, I dunno, Leitrim.

15:25 now!

Some more detail here: https://the5krunner.com/2022/04/22/a-parkrun-barcode-on-your-garmin-or-apple-watch-parkrun-phone-apps/

Sure does, my Garmin scans via QR, works better than a regular barcode

On the road next weekend and Kilcock and Castletown are both en route. Help me decide! Haven't run either of them before.

Kilcock is faster but Castletown much easier on the eye, but not a great one if youre looking for a time

Lovely coffeshop in the house in castletown for afterwards too ;-)

Was browsing the event map to get an idea where to go for my 32 counties of Parkrun challenge and it surprised me how many counties only have the one. Basically any county beginning with 'L' that isn't Limerick, Sligo and Kilkenny. Sligo on the basis of how many there are in all the other Wild Atlantic Way counties and Laois was another eyebrow raiser. I would have thought somewhere like Abbeyleix, Stradbally or any of the parks in the foothills of the Slieve Blooms would have something going but no. Just a Grand Canal run in Vicarstown close to Kildare.

Now, settle something for me in relation to Carlow, specifically Tullow Parkrun. Tullow itself is in County Carlow but if you look at the map the park appears to be over the border in Wicklow. So if I was to run it, would it count as Carlow or Wicklow in your opinion. At any rate I'll probably just do Carlow town to be safe and Avondale Forest for Wicklow

And this is where the map puts them, well into Wicklow territory. I'd nearly let Wicklow have it as they are another county with surprisingly few Park runs for the amount of public parks in the county.

Thanks, nearly didn't spot Russbourogh outside Blessington which also falls on the Wicklow side and looks handy enough. It'll probably be into the summer before I hit the east coast counties anyway so loads of time to consider. 🙂

They've only had something like 4 events since October. They keep being cancelled at very short notice by the owners of the venue. Very frustrating for the event team and participants so an understandable decision.

BTW, best of luck with your 32 counties challenge. If I meet you again, I promise not to ruin your photo again.😝😝

Sorry I never updated on this. We went with Castletown in the end. Quite enjoyed it, it wasn't as far away as we had thought, and just off the motorway. I actually hadn't realised (and should probably brush up on my geography) that it went along by the Liffey, I enjoyed that bit along by the river. It was a little bit of an obstacle course that day as there were quite a lot of puddles to avoid. We had to hit the road straight after but we may return again in a drier season and explore the surrounds after.

Great performance by Joe Hastings@Shanganagh Parkrun yesterday with course record 15:17 all on his own, in fairness when you see a quality athlete go off like a bat of hell you go WOW! 😀

A bit late but Niall Murphy (18) broke record on Saturday in Lees Road 15:13. He is running in the schools the weekend. Impressive given the (not) flat terrain and no one to push him on