Saturday 20th September
Whenever I am free on a Saturday morning and not taking part in another race or event I try and do the Parkrun. As they have one all over the country it is not too difficult to find one nearby. The great news is they don't just have them in the UK. They have started doing them in Ireland now - which is handy because that's where I was over the weekend! So off I popped to do the one at Marlay Park, in Dublin. As you can see, I am really working hard at my 5km run!
The great thing about these Parkruns is they have a designated venue to hold the post-race coffee for the runners. In this case it is the café and courtyard of Marlay House, where there is also a farmers' market. I must say that Marlay Parkrun is one of the prettiest Parkruns I have done. It goes around parkland and then through the woods, with the finish in front of a stately home. As well as the farmers' market there are also artisanal stalls. I was more interested in the foodstuff though and ended up spending more time at the market, due to the various cakes on offer!
As for the running, well, I was glad to finish in the top half of the field. Looking at previous results it looked like the level would be quite high with the top 10 males all doing sub-18 minutes and the top females doing sub-19 minutes. I had thought that with the Dublin half-marathon taking place on this day the numbers would be down on their usual 400-strong field, and slower folks' results would look better than usual. No such luck! The fastest guy won in 15 and a half minutes and the field was as big as usual. I was happy to churn out my usual 24 and a bit minutes, and still have the energy to hang out around Dublin City with friends and family for the rest of the day.
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