Inspired by the recent visit of the Strathclyde parkathoners running all of our courses over one weekend, a group of intrepid local runners decided to give it a go themselves.
An early timetable fitting them into a 24 hour slot was later revised to a more do-able 2-day itinerary (well, many of the parks aren’t actually open during the wee small hours, and the danger factor should not be discounted). Using modern technology, an event was created on Facebook, Belfast Running Club’s website, and the hashtag #18parkruns was used on Twitter to keep up with their progress.
A hardy core team was aiming to run all 18. Others were hoping to join as a relay team, or for one day, or for just their local run, or for the final 5 Belfast runs.
I caught up with them at my home parkrun, Wallace in Lisburn. I was early, and just as well, as so were they. AND they wanted to run earlier than their planned-for 2 pm start-time, to allow for a more substantial recovery break before heading into the final 5 in the big city.
I’d been undecided as to what I would do – I could have treated it as a normal parkrun, including bringing Mini with me. But they were probably faster than me. I could have cycled there, and shown them the course from the bike. But the forecast was for rain. I wasn’t too sure who else from Wallace was planning to turn up – as it turned out, I was the only one (complete with my traditional bucket of Haribos), so I opted to act as marshall and gave them the outline of the route, kept a tally of how many laps they’d done, and clapped and cheered.
Some of their friends and family arrived while they were part way through, and they either ran along, or joined me on the supporters bench.
The route they took was:
Saturday: Comber, Bangor, Carrickfergus, Larne, Antrim, Ballymena (Ecos), Portush, Derry & Enniskillen
Sunday: Cookstown (MUSA), Armagh, Craigavon (CityPark), Lisburn (Wallace) & Belfast (Five Parkruns)
Belfast – Queens (Dub), Falls, Waterworks, Victoria Park & Ormeau Park
Thats 90km in total, about 2 full marathons worth!
I must admit, I’m tempted to try the Belfast 5 in one day – that’s just over a half-marathon, although split into 5 separated sections.
Well done Simon, John, Liam and Joanna – a fantastic achievement!
Filed under: belfast, Lisburn, Parkrun, running | Tagged: 18parkruns |
Dancing At Lunacy 
Thanks Linda, can’t tell how you glad we were to see you. We didn’t think anyone would be that early, and to be weighed down with seats too!
Having someone who knew the course was a great help, it made things so much easier for us. Not to mention your support, positivity and friendly nature made Wallace Park such a memorable and enjoyable run. Can’t thank you enough, keep up the great work and hope you’re injury free soon 🙂
Liam