May the Fours be with you!

Posted on February 27, 2016 by lindaharley

A cold and crisp, but ice-free Saturday morning in February.  What better way to enjoy it than to go along to the 4th anniversary celebrations at Queens parkrun!

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A few of my Jog Lisburn girlies came along too – it was Liz’s first time back here since she had a nasty fall, and they now have a warning sign at the steep slope that was the culprit.

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I hadn’t done any runningwithdogs for a fortnight, after a spectacularly bad fall when my big dog decided to chase some cyclists on the towpath. I ended up with some colourful bruised elbows and knees, but it could’ve been an awful lot worse – I could’ve broken a bone, or twisted an ankle, or ended in the river.  Or Max could’ve caught the cyclists and THEY might’ve ended in the river!

Anyway, Minnie was very excited to be allowed to join me, and couldn’t wait to get going.

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4th power was the name of an all-girl singing sensation on X-factor recently. but I was feeling the power of four this outing.  I passed the 1km marker at just over 4 minutes, and was hitting 3km at 14 mins. Just after the 4km marker, the unmistakable tattooed calf of parkrun Jim strode past, and I tried to keep him in sight for the final stretch.

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I did lose about 14 seconds stopping to tie a shoelace, and though at one point I thought I might reach my all time PB of 24.15, I was a bit outside that, but still in the 24s (just!), which was a PB for this course.

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Queens is very lucky to have such good indoor facilities, and the post run tea and coffee was accompanied by some delicious and colourful fruit platters, and a mountain of very popular bacon butties.

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I even got to take a selfie with parkrun Jim, and congratulate him on his recent achievement of being the first person in Ireland to earn his 250 shirt.

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Portrush parkrun revisited

Posted on February 14, 2016 by lindaharley
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sand sea and sky

I was dithering over which parkrun to go to this weekend: I was visiting my parents in Portstewart, so Portrush would be closest.  But the tide was due to be really high, and running on soft sand, rocks, or splashing through the surf doesn’t lend itself to speed.  I want to have my black 100 shirt before I go back to Derry, and felt a bit wary about joining the small number of quite fast runners at Limavady.  I was also tempted to scoot back to Belfast to join parkrunJim as he became the first person in Ireland to run 250.  But I’d eventually decided to go to Ecos on the way home.  And then I slept in till 8.45!  Portrush was the only choice.

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Is there ANY sand to run on?

Aside from the high tide, conditions were pretty good!  There wasn’t much of a breeze, and though it was chilly, there was a  good turnout of over 100, including a Run Mummy Run event. Work is ongoing at the promenade, so the start has been moved to further along the beach, and an extra loop at the start was added to avoid going as far as the rocks.

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The start

It’s definitely the course to try running barefoot, and quite a few people had naked tootsies splashing through the surf, and leaving lovely footprints in the soft sand.

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footprints

I used the tactic of just running in a straight line, not trying to skirt the waves, but it was still a very slow pace.  I waved goodbye to any thoughts of a PB, and just enjoyed the gorgeous surroundings.

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Waving goodbye to a PB

The finish line had been drawn in the sand, and I did my trademark skip-change over it.

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Drawing a line in the sand

I assured the mumsnet parkrunners that there would be TraybakesTheSizeOfYourHead afterwards: I managed to get a photo of the compulsory fifteens before they were all scoffed!

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The Strangely Appropriate Song on Shuffle was Matt Cardle “Run for your life….you’ll get there in time”.

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I see the sea

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Happy 2nd Birthday Carrick parkrun, or “How to be a Dick”

Posted on February 6, 2016 by lindaharley

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Ah, another dressing-up opportunity! Carrickfergus parkrun’s 2nd birthday was encouraging runners to come dressed in the theme of “pairs”, and for my trusty canine companion and I there was a pretty obvious choice – Dick Dastardly and Muttley!

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I started as always with eBay.  DD items acquired included a driving licence, and a pair of pin badges.

Now here there was a dichotomy – sometimes Dick was wearing a red flying helmet, in other pictures his hat was red and purple stripes.  I did a bit of trawling through the vintage emporia of Belfast, and in Octopus’s Garden found a purple peaked hat.  I visited my favourite little haberdashery shop, the Sew and Knit place at the back of M&S for some red ribbon to make the stripes.

20160206_114405While I was there I managed to lose the just acquired driving licence, which I’d picked up from the collect-at-Argos service that very morning!  But the staff were delightful, and having given them my mobile number they called me later that day to say they’d found it down the sliding doors of their display cabinet. Big thankings to them!

Being a motorcyclist has many advantages (as well as cool points), one of which is owning my own goggles.

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The gloves and red scarf were, as they say, “model’s own”, and the red bandana for Minnie was a cotton scarf I’d bought on a diving trip to Sharm-el-Sheikh, turned inside out.

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Blue trench coat was found in Primark’s sale (and to be honest I’ve worn it so many times already it owes me nowt!)

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I’ve learned from running in various fancy dress outfits with Min that simple is best, and the bandana, with just the Muttley pin badge, was perfect. The mustache was done with eyeliner.

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The morning of the run was a bit dreich, and I was congratulating myself on chosing an outift that consisted of hat gloves and coat.  It was a wee bit warm for actual running, mind!

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There was a great turnout of pairs: Alice and the White Rabbit, SuperMario brothers, Mr and Mrs Potato Head, and how did these 2 blobs manage to overtake me?

There were 3 or 4 doggies present.  Waggy Races champ Gary is a Carrick regular, and he and Buddy led from the off.

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And how adorable is this guy!

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Massive appreciation to Neill Harpur who took some fantastic action shots, AND managed to do the run with his own gorjus doggy.

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Getting in character was brilliant fun – I shouted “Muttley! Do Something!” every time we passed a marshall, shook my fist at all the photographers, and spat “Curses, foiled again”  when someone overtook me. Minnie, who is quite a vocal dog, easily managed the “Sassin fashin rashin Rick Rastardley!”

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On my last visit here, I’d run it in exactly 26 minutes in position 26, a feat you couldn’t do if you tried.  I did manage to better that time, and also jumped up 2 places in the Age Category records.

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But best of all…we won the fancy dress prize!!!!  I am totally loving my cozy pair of pink spotty thermal socks. The after run goodies were delicious – I don’t know who made the sushi, but what a great post run treat, thank you!

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I did proffer my driving licence at the scanning station, but it wouldn’t scan.  Drat! Drat! And double-drat!

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Poor Cracker felt a bit left out, but did you know that “Carrickfergus parkrun” is an anagram of Is Cracker Fur Rug Prank??

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