Dancing At Lunacy

parkrun#241 event#57 Reason for visiting – to get Wilson Index number 9!

Access:

It was a really frosty morning when I visited, in fact 100s of parkruns were cancelled across the UK.  But the Facebook page had posted the night before that being a sort of trail run that it was likely to be frost resistant. So I kept the faith as I scraped the ice from my windscreen at 7.30 and set off.  I took the J16 turn-off south of Dundalk, which allowed me to call in to the Applegreen services before J15, as there are no loos at the event.  At Ardee I mistakenly carried on the N2 towards Derry, and had to backtrack and go INTO Ardee before finding the N52 towards Kells and Mullingar.  This road is VERY winding, so I couldn’t make up a lot of time.  But arrived with 5 minutes to spare, as opposed to my usual 20 minutes.

From the little village of Carlanstown itself, there were helpful yellow parkrun arrows pointing to the entrance to Deerpark.  Parking is at a premium, and I had to negotiate frosty grass to get into place.

Crowd:

The volunteers were super friendly, and were leading a warm-up session as I made my way to the start.  Only one other doggy, but quite a few younsters, and a good handful of walkers.

Facilities:

No loos, but tea and coffee and fruit is provided afterwards.

The start and finish are in different places, so a volunteer carried my shiny new Jog Lisburn puffa jacket to a shed by the finish.

Course:

There’s a short spur out to the main route, with a sharp left hand bend.

From there it’s 3 rather undulating laps, with some cute motiviational signs, and each kilometre is marked.  It’s packed gravel/ trail all the way, which is good to run on.

Gear:

My Garmin behaved itself, my earphones worked, it was the opening match of the 6 Nations so I wore my Ireland rugby top, with gloves and headband as it was about 0 degrees.

Strangely Appropriate Song on Shuffle:

As I crossed into County Louth (Mornin’ Border!) the radio was playing Ride Like the Wind “Got such a long way to go, to make it to the border of Mexico….”

Time:

Breathing was tricky in the temperatures, and I stopped on Lap 3 to take pictures, so I was pleased enough with a time just over 30 mins.  2nd in my age category…..to the woman who crossed the line 10 seconds ahead of me.

All My parkruns:

all my parkruns

Filed under: Ireland, Parkrun, running, Uncategorized | Tagged: Deerpark, Wilson Index |