We’re Going On a Brunch Hunt!

Now that I’m retired, I’ve set myself the mission of finding the best Brunch in Lisburn. Well that’s probably subjective, so My Favourite Brunch Spot is a better title. Here’s the first contenders.

Crema

Well located in the main shopping area of Lisburn, so a handy spot if you are visiting the major charity shops up town. Nice breakfast selection, with a few veggie options, though I actually went for the smashed avocado which came with feta and chorizo. But I just left the bits of meat to one side. (I’m not a strict veggie at all, I just don’t like meat). This was very nice, with a perfectly cooked poached egg, though I could have done with a bit more avocado. Trendy garnish of watercress and pomegranate seeds. My coffee of choice was a cortado, a short and strong white coffee. It was busy when I arrived, and the only available seat was beside the loos, which is always a noisy location. And the low ish ceilings would make conversation a bit of a strain. They do have some tables outside if the weather permits “al fresco” dining. Their tray bake selection is amazing, and if you sign up for the “too good to go” app you can sometimes grab a bargain box of treats. Cost was £10.30, a bit pricey for brunch.

Verdict – handy for shoppers, try the traybakes!

Ground

Free parking by TK Maxx, close to the health centre and library. Very tempting array of croissants, toasties and traybakes, but remarkably few veggie breakfast options. I had a halloumi sourdough sandwich which was delightfully spicy and messy. With a cappuccino this came to £8.40. There are a variety of seating options, from bench tables, to low comfy armchairs, as well as some tables and chairs outside. The glass walls give an airy feel, though the view of the car park isn’t going to make the top ten of “Best Coffee Shop Views”.

Verdict – handy if you’re at the library or health centre and need a pick me up.

Dobbies

Very close to me, this is probably my nearest option. They actually have quite a few interesting veggie options, and I will be back to try the flat mushroom breakfast stack and the smashed avocado. But today I opted for scrambled egg on toast. The eggs were freshly cooked, for which I was happy to wait, and were deliciously fluffy. The 2 slices of malty toast were also freshly made, and butter was unlimited. Staff are really friendly and chatty. The ambience is a bit “school canteen”, but if you get there early and can nab a window seat it’s very pleasant and relaxing. As I have a Dobbies card my coffee was free, so the total bill was a bargain £5.50.

Verdict – surprisingly tempting choice of options, calorie counts given, and if you have a Dobbies card it’s good value

Any Lisburn folks, hit me with your recommendations!

Hillsborough Forest parkrun

Throughout the UK parkrun has been paused during the Covid 19 pandemic, but they have recently recommenced in Northern Ireland (end of June 2021). And with the restart came a new event, set in the gorgeous surroundings of Hillsborough forest park.

Getting There

The forest is well-signposted from the village itself. It’s a popular spot, so the car park can get very busy – runners are asked to park considerately on the right hand side (what three words: interest.pointed.horseshoe). The main walk in the forest goes around the lake, but this is also very heavily used, so the parkrun route is on the far side of the lake, towards the playpark. Keep an eye out for the parkrun pop up flag! (what three words: volunteered.bump.sharpened) Hillsborough itself is just off the main A1 road.

Facilities

There are toilets in the village car park by the church, or in the playpark, which opens at 9. There is a coffee cart which opens around 10 in the car park, as well as a number of cafes in the town. Other options are the Sainsburys or M&S at Sprucefield, the latter having a particularly fine foodhall.

Route

It’s a 2 lap course, all on wide forest paths. The route is a sort of figure of 8 shape, with one large loop and one small one. There is a short section where runners will be going in both directions, so keep left there. The hill up to the back gate is a bit of a slog, but otherwise it’s pretty flat. (Emma made me edit this to say that it feels hillier when you’re running!) Running in a forest is always a pleasure, the air is so fresh and inspiring.

Runners

With parkrun not yet back in the rest of Ireland, it’s no surprise that this attracts visitors from far and wide. At event number 2 I chatted to people I had met before in Dublin, as well as visitors all the way from Tralee. NI regionnaires will also be looking to tick this one off the list. 115 attended the inaugural, with over 150 at event 2.

Time

I was timekeeper at event 1, and was tail walker at event 2, where my time was 53 minutes. (Hey, at least I’m making it easy for myself to go back and grab a PB!). It was my 100th time volunteering (come on new t shirt!) so I was able to add it to my events done. The course record is 16 minutes.

Covid stuff

To enable parkrun to restart safely, there are a few new procedures. The brief is VERY brief indeed (dogs under 11 on a short arm….), and timing and scanning is done via the virtual volunteer app. Sconning cannot be done from a barcode on your phone, sorry! Finish tokens will be deposited into a container and quarantined for a few days. No high fiving or spitting, faster runners start at the front, and try to keep social distancing.

All my parkruns

And while you’re here, do you fancy sponsoring me for the London Marathon? It’ll be my first one and I would be ever so grateful for your support 🙂

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/linda-harley6?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=fundraising&utm_content=linda-harley6&utm_campaign=pfp-tweet&utm_term=07b803adb4774068abeeacb8981721de

200100 or 1,000km

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Milestone T shirts are all very well, but there’s a heck of a gap between the black 100 shirt and the green 250 one.  Running at 50 parkruns each year is a big committment – I’m a pretty regular attender and even I only managed 40 in 2017.  So you’re looking at at least 3 years between 100 and 250.

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So I decided to have a bit of fun with my 200th parkrun.  Firstly, I ensured that it coincided with my 100 time at Wallace, proving just what a serial tourist I am, as well as being a bit fanatic about mathematical symmetry and patterns.  This was not without a few sleepless nights in January, hoping that cancellations due to ice wouldn’t sotally scupper my plans.

I needed a shirt, so I got a strip of wide black ribbon, and used my trusty fabric paint to write a number 2 (stop sniggering at the back).  Someone aksed if it was done with toothpaste – believe me, if I thought that would be funnier I would do it!  I attached it over the 1 on my 100 shirt with safety pins.

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For the cake, I know that fruit based offerings are usually popular, so I got a friend to bake me a large rectangular sponge, and I decorated it with cream and spelled out the 200 in raspberries,  and the 100 in blueberries, with black and green grapes for the border.  It looked well, but smaller raspberries would have been easier to work with, and it was a bit awkward to transport.

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You know me, any excuse to dress up!  So I needed a suitable theme.  I went with the “Wallace as Braveheart” idea, and as I have plenty of tartan bits and bobs around, all I needed for this look was some blue face paint.  Shouting “Freedom” as I went round each corner was an easy way to keep in character, an bring a smile to many faces.

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John, the RD gave me a great speech, and pointed out that in getting to 200 runs, I’d also volunteered 33 times, taking on almost every role….except one.  And would I like to be guest RD some day soon.

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It was a bitterly cold day, so I really appreciated the support from friends and family who came along- to cousin David who ran with me on his first toruism venture, and his wife Karen who helped with the teas and cake.  To Liz and Emma, the Murphy twins, who ran at Wallace even though they have nightmares about “Heartbreak Hill”, and for the card and the afternoon tea afterwards. To Susan, who wore her old Wallace school tie.  And to my husband who helped trasnport the cake, and who was my usual faithful paprazzo.

At the end someone pointed out that was 1,000km.  Here’s to the next 1,000!

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(Actually, I’ll only have to run 250km to the next milestone T shirt, estimating somewhere about April 2019…..)

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All My parkruns:

NI (and other) parkruns: summary list

 

My First FlavourFirst veg box

I’m trying to eat more veggies, and I like the idea of buying vegetables that have been grown locally, rather than those that have been forced to meet certain requirements and be flown here for supermarket sales.  So I was delighted to find that there’s a local veg box delivery srvcie, FlavourFirst.com.  Based in Donaghadee, their social media content was warm and welcoming and engaging, and I had no hesitation in signing up for a delivery box.

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My husband is away this week, so it’s just me, and I don’t eat a lot of fruit due to the high sugar content, so I went for the entry level veg box at £9.75

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Delivery was scheduled for Thursday, and as my house is hard to find, I was anticipating the phone call I got from the delivery driver making sure he was at the right place.  The food was all packed inot a wooden crate with minimal packaging, and a request to reutn any packaging there was  at the next delivery.

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I was really excited at the variety and freshness of the ingredients, and immediately started thinking about how I would use them all.

Thursday Supper – I already had a courgette that needed using, so I sliced it into rounds and fried them to colour.  I sliced 2 of the tomatoes from the box, and arranged them into a baking pot,  interleaved with some goats cheese.  Topped the lot with a mix of breadcrumbs, cheddar and parmesan, and baked until golden.  Twas delish (and leftovers for lunch the next day)

The veg box comes with some cooking suggestions, and on Friday I decide to do the roast cauliflower, humous, crispy onions and lemon oil recipe included.

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I steamed some cauli florets.

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I coated them in curry oil (rapeseed oil with some curry powder stirred in), and  roasted them in the oven for 15 mins.

The onions – I’m not a big onion fan, but wanted to stay true to the recipe for research purposes.  I thinly sliced half an onion, coated in oil, spread on a baking tray and put in the oven, turning frequently.

These were the most difficult part of the dish – the thin bits burned while the thicker bits were still raw.  If I were doing this again I’d use a mandolin or something to ensure the uniformity of the slices.

I’d bought some good humous and sourdough bread, and the end dish combining all the ingredients, with a lemon oil dressing using up the remnants of the curry oil, was a real triumph.

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For breakfast, I used some of the chard as a spinach substitute, and microwaved it with some of the mushrooms, and an egg for a tasty omelette.

On Saturday, I tried out a Jamie Oliver recipe I’ve wanted to do for a while.  The broad beans are very therapeutic to shell, even though the volume really diminshes.  And even more after they’ve been boiled and removed from their hard skin.

But served with some creme fraiche and a crispy onion/ breadcrumb toping, they were gorgeous!  I sauteed some of the rainbow chard in garlic oil to accompany it.

 

The final dish looked really good with its vibrant colours, and tasted fanastic, fresh and delicious.

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On Sundays, I go for a long run, and am always ready for a healthy brunch afterwards.  I sauteed a couple of mushrooms and the remaining tomato, and fried a free range egg, toasted some sourdough topped with avocado, and added a glass of V8 for another of my 5 a day.

I’d been insired by the Saturday Kitchen recipe of barbecued trout with samphire in a miso butter.  Google revealed a plethora of miso butter recipes, but it’s basically 2 parts butter to 1 miso, adjust to taste.  Helps if the butter is at room temperature.

I quartered some new potaotes, and steamed the brocoli florets above them, cooking a frozen salmon fillet in the microwave.

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The miso butter really brought everything together here, and I think it’ll be great on a baked potato, or on soldiers for a boiled egg.

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Overall verdict – I’ve had so much fun thinking up ways to use my delicious fresh vegetables, and I’m looking forward to the next one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t Forget Your Barko! #dfyb

The hashtag #dfyb is used by parkrunners around the world.  It is shorthand for “Don’t Forget Your Barcode”, the little scrap of paper which is scanned after you run, which the magical parkrun computer elves then match up with your time, and create a myriad of statistics. Serious parkrunners have extra barcodes stashed in their car or handbag, or have them laminated.  I forked out for a keyring barcode, but found it got worn away next to my keys, and nowadays have a black plastic wristband, which always scans, is waterproof, and is unobtrusive to wear.

I did jokingly sport a fake barcode tattoo when doing my own 100th parkrun!

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Now to Minnie, my faithful running mate.  She’s accompanied me to parkruns in Wallace, Citypark, Armagh, Antrim, Ecos, Larne, Comber, Valley, Colin Glen, Falls, Ormeau, Victoria, Waterworks, Queens, and Bangor….where she memorably jumped in the water, obviously thinking it was a triathlon.

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She can be a little bit barky and apprehensive of people, and particularly dislikes being reached down to for a pat. If you do ever meet us, the best plan is to ignore her – she’ll come for a sniff and say hello when she’s satisfied that you’re OK.

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Where shall we go?

I knew we were approaching her 100th parkrun…sorry…barkrun…and thought that this momentous milestone should not go uncelebrated.

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I’d encountered Murphy’s Barkery a few times at Waggy Races, and they had always been so lovely and friendly, as well as making some delicious doggy treats.  They were delighted to make a special giant cookie, complete with the parkrun symbol.

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Min isn’t too bad at dressing up: she has a Christmas jumper, a skeleton costume (which glows in the dark), an Adidog running vest and of course a Dog Lisburn vest. Simple outfits are best – the red bandana she wore as Muttley was easy peasy, but trying to get a 3rd eye on her head to be a 3 eyed raven was a disaster.

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So of course I had to make her a milestone 100 Tshirt! I bought a small plain black Tee from M&S (size 8 gives her plenty of room for manoeuvre), and a fabric paint pen from Craftworld. If I’d had more time and patience, I’d have stenciled it, but as it was, hand written had to do – it wasn’t going to get a lot of up-close scrutiny, and it was only for lolz, after all.

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minnies 100th 005We arrived in good time, as usual, to be met by the Cummings family who presented her with a special chewy bone. Thank you!

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The T shirt attracted attention from other runners making their way to the briefing point, where we met up with the lovely Andrea and her running pooch, who gave us a bag of dog treats. Thank you too!

We got a special mention in the Run Director’s brief, very ably delivered by Brenda Harris.

The weather was OK – not too warm, and a hint of drizzle, but no actual rain, and no wind.  But my running form hasn’t been good lately – I have a niggly IT band, am carrying too much weight, and not doing enough training.  On top of that, my Garmin’s battery died after the first km! So as there wasn’t realistically a chance of grabbing a new PB, we just relaxed and enjoyed our run.  The marshalls and other volunteers were brilliant as usual, and gave us lots of support! And we did call out “Dare to Dream!” at a dog walker whose pooch was wearing a GAWA vest.

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Photocall afterwards, and Brenda asked if I could pose looking as if I was shaking her paw saying Well Done.  Luckily, Minnie’s repertoire of  commands includes Sit! and Paw! so we were happy to oblige.

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What can I say.  It’s an absolute delight to have her running with me, she gets me up Heartbreak Hill, and more importantly keeps the momentum going once we get to the top. She’s always game to run, and indulges my dress-up proclivities.  She helps me prove that – you don’t have to be mad to be a runner, but it helps!

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NI parkruns: #18parkruns

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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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!

Deux chiens biens (et des canards, et un cynge….)

Mais je cherche encore pour un kingfisher….roi pecheurs?

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As I took my two pooches for a long perambulate, I found myself wondering how to give them commands in French.  F’rinsitance, if I say “Sit! Stay! Down!” it’s the same sound whether I’m talking to one dog or two.  But if I were to do the same in French, then the imperatives would be different – Asseyez-vous or Assieds-toi. Venez vs viens.  Restez, restes….do the dogs hear and understand the difference?  Or are all dog commands given using the “vous” form?  Curious minds want to know.

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French canine commands aside, we had a lovely walk, and spotted a gorgeous swan, reflected in the still waters, and a group of ducks.

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NI parkruns: Strathclyde parkathon

I’m blogging my own journey around NI’s parkruns, but I had to record a sepcial entry for a group of awesome parkrunners from Strathclyde, who have run all 18 in One Weekend!

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I joined them at 8 am on Saturday at my home run of Wallace, Lisburn. They were wreathed in smiles, sporting tartan skirts, and a truly awesome array of red 50 and black 100 Tshirts.

 

Red and Black Tshirts

Red and Black Tshirts

The early morning rain ceased, and it stayed dry for their trip around our course, famous for its three visits to the duckpond, and the not-so-welcome hill at the car-park.

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We’d loved them to have stayed for tea and a biscuit, but they were dashing off to do their offical parkrun at Citypark, Craigavon, The proferred Haribos were well recieved, though, with the opportunity to joke about having the fried egg for breakfast.

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They had special hats and Tshirts, and a very well-organised schedule, backed up with a sat-nav and a luggage carrying-van.

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I can honestly say it was an inspiration to meet them, I’m delighted that they completed their challenge succesfully, and that they got to see some of Norn Irn in good weather. I look forward to running some of Scotland’s parkruns in the future.  Well done guys!

Saving seconds, 5:36

I’ve been ParkRunning for most of this year now – did my 24th today, in fact! My Personal Best time (PB) had been 28:16, which I’d recorded back in June, when I was in serious training for the Lisburn half-marathon. But ever since then my times had got worse.

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So in an attempt to stem this downward tide, I joined Jog Lisburn. These fabulous folk were following the Couch to 5K programme, as the vast majority of them were getting ready for their first ever 5k run. Training was 2 nights a week, rain or shine, and even on dark nights we found routes in Wallace Park which still had some illumination. That, coupled with ensuring I didn’t overdo the booze on a Friday night, brought about some improvement. And I knew I was fast last week, but it wasn’t until the official results were published that I discovered I’d only been ONE second off my PB. One miserable second!!!

This annoyed me. I started trying to work out how I could monitor my speed and pace while I was actually running.  Could I create a playlist that lasted 7 minutes per lap, maybe? I wasn’t keen on a watch type device – I already run with a dog which occupies one hand. So I explored what functionality there might be on MapMyRun. And I found Voice Feedback.

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I set it to report every 0.25km, and tell me total time, average pace, average speed, and current pace. I tried it out walking the dogs, and again at Wednesday night’s training.  I was really keen to do well this week, as I’ll miss the next two Saturdays, and the one after that is scheduled to be the mass Jog Lisburn event.

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I got a good night’s sleep (though I still get a real adrenalin rush of nerves before an important run), and had a superfood breakfast of Berry Bircher.  That’s overnight oats with flaxseed, goji berries, raspberries, strawberries, pomegranate seeds, cinnamon and manuka honey. Yummy carbohydrates!

The weather forecast had been ominous, with yellow warnings of rain and strong winds, but it turned out to be dry, cold, and just a bit breezy.  I had no excuses.

I did my warm-up lap, and my stretches, peeled off my outer jacket, wrapped my headband under the iPhone holder so it wouldn’t be slipping down my arm, selected my jogging playlist, waited for the whistle…..and pressed START.

I’d worried that the frequency of the voice-in-my-ear I’d chosen would be too much, but actually it was just about right.  It’s obviously relying on a GPS fix for distance and hence speed, so these aren’t error-free, but the elapsed time is bang on, and I knew I was aiming for a 6 minute first (short) lap, and 7 minutes for the 3 longer laps.  To acheive a new PB, I’d need an average pace of under 5:36.

I flung myself down the hills, remembered to keep my knees up, stretched my stride, glided in between each footfall, and didn’t fight the hills.  The marshalls, many of whom are fellow Jog Lisburners, cheered me on at every corner.  About half way through the last lap, I knew I was going to do it, and do it well.  Knowledge is power.  I sprinted up to the finish line and crossed it in 27:25.

One of the great things about ParkRun is all the statistics that it holds.  This brilliant PB moved me from #499 to #465 in the Best 500 Times table, and from 245 to 202 on the age graded table.  Best of all, I’m number one on the female points table!

You want to see the mile-wide smile on my face……..

A GR8 run – Should I? Could I?

We took the dogs for a walk at Dundrum yesterday – what a gorgeous place, the views across Murlough Bay to the mountains of Mourne are nothing less than spectacular. And while there, I saw a notice for the GR8 Dundrum Road Run, to be held on my birthday next month. A quick google (actually quite bit of Googling – I must suggest to them that their links could be more user-friendly) revealed that it’s an 8-mile cross-country race, partly on roads, partly on hills, and partly on the beach (cue Chariots of Fire music).

So I’m very tempted to sign up for this one, if only so that when people ask me what I did on my birthday I can honestly answer “I had a GR8 run!”.  The things I’ll do for a good pun!  So it’ll be a pun-run, if you will.

The thing is, I haven’t run for ages, and I’m really out of practice.  I did my first Parkrun in 6 weeks yesterday, and didn’t even manage to get a sub 30 minute time, and my legs are aching today.  Plus this is cross country, with hills and similar obstacles, possibly even wild sheep. And it’s only 3 weeks away!  Does that give me enough time to train?  But I’m clearly not built for speed, so I’m drawn to other sorts of interesting races.

Luckily for me, there’s lots of hills nearby, so I took Max out for a rather enjoyable Sunday morning run today.  I was wearing a new performance top that I bought in Lidl yesterday – a bargain at only £7.99!

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Good points – it’s warm, which will be important as te temperature falls into Autumn.  It’s long enough to cover tum and bum and not ride up.

Bad points – it’s warm.  The material is quite slippy, meaning my arm-phone-holder slides down towards my elbow.  Any suggestions? How do other runners deal with this?

I’m tempted to make a small hole at the shoulder seam so that I can thread my headphones through and stop them getting in my way as I run.  But I’m a bit wary of making holes in things.

So.  Here goes.  Be ready for lots of MapMyRun status updates and blogs about Max tangling his lead around my legs….