#33 - Tears & Snots

 

It's Marathon Weekend!

Looking at the image above and we are reminded of the introduction on screen of Omar Sharif in Lawrence of Arabia when he took about 8 mins to arrive. If you zoom in you can just about make out Richie's motorbike headlight as he marshalled Aoife around for the 26.2 miles. It felt very windswept and lonely out there but it really wasn't as the support from all the River Valley community was tremendous. 

There's Aoife's starter pic when she set off from the community centre at around 8:30. 

She wasn't the only setting out yesterday.

Niall was also getting started on his journey and he brought his beloved black bag that he would just not be parted from. In fact 26.2 miles later and he was still wearing it. 

Really not sure if that is Imelda's start pic or her finisher pic as we are not sure if there was much difference despite her completing it in 4:02.

By contrast we definitely know this is Bryan's finisher pic. He ran a fantastic time of 3:56:42. It wasn't uneventful and we really discovered that the official tracker app was a little less than useful when you were trying to find someone.

As Pete said when he and Sam were out trying to find him it was trying to eat soup with a fork. However that wasn't the worst of it. Bryan's water station slept it out and then missed the meet point. He then had to try to find him. 

So let's keep everything in perspective here. It was only a marathon, a virtual marathon, in the middle of a pandemic, that you had to run alone or socially distanced. What's the big deal. Nobody likes going to the exhibition anyway. Who wants to her all those noisey people cheering you on all the way. Much better this way.

Or..........

Let's try and capture some of the emotions from yesterday because let's face there was most definitely tears & snots. Emotions were high to say the least.

From Imelda

Well done everyone, great to see so many people out running and thank you to all the wonderful supporters.Great to see Pete and Sammi a few times and thank you Siobhan for cycling around for hours with water and supporting everyone 😊🏃‍♂️😊🏃‍♂️😊

From Aoife

Awwwww Ladies and Gentlemen...... I’m genuinely so blown away by the support on the roads today, @Peter Trevaskis & @Sam your commitment and enthusiasm is PHENOMENAL, you’ve no idea how much it means and kept me going, @Siobhan McCarthy to see you on the 2 wheels gave me such a boost, you’ll be wrecked being on the roads so long, @Deirdre Forrest-Gump-Goulding-Kelly your little support crew bobbed me along early on, @Yvonne was lovely to get a cheer at the Estuary, your smile gave me a push, @Mags Finley fab to see you givin’ it socks in Malahide, needed that friendly face right then..... & @John Thornton & AnnMarie, you LITERALLY lifted my spirits and brought me home...... I’m so emotional for all the truly amazing runners and supporters ...... You’re all cherished

The @'s signify the name a person has in Pete's phone. We will get to @Deirdre Forrest-Gump-Goulding-Kelly later. 😂😂😂😂

From Audrey

Done and dusted. I ran the first 20km and walked/jogged 23km. It was a long and solo run. So glad I did it🥰❤👌 heres to my chosen charity...THE IRISH CANCER SOCIETY Pallative care nurses who helped look after my mum towards the end in August, I dedicated this race for my mum today and I know she was with me today. XXX Well done to each and everyone who did the dcm series races today too....You are all amazing....

From Lynda

Fantastic running and congratulations to everyone!! Great to see so many out crushing it this morning. 

For my part, I am overwhelmed by all the support, just can’t put it into words. @Deirdre Forrest-Gump-Goulding-Kelly signs up for a half and runs 18.5 miles with me, I mean who does that?!! Just incredible, could not have made it that far without her and then she handed me off to the amazing @Sandra Moberg-Ryan who took me the rest of the way home. Buckets and buckets of tears, so blessed and just so thankful for these amazing ladies and all the ladies from the running group who came out to support and were there at the finish line with my fantastic family and amazing Sloggers too!! 

Fiona Nolan, you’re amazing, running the half this morning and then running the last mile with us. What a group, thank you so much, I’m going to go and drown myself in tears again now 😭😭😭😭

Some woman for one woman

Well actually there are two of them but the first one is the aforementioned @Deirdre Forrest-Gump-Goulding-Kelly aka Dee.

Dee had signed up to complete the half and was running a bit of it with Lynda who was on for the full. Dee got so caught up in the moment that she forgot to stop and ended up running 18 miles with Lynda instead.

The second of our wonder women is Sigita. Not only was she running in the 10k event but she also completed the 4 mile event today and plans on completing the half tomorrow. What makes it really amazing is that Sigita is currently lying 1st overall in her age category, 3rd by gender and 18th out of the total field. 47:11 for a 10k is a great bloody time. No biggie I here you say! She then goes out today for the 4 mile and gets 1st overall in her age category, 2nd for her gender position and 11th overall!!! As we said some woman for one woman. 

Do keep an eye on the app tomorrow and maybe if you are close enough you can give her a shout of support

From Sigita

Thank you everyone 🤗 and Sammi is right... very well done to all of us 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻tomorrow is very special and emotional run for me as I am dedicating my half marathon to my daddy who past away 10 years ago on 26/10❤️

We feel we should also mention Fiona who ran the full yesterday and then ran a 10k this morning just as a warm down

Community ❤️❤️❤️

Let's face it is a tough time at the moment. People are getting positive results for tests they would never want to be positive. It is hard to maintain any sense of normal. Yet here we are as a community, coming together to celebrate and salute achievements.

Pete and Sammi chasing people around to support them was one thing. At least they had the app to try and find people no matter how bad it was. Siobhán took to the bike and just cycled around in big circles to try to find people to support!  Aoife's swimming crew are worth a mention too who were out in the wind at the back of the airport waiting to cheer her on. 

Kyle came in to his finish line to hubbie Rob and some great friends and family. It was truly emotional.

Funnily enough though it was the virtual world that really shone! Whatsapp yesterday was bananas. There must have been a thousand messages. All of them show the huge support and love within this community of ours. 

Pete's 10k

It was only a 10k. It only took Pete 2 hours and 9 mins to complete it but this more than anything showed just how strong our community is. The number of people who came out this morning to support Pete was unreal because most of them had completed their marathon yesterday. No one made it more special than Bryan Donovan who met Pete and completed the the full 10k with Pete. At time's it felt more like a Hell & Back but it was some craic. I, Pete, would like to say a huge thanks to all of you. Love you all!

The net result is that the new knee stood up well to the bit of abuse and I am looking forward to tail-walking the first parkrun event when we eventually get back.

Wasn't there some form of competition 

It looks like Tralee are well ahead of us this week but despite Listowel getting in it looks like The NE Fingal crew, aka Dublin, are going to take the win.

The real worrying news is that River Valley overall are not even second!!!

The good news, though, is that in the big Northside vs Southside battle it is a decidedly one-sided battle.

If only there was someone to rally the South. Somebody who had a hand in setting up not one or two but three parkruns on the Southside. Where is Niall Coppinger when he is needed? #justsayin'

Seriously folks a little healthy competition is a great way to cheer people up and generate a great sense of community spirit. We all need it at this time!

The Strava

Are you using Garmin. Do you know Garmin will automatically update Strava! We have a growing team of people in our group and the table is getting very exciting. 

This week see's a dramatic change at the top of the distance table with Fiona Dowling jumping into the No.1 spot with no less than 88.8km covered. Phenomenal stuff Fiona.

Fiona, not surprisingly, takes the top spot on for the longest run with 43.4km. 

Eamonn O'Neill tops the table for fastest pace with 4:48/km. 

And finally the highest elevation gained was, drum roll please, Fiona with 430m.

Luckily we did manage to get our hands on a photo of Fiona pictured here on the right at her marathon finish yesterday.

The (not) Results

This week 80 people ran/walked/jogged/crawl and at one point slid on their ass to complete 5km. We had 3 first timers and no less than 17 PB's

The first timers we are to welcome this week are:

• Alan MURPHY
• Orla MURPHY
• Jennifer GRIMES

You are very welcome folks. Most notable is the absence of Jean and Kerrie! We know who you are! And we know you are completing 5k's 😂

To the 17 people who managed to achieve a PB this week a huge well done!!!

• Chris LONG
• Sigita ZONBERGA
• Edel MAGUIRE
• Teresa CARROLL
• Aland MOEN
• David WALSHE
• Margaret FINDLEY
• Fintan CURRAN
• Ruby DAVY
• Katie GILLIGAN
• Eugene MURPHY
• Trish BERMINGHAM
• Claire MANSFIELD
• Meriel DEANE
• Susan CARR
• Ger BYRNE
• Shay BYRNE

Overall first finisher this week was Niall Harte. First female was Cecile! First junior was Sadhbh BEIRNE! Great to see you back at the top Sadhbh.

What a great picture of Lynda as she approaches the finish of her marathon. To all the marathoners this week we would ask that you donate 5km to your (not) parkrun. We didn't think we would have to say this but Lynda, who we love dearly, has not logged her (not) parkrun yet!! #justsayin 😂😂😂

.......and finally

We are done! We apologise profusely if we left you out. We apologise if we called you Graham but your name is Mark (sorry Mark Graham). We also apologise if we called you Yvonne if your name is Jean. (Please log your runs Jean 😂)

Honestly folks this week was extremely emotional. Great people, great community, much love.