#38 There is no better place than the park

 

We are truly blessed with the weather the last few days as it has been both dry and mild. If you wanted to use the weather for an excuse for not getting your 5k in then you are out of luck.

We get the impression that a lot of people are simply forgetting to log their runs. Maybe they think it doesn't matter as we can't top the table when up against Tralee and St Annes. However the reality is that we are still challenging on a number of fronts including the "potential performance" and the total number of runs. 

Get 'em logged folks and at least put us in with a chance. Do we really want to fall behind Marlay and we can still overtake Erris! 

Congrats on the Milestones

A few people have passed the 50 mark when it comes to (not) parkruns but one person has hit that 100 runs and that is Stephen Reid. Huge congratulations Stephen!

A quick glance and those with over fifty include

• Una O'RIORDAN
• Siobhan MCCARTHY
• Sigita ZONBERGA
• David Martin KELLY
• Teresa CARROLL
• Colin SCARRY
• Lorraine KIRWAN
• Imelda KAVANAGH
• Fergal BEIRNE
• Bryan DONOVAN

Well done all of you and keep up the great work.

Interim Results

Huge well done to Bryan on taking the first finisher spot this week. Clearly the 5k walk with Pete encouraged you to run faster 😂😂😂

Sigita was our first female finisher and first junior was Sadhbh who are both regulars in the (not) results. 

With 62 people completing a run/walk/jog our numbers are well down. As we approach the end of the year you will want to get your name in the mix for our end of year awards! (we just made that up now and now will have to come up with something.)

The Coffee Morning

We had a great chat on Saturday morning for the virtual coffee and we covered a lot of topics from left handed crochet to the importance of dry robes. 

We also discussed the passing of Cyril Nolan, the man behind the Grove but more on that later.

Tim was telling us that to support his daughter he had taken up crochet. The challenge for his daughter is that she is left-handed as is Tim. Being a good Da, Tim took it up himself to help with the learning. He was telling us that all the instructions and guides that you find are for right-handed people and it is actually quite hard to adopt it for a lefty.

Fiona and Pete were extolling the virtues of sea swimming and trying to encourage Lin to do more than a waist deep paddle. The pic above was taken this week by Dee who was out at low rock.

What exactly is a dry robe and why are they a must have? They are a poncho like towel that you wear over your body when you get out of the water ensuring you get warm quickly whilst maintaining ones dignity.

Sea swimming is one of those activities that has taken off during the past six months and a lot of people are combining their run with a swim at the finish.

One for the Muso's

Andy did a fantastic job this week of hosting another Zoom music session on Saturday night. We had Cecile, Guillaume and Layla representing France while the Irish team was made up of Andy, Terry, Peter C, Charlie and Peter T.

What Charlie lacks in technical skills he certainly makes up for playing and singing skills.  There was some great music and some mega-craic. Due to technical challenges when on the Zoom session it really has to be one singer/player for one song. So each of the group take turns playing something  while everyone else goes on mute.

Can you play an instrument? Can you sing? Then why not join the next session. We promise they are great craic and all standards are welcome!

The Grove Show - tribute to Cyril Nolan

That is some playlist! Well done to Brian and the team with a fantastic tribute to Cyril. Brian was telling us that Cyril always thought that nobody really appreciated all of his efforts during his 30 year running the gig. 

When it first became known that Cyril was very sick he and his family were taken aback at the amount of people getting in touch to say how much Cyril had influenced them through the music played at the Grove.

Have a listen to the full show that is available with all of the tracks above plus many anecdotes from Cyril's life. https://www.mixcloud.com/bjtucker/tribute-to-cecil-nolan-27-nov-20/

World Aids Day

Well done to Lorraine who flew the flag for Worlds Aid Day during her (not) parkrun this week.

Did anyone else get the free t-shirt and help get the message out there?

Happy Birthday to Ya!!!

   

Celebrating what should have been their 3rd birthday today are Holywell Junior parkrun. We can assure you that the first picture above does NOT show a child being coerced into a 2k junior run. 🤣

We can however tell you that Holywell are planning a sneak attack on the junior (not) parkrun leader-board!

Go Sinead and the team! Get some in!

..................and finally

A huge well done to everyone who donated to the Toy Show appeal. It is now over 6m raised. We think we were all inspired by Saoirse and Adam and the rest of the kids. 

If you want some more inspiration Brian McWeeney shared a great story on Whatsapp of the truly inspirational Charles Eugster who took up running in his 80's. Here is a great video showing the story of Charles breaking the world record for the 200m sprint for the over 90's when he is 95!

Have a great week folks - don't go mad on the aul shoppin'