Goodbye and Good Luck 2020, here's to 2021!
Okay, we know it is not quite over with yet but we are going to be as optimistic as we can for the future. It goes without saying that this year has been a very difficult one for everyone and that we are not quite out of the woods yet, but we can see some hope on the horizon that things are going to get better. We are going to cross all of our fingers and toes and hope that the vaccine rollout scheduled for the New Year will begin to see a return to 'normal' life. You never, know, we may even see a return to parkrun before December 2021 with any luck!
A New Year's Resolution
On Monday 4th January, parkrun Resolution begins. This is an eight-week campaign in which parkrun are asking you to make one resolution that you will try to keep. Whether it is getting in an extra run or walk each week or trying to run a marathon a week, choose one thing that you hope to achieve and stick to. At the halfway mark (25th January), parkrun will bring the community together and applaud everyone for how far they've come. There will be further celebration on 22nd February as parkrun Resolution comes to a close. Keep an eye on parkrun Ireland's Facebook account for further details over the coming week.
A Bit of News
Already things are looking up for 2021 for lots of people. The Christmas period has allowed people to relax at home and take stock of the important things in life. While Christmas dinner involved opening all of the windows and doors, bringing your own cutlery and not passing the gravy boat, for many of us it was lovely to be able to spend time with family and friends and to appreciate their company.
The parkrun whatsapp group was absolutely delighted to hear news of Audrey's engagement on Christmas Day. News like this reminds us that there is still lots to look forward to in the future and fills us all with fresh optimism for what is to come. We would like to congratulate all of those that got engaged over Christmas and those that have lots to look forward to in 2021.
The Results
River Valley (not) parkrun Results
We have a new first finisher! It has been coming for the last few weeks but this week's first finisher is Francesco Petroni with Alan O' Mahoney only nine seconds behind him. While Francesco did not manage to get a PB this week for the first time in ages, he will surely be happy with that result.
First female this week is Imelda Kavanagh again. Imelda is beginning to make a bit of a habit of this top spot business. Well done Imelda.
Last week we noted that there were no Junior parkrunners listed in the results. Seemingly they loaded after the run report was publised as both Connor and Jessica Reid did manage to get their runs on the board. Apologies to Connor and Jessica for not including their names last week and well done for getting out and logging more (not) parkruns again this week. We had one other Junior parkrunner this week, who also happens to be our first Junior finisher. Well done Sadhbh Beirne.
We had 3 PBs this week to celebrate, well done to Susan Carr, Elma Keane and Alan O' Mahoney. It's probably not all that surprising that we had no First Timers this week as it is Christmas week but perhaps we will see a few in January. We hope to see some new names on the board next week.
GOAL Mile
We were delighted to see so many of you get out and support the GOAL Mile this week. While Pete and Bryan were not able to properly launch the inaugural Swords GOAL Mile, people still managed to get out on Christmas morning and St Stephen's Day to log their miles. We have lots of pictures of family groups running in their bubbles in their festive gear and their GOAL Mile t-shirts. There was one outlandish claim by a member of the Core Team that the Goal Mile is better than River Valley parkrun due to the presence of some Bailey's coffee. While we cannot verify that this year, hopefully we will have the inaugural run next year and can check to see if it is true.
End of Year Awards
Each year at the birthday we do an awards ceremony and choose some people that have excelled throughout the year, that have made us laugh or that have gone above and beyond to contribute to River Valley parkrun. We were not able to celebrate the birthday with you guys this year so we are going to choose our award winners here.
The Terry Wogan award
The first award goes to Brian Tucker. Brian, as you well know from reading the reports week in, week out, hosts the Grove Show on Near FM each week. Brian has kept us entertained for hours with his excellent taste in music. Not only this, he has had some excellent stories to tell us on the Saturday coffee mornings which have also given us a great laugh. Well done Brian, keep up the great work on the Grove Show!
The 'Friendly Competition' Award
(Not) parkrun has provided us with some great entertainment throughout the year. We have really enjoyed the banter that has passed between ourselves and the other parkruns that have really gotten into the (not) parkrun spirit. It was very interesting to see how (not) parkrun brought out the competitive spirit in us all, but none more so than Siobhan McCarthy! Any time we have spoken to Siobhan, we have always had a lovely chat. What we didn't realise was that behind that friendly smile, an ultra-competitive spirit lurks! When trying to beat Tralee, Siobhan gave great encouragement to us all to get up and run. While it was only a bit of friendly competition, we loved how much Siobhan got into it and think she deserves this award. Well done Siobhan, we are sending around some prawn sandwiches to you now to celebrate.
The 'Frank Sinatra' Award
This award is for everyone really but we are going to dedicate it to one person in particular. The 'Frank Sinatra' award is for those of you who said "I am going to do my runs my way this year." (Not) parkrun has given everyone the opportunity to get out and log their 5kms their way. While we would love to be able to run with you all in the park on a Saturday morning, it has been great for everyone to have (not) parkrun to keep us going.
The overall 'Frank Sinatra' award though has to go to Ross Mara for his frankly insane marathon. Most of us were delighted to complete relatively flat runs during the marathon weekend. Not Ross. Ross decided that the restrictions were not going to get in the way of his marathon and he was going to do it his way. So he waited until December 6th to complete his marathon, taking in Howth Hill twice! Ross, you're mental and definitely deserve this award! Well done!
(not) parkrunner of the year
Usually, we would have a parkrunner of the year but we are going to have a (not) parkrunner this year. We are delighted to give this award to Stephen Reid this year as he took to the new 5km format like a duck to water. Stephen managed to rack up 100 (not) parkruns before most people had gotten to 50. We can't call Stephen a fairweather either as he has been out running in some truly horrible conditions. Well done to you Stephen!
There can only be one person who gets this award. Pete has been the beating heart of River Valley parkrun this year. There has been nothing that has happened this year without Pete. From the moment that the restrictions came into effect, Pete's first concern was that people would not be isolated and that the community spirit that we try to foster would be kept up. So began the weekly coffee morning on Zoom and Google Meets. This was a fantastic way of keeping people involved and checking in with each other. This coffee morning has lasted pretty much all year.
Pete then took it upon himself to keep a weekly (not) run report going. A lot of work goes into those reports each week but Pete genuinely loves doing them and we love reading them.
Now, as many of you may know, Pete isn't shy. He is also not averse to winding people up. However, we didn't think he would go as far as to wind up a whole county. The good citizens of Kerry were baying for Trevaskis blood this year as Pete goaded them into running until their feet were blistered. Not content with that, he then had a pop at the Fingal parkruns, the northside parkruns and the southside parkruns. Oh, and the Mayo ones as well. All of it has led though to (not) parkrun growing in popularity and strong links forming with parkruns throughout the country. Pete now has a whatsapp group in which there is lots of friendly banter about the results week in, week out. We're sure even Kerry people wouldn't begrudge him this award.
Beside his work for River Valley parkrun, Pete has helped out tirelessly in the community. He tried to clean Usher's lake (a thankless job, one that could not be achieved but was a noble effort nonetheless). He was also on the organising committee for the GOAL Mile which didn't get started this year unfortunately but fingers crossed it will in 2020. On Marathon day Pete could be seen chasing hapless runners through the streets yelling words of encouragement to all (except Bryan, we can't print what he said to Bryan).
There is no-one that we can think of that deserves this award more. Thanks for all you do Pete, you're one in a million.
And Finally . . .
That is all from us this year folks. We would like to wish you all a very happy New Year. We really hope that next year is full of joy and laughter for you all. #loveparkrun #happynewyear
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