Reasons to be Cheerful, 1, 2, 3 . . . 4, 5, 6!



Andy, I swear this is the last time I will use this photo (this year)

This week has been hard in many ways. Looking at the news, things look bleak. It can be difficult to look past the doom and gloom but we are going to try and find some of the positives at the moment (and, as you will see, there have been loads this week).

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

Okay, so this week we got a bit of a fright. On Thursday Sammy, Pete's daughter, texted into the Core Group to say that the Run Report would be a bit delayed this week as Pete was in hospital! We all got a fright but Pete was very quick to text us and let us all know that he is okay. Talking to Pete this morning, he wanted to stress that despite not feeling well on Thursday, he is feeling fine now and has admitted that he was basically faking to get a bit of a rest! That's fair enough Pete, you deserve it. 

In true Pete style, he asked the doctor if he can do a 5km walk in the hospital. Despite wanting to admit him to a different type of hospital, the doctor actually thought it was a good idea and Pete is planning his route around the corridors of Beaumont hospital. Should look interesting on Strava!

This news has really influenced this Run Report this week though. Pete and I had a chat this week about the importance of looking at the bigger picture and we couldn't help but think of that wonderful song, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. Your health is your wealth, take your time recovering Pete and we'll see you on the streets doing a 5km really soon. 

A Bit of Festive Running

This week lots of you have been out running and logging your (not) parkruns (we'll get to that soon). What is extra special to see is the Christmas jumpers, hats, scarves, baubles and tinsel that people are wearing as they run around Swords. 


If you are looking for a reason to be cheerful, Lorraine's outfit will certainly help. We absolutely loved her Christmas spirit this week and got a great laugh from her asking people if she was running in the correct direction to the North Pole! Fair play Lorraine, I'm sure you brightened up lots of people's days. 

A Tribute to a Great Man

Karl from Waterstown popped out to Swords this week to meet some of Richard Leonard's friends and to celebrate his life. As Karl said himself, Richard left a lasting legacy and it was great for them to be able to meet and discuss some of the brilliant stories about Richard. 

GOAL Mile

There was great excitement this week as people began to receive their t-shirts for the GOAL Mile. While we are disappointed that it will not take place in the park this year, it is still great to see it going ahead virtually. If you haven't signed up, it is not too late. If you wish to support this great charity, you can do so here - https://www.goalglobal.org/goal-mile/.


(Not) parkrun

So how are we doing this week at (not) parkrun? 


Well it seems we have a bit of work to do. At the time of writing we are only 13 runners behind Clonbur Woods so if you haven't gotten out yet, lace up your runners and get going! Marlay are not that far behind us so let's try for a final push today and see if we can take 4th place. 

At the top of the table, another epic battle is taking place between Mayo and Dublin. Erris are currently in the lead, but, as we saw yesterday, the Dubs tend to finish strong. Here's hoping that St Anne's can make that final push and claim their own 6 in a row!

This week we had 3 first timers in River Valley. We say first timers but there is a familiar name among them. Good to see Mo McCrohan has logged his first (not) parkrun and with a brilliant time of 20:40. Great start Mo, don't forget that you can log more than one run a week. Well done to our other first timers, Jean-Benoit Paulin and Deirdre Reddan. 

We had 4 PBs this week. Well done to Elma Keane, Gerard Leavy, Derek Egan and Francesco Petroni. Francesco has been extremely consistent with his PBs, hardly a week seems to go by when he is not listed as having a new PB. Fair play Francesco, here's hoping you can keep it up next week. 

First finisher this week is Bryan Donovan but it was very close between him and Mo. We wouldn't be surprised to see Mo take the first finisher spot soon. First female finisher was Sigita this week with Imelda Kavanagh and Ann-Marie Gargan hot on her heels. Rather strangely we have no juniors this week but we do have someone in the 80 to 84 age category! Well done Laurence Kirwan, putting the youngsters to shame! I wonder can we get any of our younger runners out to add to our totals this week?

Strava Results

Top of the leaderboard this week for distance is Ann-Marie Gargan with 62 kilometres logged to her name. Ann-Marie narrowly misses out on the longest run of the week by 0.1 of a kilometre as Niall Harte takes that title. Fastest pace this week goes to Bryan while Niall also manages to take the highest elevation gain this week with a climb of 344 metres. After his marathon heroics a couple of weeks ago, it seems that Ross has decided to cycle Howth hill instead of running it to give Niall the title this week. 

6 Reasons to be Cheerful

Huge congratulations to the Dublin footballers on their historic win yesterday over an excellent Mayo team. It was a hard fought game but the Dubs managed to finish the stronger to claim the title again. While the celebrations are muted this year, Andy, as you can see from the picture at the top, was jumping for joy. Hopefully the Dublin ladies can beat Cork today and make it a double. Best of luck ladies!


Enjoy the Small Things

We're going to wrap things up for this week folks. If you take one thing from this report, it is to find some reason to be cheerful this week. Whether it is watching your favourite Christmas movie (Home Alone or Die Hard obviously), having an extra prawn sandwich (prawn sandwich, I'd never be able for some people!), getting out for a run in your Christmas gear or eating all the chocolates in the house, find something that will bring a smile to your face.

We really hope that everyone has a safe and happy Christmas and will be back next Sunday for our final run report of 2020! Merry Christmas everyone, from all of us here at River Valley parkrun. 



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