Mid-week Jigsaw: Mick Dooley on 249 parkruns

The one and only Mick Dooley completed his 249th 5k parkrun in Ballincollig last weekend. You can put Mick & Co back together in this 180-piece jigsaw HERE

Mick will be doing his 250th parkrun at the Glen River event next Saturday 12th of Sept 2026. 

Guest Post: Glengarriff parkrun report... by Pat Walsh

 * Glengarriff parkrun report *

On the quest to do all 11 parkruns in Cork this year I am pleased to report ‘Mission Accomplished’. Glengarriff on Saturday was the last one on the list and to be honest we saved a peach of a parkrun until last.

Stunning route and if it seems I swallowed a Bord Failte manual then I do apologise. A one loop circuit through the nature reserve on a combination of concrete roads and woodland trails. Running in the dappled shade of the ancient forest and alongside streams that have rocks carved smooth by the last ice-age makes you appreciate the beauty of nature. Few little ups and downs but nothing too serious if you want a good run but I would advise slowing down and taking in all the nature that surrounds you.

The locals who volunteered are not quite as old as the forest but they have the beautiful West Cork way of making you feel welcome. Run Director Cathal Lavin and his team had the usual collection of nationalities at the start line that you wondered was it a parkrun or a meeting of the United Nations. Summer time and visitors from everywhere. 

And before you ask of course there were runners from Kerry. You could go to a marathon at Tierra Del Fuego at the Southern Tip of South America and there will be someone from Kerry there. It was lovely to meet the group from Tralee parkrun who had got a temporary 24hr visa to leave the County.

Sometime I may get around to talking about all the parkruns but today was Glengarriff and thanks to Stephen O’Sullivan who led the group in an enthusiastic and energetic aerobic warm-up pre the run. Lovely ice breaker and many laughs but not much appreciated by our four legged friends who were bursting for the off.

It is a really beautiful part of the country and a quick stop for a coffee and nibble which was enjoyed with a splendid view of Glengarriff Harbour. Life is for getting out there and it really doesn’t get much better than this. 1hr 45min each way in the car to do a 5k run can be equally described as insanity or heaven. Take your pick.

Thanks of course to Danielle and Heike for the company, laughs and your insightful analysis. Why do most parkruns end with a coffee and a sausage roll for me?  What does it say about me and could I rank all the parkruns in preferential order based on the quality of the local sausage roll.

Sin Scéal Eile……

#pwr

Couch to parkrun programme starts this week

The VHI Couch to 5k parkrun programe is starting this week (6th Sept 2026) and here's a description...

"The Vhi Couch to parkrun programme is a FREE six-week journey designed to help people take their first steps towards becoming more active. Whether you’re completely new to walking, jogging or running, returning to exercise after a break, or simply looking for motivation to get moving, this programme is here to support you every step of the way."

The following parkruns in Co Cork are part of the programme...  Ballincollig, Bere Island, Clonakilty, Glengarriff, Macroom Castle Demesne, Mallow Castle & Tramore Valley.

The support website is https://couchtoparkrun.ie/  (Note that registration is closed at this stage)

The programme is six-weeks in duration which would be two weeks shorter than the usual eight weeks. Some people need the full eight weeks before they can run the whole 5kms while others might be be ok with six weeks.

Free Couch to 5k programmes... Even if you failed to register, there's nothing to stop you doing one of the many Couch to 5k programmes online. They all start with lots of walking with very little running and very gradually make the walking parts shorter and the running parts longer.

The NHS in the UK have their own Couch to 5k programme and it lasts 9-weeks.

A free running programme for absolute beginners, Couch to 5K has helped millions of people start and maintain their running journey.

The free app:
▪️sets a plan that builds week by week
▪️has a choice of trainers to help motivate you
▪️works with your music player
▪️connects you with the Couch to 5K community

The link is https://www.nhs.uk/better-health/get-active/get-running-with-couch-to-5k/couch-to-5k-running-plan/

The key thing to remember is that everyone is different and you should go at your own pace.

If you find the week too hard then repeat the previous week until you can complete it comfortably.

If you miss a week or a few runs, don't try to compensate by cramming more into the next week, this is just a shortcut to getting injured. Just repeat the week again. Follow your own schedule and run the full 5k of the parkrun when you're ready.

Results of the Glengarriff 5-mile race - Sat 5th Sept 2026

The Glengarriff 5-mile race was held this year on Saturday September 5th 2026. The race was held in the late afternoon and the rain had arrived at that stage in west Cork.

There were 1612 finishers which is down 13% on last year and the number returned to 2024 levels.

Top 3 men & women...

1 Danny Mullins M Bantry AC 27:12
2 Sean Dinneen M35 Cork Track Club AC 27:44
3 Paul Keville M40 Kenmare AC 27:48
6 Michelle Kenny F45 LEEVALE AC 30:20
14 Julie O'Brien F40 Durrus AC 32:33
18 Ellen Vitting F40 Kenmare AC 33:13

Results below...

Results of the 5k parkruns in Cork - Sat 5th Sep 2026

Results of the 5k parkruns around the county on Saturday 5th September 2026. Approximately 1117  runners and walkers took part in the 10 events in Co Cork.

Tramore Valley Park... Denise Thompson completed her 100th parkrun (67 at TVP). UK visitor Dianne Hutchinson also reached the century mark.

Ballincollig... Emer O'Keeffe completed her 200th 5k parkrun this weekend!

Midleton... Well done to Kerry Constant who earned his 250th volunteer credit this weekend! Kerry has also completed 454 5k parkruns. At the same event, Charlie Halpin from the UK reached the 200 mark.

Glen River... Iola Pearce completed his 250th 5k parkrun and about half were at the Glen River event.

Bere Island... Angela Nelson from Belfast completed her 200th parkrun.

Glengarriff... Derek Whooley visiting from Dublin completed his 300th parkrun.

Clonakilty... Susan Gallagher completed her 250th 5k parkrun and 233 of these were at the Clon event.

Youghal... There is no parkrun in Youghal for the foreseeable future so we're back to ten parkruns in Co Cork every week going forward. See this previous post.

If I missed anyone who passed a notable milestone like 100, 200, 250 or above parkruns then let me know.

Upcoming milestones....

Macroom is the oldest parkrun in Co Cork and they will be holding their 600th event on the 24th of October 2026.

***

Ballincollig results... https://www.parkrun.ie/ballincollig/results/440/

Tramore Valley Park results... https://www.parkrun.ie/tramorevalley/results/218/

Glen River results... https://www.parkrun.ie/glenriver/results/327/

Midleton Greenway... https://www.parkrun.ie/midletongreenway/results/81/

Mallow results... https://www.parkrun.ie/mallowcastle/results/245/

Macroom results... https://www.parkrun.ie/macroomcastledemesne/results/593/

Clonakilty results... https://www.parkrun.ie/clonakilty/results/547/

Glengarriff results... https://www.parkrun.ie/glengarriff/results/470/

Bere Island results... https://www.parkrun.ie/bereisland/results/561/

Castlehaven results... https://www.parkrun.ie/castlehaven/results/481/

For more information about the weekly 5k parkruns in Co Cork, go to this page HERE.

Guest Post: Does it get any easier?... by Pat Walsh

* Does it get any easier? *

How many times have we been asked that question by fellow runners, or maybe you have mentally thought it for yourself.

We run hard, we push ourselves, we are wrecked at the finish and maybe we didn’t achieve what we hoped for. What was all the training for? Why doesn’t it get easier as time goes on?

The answer lies in our own hopes and expectations. 

Did we aim too high with no thought for our physical limitations and our ability to find time to train. 

Did we not rest enough between training sessions (or is the case with so many busy people, that just don’t have the time to rest and recover).

Did we look at our birth cert.

If training hard is what we do to improve, then sleep, rest and proper nutrition are equally important to ensuring that the training gains materialize in a race. There is no professional reading this, only ordinary runners doing the best they can.

Do we let others push us towards unrealistic targets or maybe feel we could match or improve the times of friends but maybe without the same amount of training. 

I love the expression (NO) that some people use so glibly to say ‘you would be well able to do that’ without any knowledge of what the other person is capable of actually achieving. 

It can get easier if you find peace with where you are at any stage of your running life. Run hard and then accept that, as the here and now. You will find that your performance will improve if you relax and take the outcome rather than set a goal to be disappointed with.

Our bodies are fantastic and allow us to get out there and run. Finishing a run and the temporary tiredness, followed by the euphoria of chatting to other runners and proving I can still do this time and time again is maybe acceptance that this is getting easier. If it is that bad why do we enter the next race.

You run for the physical, mental and social benefits that running brings. It challenges your mind and body. Nobody ever said it was going to be easy so don’t ask.

“Smile As you find a rhythm 
Working you, 
slow mile by mile, 
Into your proper haunt.” Seamus Heaney

Lecture and pontificating over. Have a lovely run this weekend.

#pwr

Cork County Council announce details of new Carrigaline to Ringaskiddy Walk/Cycle route - Sep 2026

4th Sep 2026 -  Cork County Council has just announced details of a new Walk/Cycle route connecting the town of Carrigaline to the port of Ringaskiddy. An approximate map of the route is shown above in green.

A lot of the proposed route runs alongside the new M28 motorway which is currently under construction. This means that a lot of the new walk/cycle route is already under development and it's not running through a lot of private property.

Some key points...

1) Distance - The total distance of the route is about 5kms.

2) Heron's Wood - The western section will be a branch off the greenway which is due for development in Heron's Wood (The section already built is in yellow above). This is part of the Greenway which will go to Cork City via Monkstown and Passage West. The red dot on the map shows the road crossing.

3) Fernhill - The next section will go through the old Fernhill golf course and comes out on An Bothar Siochain road (Cogan's Lane). This road was used in the past for the Carrigaline 5-mile road race but it will become a cul-de-sac once the M28 is built.

Route through the old Fernhill golf course

The route then continues east towards Shanbally and runs alongside the M28 motorway. This unbroken section of the route is about 2.2kms in length.

4) Shanbally - To the south of Shanbally, there is a road crossing (red dot on map).

After crossing here, the route continues east for about 200m before turning left and through a tunnel under the M28. From here, it runs alongside a new roundabout and continues east but this time on the northern side of the M28. This unbroken section is about 1.6kms in length.

5) Barnhely - There will be another junction crossing on the road that goes from Coolmore Cross to the port of Rungaskiddy. On the eastern side, there will be a new spur down to the port with the main route continuing east to the south of new road.

Strava... A lot of people record their exercise activities on the Strava App, especially cyclists and runners. Let's have a look at the 'heat map' for the last week.

Walking...Walking is by far the most popular exercise, dwarfing both running and cycling. Even though the vast majority of walkers don't record their exercises on Strava, enough do so we can get a rough idea of the popular walking routes.

The problem with a lot of the roads around Carrigaline is that they are 'rat runs' during the day for cars. It's actually the same with a lot of built areas. There are islands of exercise activity in towns and villages and they end where the footpaths stop.

At the moment, there is no safe walking route from Carrigaline to Ringaskiddy so the new route will make a huge difference.

Running... Again, there is a distinct lack of runners using the roads between Ringaskiddy and Carrigaline. It's not hard to imagine that sometime in the future, people will be running from Carrigaline on the new route to the park in Haulbowline and back again.

There are a number of road races in this area as well such as the Carrigaline 5m, the 25km Great Railway Run and some Cork BHAA races. Will they start using parts of the new walk/cycle route?

Cycling... Cyclists cover a lot more distance than the runners and walkers so the map shows a lot more activity. The main benefits of the new route here are that it's safer for cyclists and it will take some cyclists off the other busy roads so motorists benefit.

Active Travel Route... While the new route will obviously be used for exercise, it's also likely to be a busy active travel route. The simple fact is that Carrigaline is a major population centre with over 18,000 people and Ringaskiddy is a major industrial area with many people working there.

Total number of trips from Carrigaline as per the 2022 Census

Considering the distance from Carrigaline to Ringskiddy, it's not hard to imagine say someone in the future on an e-Bike doing 20kph covering the distance in about 20-25 minutes and actually be faster than travelling to work by car at peak hours.

More Info... You can find a full report and drawings HERE

You can follow the link there and submit your own thoughts on the project. If you're in favour of this project then leave a message of support.

Results & Photos of the Cloughduv 5k - Wed 2nd Sep 2026

Saoirse Twomey was the first female home with a time of 17m 18s

The annual Cloughduv 5km was held on Wed 2nd of Sept 2026 and there were 323 finishers.

First 3 men & women...

1 163 16:13.2 Michael Corbett Male
2 21 16:22.8 Barry Donovan Male
3 324 16:49.3 Paul Cashman Male
6 17 17:18.7 Saoirse Twomey Female
10 325 17:51.7 Michelle Kenny Female
12 317 18:36.5 Aoife Lucey Female

Photos to follow...

1)  a) Finish line 1 - 16:13 to 25:36 b) Finish line 2 - 25:44 to 31:00 c) Finish line 3 - 31:02 to 44:59 

d) Finish line 3 - 45:00 plus, prizes & start 1 

Full results below...
 Position Bib Finish Time Name
1 163 16:13.2 Michael Corbett 
2 21 16:22.8 Barry Donovan 
3 324 16:49.3 Paul Cashman 
4 214 16:58.8 Alan O Brien
5 316 17:13.2 Jason O'Mahony
6 17 17:18.7 Saoirse Twomey 
7 338 17:40.0 Rick Bradfield
8 336 17:46.7 Tiernan O'Donoghue
9 334 17:50.0 Davin Jennings
10 325 17:51.7 Michelle Kenny 
11 191 18:25.9 Mark Kelly
12 317 18:36.5 Aoife Lucey 
13 29 19:12.3 Gearoid Hickey
14 403 19:14.1 Alyan Dasair
15 318 19:15.7 Rebecca O'Neill

Results & Photos of the Cape Clear Half-Marathon & 10k - Sat 29th Aug 2026

The Cape Clear Half-Marathon & 10k was a new event on Cape Clear Island in west Cork and it organised by Outer Edge Events, a commercial UK race event company. As can be seen from the photo above, it looks like they got a good day for it.

One notable feature of this event was what seemed like a very high entry fee. The half-marathon entry fee was €125 and the 10k was €85 which is well above what most people would expect to pay for these kind of distances. That price included a chartered ferry to take contestants across to the island. If people were staying on the island or used the regular ferry then the prices were €95 for the half and €70 for the 10k.

Despite the price, the numbers taking part were pretty good. The half got 125 while the 10k had 178 finishers. It shows that if an event is unique or unusual then some people are willing to pay a premium to take part.

The courses were particularly demanding with 750m of ascent in the Half Marathon and over 400m in the 10k. 

Top 3 in each event...

Half Marathon 
1st Place:🥇 Brendan Joy  - 1:49:11
2nd Place 🥈 Niall Duncan (Togher AC) - 1:57:29
3rd Place 🥉 Sean O’Brien - 2:04:08

Ladies Half Marathon 
1st Place 🥇 Laura Clements - 2:11:47
2nd Place 🥈 Karen Walsh - 2:12:19
3rd Place 🥉 Linda O’Sullivan (Watergrasshill AC) - 2:28:03 

10KM
1st Place 🥇 John Durcan (Togher AC) - 54:16
2nd Place 🥈 Patrick Geary (Butter Running Club) - 54:36
3rd Place 🥉 Kenneth Kingston (Bantry) - 55:23

Ladies 10KM
1st Place 🥇Boonie Keating - 58:31
2nd Place 🥈 Emma Meade (Sportsworld AC) - 1:07:19
3rd Place 🥉 Niamh Julian - 1:07:21

Full results HERE

Photos...

1) The event organisers have some photos HERE

Results of the Run the Line 5k in Carrigaline - Sat 29th Aug 2026

These are the results of the Run the Line timed 5k on Saturday the 29th of August 2026 on the Carrigaline to Crosshaven Greenway.

 

New 5k parkrun starting in Dungarvan!

It was announced recently that a new 5k parkrun is on the way for Dungarvan in Co Waterford! 

It looks like it will be on the Waterford Greenway and the start and finish will be near the Railway Cottage in Ballinroad which is about 4kms to the east of Dungarvan town.

I had a look at a map and they can fit in a 2.5km out and back course between the Railway Cottage and the first set of gates. If this is the case then it will be very like the Midleton Greenway parkrun.

It would seem as if plans for the new parkrun are at an advanced stage and they are looking for volunteers. The provisional start date is for sometime in October of 2026.

There is an information evening at the Park Hotel, Dungarvan, on Thursday, 24th September 2026 at 7pm if anyone is interested in finding out more and how to get involved.

For more info, email Thomas at tshawhamilton AT waterfordsportspartnership DOT ie

Once launched, Dungarvan parkrun will take place every Saturday at 9.30am from the Railway Cottage on the Waterford Greenway.

Business of Sport: How the Sub-2 Marathon Shows Athletics’ Big Problem

This video from the Business of Sport team looks at the finances within athletics and it should be of interest to anyone with an interest in the sport.

Video is from April 2026.

Notice: Cloughduv 5k on Wed 2nd Sept 2026

This timed 5k is coming up in the village of Cloughduv on Wednesday the 2nd of September 2026 at 7:00pm.

With the evenings closing in, this is one of the last evening races. Entry is on the night.

Results of the Chris Harrington Memorial 5k in Tramore Valley Park - Sun 30th Aug 2026

The Chris Harrington Memorial 5k organised by Leevale AC was held in Tramore Valley Park on Sun 30th of Aug 2026 and there were 221 finishers.

Top 3 men & women...
1 Luke Merrigan (#1691) 15:36 Under 18 (1) Male  (1)
2 Mark Walsh (#1619) Leevale A.C. 15:43 35-49 (1) Male  (2)
3 Barry Donovan (#1623) Leevale A.C. 16:08 35-49 (2) Male  (3)
6 Jane Buckley (#1620) 16:27 Senior (1) Female  (1)
8 Hannah Smith (#1639) 17:25 Senior (2) Female  (2)
9 Michelle Kenny (#1611) Leevale A.C. 17:31 35-49 (1) Female  (3)

Full results HERE

Photos...
1) Joe Murphy has three galleries... a) Album 1 b) Album 2 c) Album 3

2) Gearóid Ó Laoi also has three galleries... a) Album 1 b) Album 2 c) Album 3

23:23 for former Irish international rugby player Donncha O'Callaghan

Results & Photos of the Waterford Greenway Half-Marathon - Sat 29th Aug 2026

Wet start for the 2026 Waterford Greenway Half-Marathon

The big race in Munster this weekend was the Waterford Greenway Half-Marathon which sold out months ago. There were 712 finishers this year which is up 7.4% on last year despite the rain and wet conditions.

Full results HERE

West Waterford AC committee members and Track Fund committee members along with European under-18 800 meters silver medallist Isabelle Gaffney at this year's Waterford Greenway half marathon. All proceeds from the event were donated to the track fund. Pictured L/R Declan O'Callaghan, Kevin Forde, Isabelle Gaffney, Cait Verling and Tom Leahy

Photos...
1) West Waterford AC have the following galleries...
a) Start and Finish 1 b) Finish 2 c) Finish 3 d) Finish 4 e) Finish 5 f) Finish 6

2) John Troy has some photos of the start HERE

First 5 women (L-R)… Jean Lucey (875) 5th, Shona Keane, Dooneen AC (907) 2nd, Ciara Wilson, DMP AC (952) 1st, Evita Volginaite, Glanmire AC (950) 3rd & Marie Howard, Leevale AC (950) 4th

First 5 men (L-R)... David Power, Rathfarnham WSAF AC (380) 5th, Dermot Gorman, Carrick on Suir AC (529) 4th, Aidan Connell, West Waterford AC (315) 3rd, Evan Fitzgerald, West Waterford AC (542) 1st & Peter Tuohy (375) 2nd

Prize winners below...

Prize Winners Waterford Greenway Half 29/08/2026