After gradually tipping away at the parkruns most weekends, the time had finally arrived to do my 100th 5k parkrun. I had originally planned to go back to Macroom where I did my first parkrun but I wanted to do something special, some place that was a challenge to get to and then do #100 there.
I enlisted the help of my traveling companion Grellan McGrath and we hatched a plan to cycle to Glengarriff in West Cork, a round trip of 205kms for me and 160kms or 100 miles for Grellan.
I left my house at 3:40am last Saturday on what was a dark and foggy morning. As I headed through Douglas, the only movement was taxis and late night revellers walking home.
I called to Grellan at 4:40am in Ballincollig and then we began the long journey west in the dark and the fog.
The kms flew by... first Crookstown and then Beal na Blath as the sky began to get brighter as we headed west on the 'Bantry Line'. As we approached some high ground by Coppeen, we popped above the fog and the sun cast long shadows from us about 50m or so down the road. It wasn't to last though and we dropped back into the fog again.
After what seemed like hours, we finally arrived in the fog at the Cousane Gap, the metaphorical and literal gateway to West Cork.
Up the hairpin bend and over then down the other side. And then everything changed completely, we popped out of the fog to be presented with a spectacular view of the mountains of West Cork with blue skies and sunshine.
Downhill to Kealkill and on to Ballylickey for a well earned break and a cuppa. On arriving, we met some of the Ballincollig parkrun crew on their way to Bere Island for the parkun and Mid-Summer race.
Always conscious of time, we pressed on after the cuppa westwards and arrived at the Gate Lodge for Glengarriff Park about 8:35am, in plenty of time and just over 100kms done.
After a 1km or two to kill some time, it was time to warm up for the parkrun. You might think a 100km cycle is a good warm up for a 5k parkrun but you use different muscles when you're cycling. Off I went and ran a slow 2kms just to be sure.
As can be seen from the photo at the top of the post, the numbers were modest with 71 taking part. The plan was just to run at my usual 5k pace so that it would feel like a good workout. Just follow the person in front of me and hang in there for 24 or so minutes.
9:30am duly arrived and we were off. After a few hundred metres, the field thinned out and I found myself in 5th position. The problem was the first four runners had by now disappeared and I was leading a group of runners on a course where I hadn't a clue where to go!
What to do? Do I slow down and hope the guy behind me knows where to go? In the end, I needn't have worried as the organisers had directions arrows everywhere. As I approached every junction, it was clear what direction I needed to go as I opened up a gap.
Someone mentioned to me before that the Glengarriff parkrun was a hilly course. I had visions of us running up the side of a hill and back down again. The reality is that these 'hills' are short little pulls that are about 20-50m in length. As I found out, they seem to be a regular feature in the second half of the parkrun.
After about 3kms, these 'short hills' began to have an impact. I'd be running away fine but as soon as I hit one, my pace would really drop. Was it the fatigue from the long cycle or just a lack of training? Who knows.
Eventually some runners from behind caught me on one of these 'hills'. On the other side, I could keep up with them but they'd open a gap then on the next 'short hill'. Eventually I finished the parkrun in 8th position with a time of 23m 36s.
The reality is that the position and time aren't important. To me, it felt like an appropriate pace for a 'good workout', I finished and it was parkrun number 100.
Job done, now it was time for the hard part which was the journey home. First off, back to Ballylicky for some food but not before Grellan went for a 400m swim in the sea to make it a quasi-triathlon for the day.
I planned a different route home that the one that we used to come down. I didn't fancy going back over the Cousane Gap and back up the 'Bantry Line' with all the cars and traffic so I opted for a quieter and more direct hillier route.
'Hillier' being the opportune word because when you see a Strava segment named 'The Wall' on the route, it can only mean one thing.
Onwards we went, over 'The Wall' and on to Kilmicheal, Teerelton and Lissarda. Grellan described the route home as 'beautiful but brutal' 😂 I was thinking more 'safe and scenic' but it was pretty brutal with the temperature in the mid 20's and the tar melting on the road.
Anyway, we survived. I left Grellan in Ballincollig and he had completed 160kms and 100 miles for the day. By the time I got home, I was at 205.6kms with 1752m of climbing. A long day.
Final thoughts....
Glengarriff... It's a really nice place for a parkrun. I like the fact it's one big loop, I like the twists and turns and even the 'short hills' are ok. It would be a lovely place to have as your 'home' parkrun.
Volunteers... Thanks to all the volunteers who turned out every week to make this 100 parkrun possible for me. The recommended ratio for runs to volunteering is 10:1 so going on the basis of some OCD and maintaining a perfect ratio, I had to earn exactly 10 volunteer credits before I could do #100.
100 parkruns... As a target, it's a nice figure that anyone can work towards. It's nice to have something to focus on to get you out the door on a Saturday morning.
What's next? We have two parkruns in Cork that we haven't cycled to... Macroom and Bere Island. Macroom will be the easy one, Bere Island will be a two day journey.
That'll be another story.
