What a wonderful day for a Park Run! We are all fully appreciating this run of glorious weather and are in no way complaining at all about possibly the most splendid heatwave since – those with long memories have assured me – the legendary summer of ’83!
In this spirit, I will not complain about the lack of air and the sweltering heat, but rather praise the warmth of the welcome and the atmosphere of anticipation as Islanders get ready for the midsummer run in just a fortnight’s time.
I’ll keep it short and sweet – no honestly, because today I was fortunate enough to run twice on Beara – first at the Park Run, and shortly after at the CDA’s newly imagined Wild Atlantic Way 5 miler. So my mind is fairly sun-scrambled.
So – youth led the way and the Sullivan dynasty sprung into action with Kevin Sullivan finishing first in 20:55 and mum Joanne finishing as first female this week in 25:27.
This week we were 52 in number and we had 4 first timers and one scorching PB! Well done Patrick O’Sullivan! Welcome to Roger Green, Sean Horan, Paul Harrington and Jim Roche.
Roger, another native of East London/Essex (word has got out!) sped round in the heat and incredibly snatched the VM70-74 course record. As it goes, a couple of these were missed in all the excitement of last week and I feel it is my duty to enlighten you. Last week Laura Davison took the VW40-44 record to 20:38 – phew! And Sally Jeyes took the VW65-69 record to 28:40. Impressive.
Back, just briefly, to the glorious weather. As we chatted after then run there was talk of how we tend to remember those summer days from our childhood and look back with rose tinted (sun) glasses, forgetting the rain in the fog of time. Let’s take our lead from the young at the young at heart and appreciate what we have while it’s here …
I’ll take my own advice and appreciate the volunteers including our novice scanners Angela and Davy – closely supervised by Joanne- and other visitors and veterans who took on roles this week, also for the baking Bakehouse – scones alfresco today- and Bere Island Ferries.
As the highly unofficial voice of the CDA just for this tiny piece of the Internet, I know they were very grateful for the loan of the Bere Island GAA clock – accompanied by impeccable training from Run Director Dominic. A great example of the warm island/mainland relations! We look forward to a similar display in a fortnight’s time when the Midsummer Run has it’s moment, possibly literally, in the sun.
