It’s definitely starting to feel like winter as 136 of you ran, jogged and walked our course on a cold, (but at least dry!) morning. There were 9 first timers and 27 of you recorded new Personal Bests, that’s almost one in five participants!

Joe Maher and Cillian Ryan both completed their 25^th parkrun so hopefully we’ll see them in the purple milestone t-shirts in the coming weeks. This isn’t Cillian’s first purple milestone though as he already has an incredible 34 volunteer credits to his name.

We also had John Collins and Julie McMullen completing their 250 parkrun on Saturday so there was great celebrations. And cake of course…

The morning was made possible by our 20 volunteers so thanks again to Anita Hughes, Brian Vaughan, Dermot O'Rourke, Gary Denner, Daragh Doyle, Emma Collins, Barry Murphy, Philomena Duke, Gareth O'Neill, Ray McTernan, Niamh Murphy, Katelyn Murtagh, Eimear Smyth, Kate Yurmanovych, Hannah Osinuga, Gerard Gabor, Róisín Duddy, Eabha OCONNOR and Bharath Raj Kanthimathinathan

I’m not sure any of us volunteers were prepared for the cold snap and there was a lot of numb fingers and toes by the time we closed up.

A lot of our volunteers over the last few weeks have been Transition Year students and they have been an incredible help each week, so I’d like to say an extra thanks to them. Their enthusiasm and willingness to get involved in all the different roles gives us reassurance that parkrun will be in safe hands in the future.

Speaking of the future of parkrun, we’ll sign off this report with 7 year old Tom who completed his first 5km parkrun on Saturday, accompanied by his very proud mum.

Paula is back as Run Director tomorrow so see you all then.

Ceara

We had another dry fresh day for parkrun #414, thankfully the rain held off until all 130 people had ran, jogged and walked the course and the gear was packed away. In fact, it was only as I left Starbucks where the results were processed that the rain came down. Most weeks you will find a bunch of parkrun regulars warming up and having a chat over a steaming hot beverage in Starbucks at Lucan Shopping Centre. Come join us anytime. Sometimes we don't even have to check if the results went out, there's often a little cheer somewhere in the cafe as someone reaches a new pb.

This week 10 of you recorded new personal bests. Congratulations to you all. One of those PBs belonged to our first male home, Cillian MURPHY of Lucan Harries in an amazing time of 17.53. I had asked Cillian beforehand if he would like to pace 20 minutes for us, never imaging it would be too slow for him. He was aiming for a new pb of 19 minutes which he smashed. Here he is below with John CANNY, second home and Gary FARRELL, third. You will also note our new photo frame, feel free to pose for us anytime.

Congratulations to our first three ladies home. First was Cristina BALAUCA centre, followed by Liz ARKINS, left and Ann HIGGINS, right. Well done.

A huge thanks to all our volunteers, with pacers (some stepping up at the last minute) it took a total of 22 to make parkrun possible. Griffeen parkrun just would not happen without you, and it was a pleasure to be Run Director and volunteer alongside you on the day. Ceara will look after you next week where you get to do it all over again.

Happy parkrunning,

Amanda Bruce

Run Director 26th November 2022

 

It was a lovely crisp morning at Griffeen Park on Saturday where 143 people ran, jogged and walked, of whom 9 were first timers and 18 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 16 different clubs took part.

We had a few milestones celebrated with Eoghan Lyons completing his 25th parkrun (while being second person home), Peter Fagan completing his 50th parkrun and Gary O'Daly who completed his 250th parkrun - Well done to you all.

Gary and Niamh O'Daly after Gary completed his 250th parkrun

This week, I want to talk a little about walking at parkrun.  Through October there was a worldwide promotion of walking at parkrun and hopefully the word has gone out that all are welcome at parkrun.  During a holiday in South Africa in 2016, I visited Golden Harvest parkrun which is in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg.  What I really noticed (apart from the hills!) was the diversity of those attending.  The fast runners dashed off, the joggers followed and then a large volume of walkers headed off and I noticed they tended to be multi-generational with Grandparents joining their children, grandchildren and family dog (on its lead!) for their weekly 5k walk.   Being South African they also brought picnics and relaxed afterwards in the park.  The happy atmosphere and chat has stayed with me and is one of my happiest parkrun memories and it's something I'd love to see happening here.   This memory came back to me on Saturday when the Reynolds family came to Griffeen parkrun, walked together and completed their first parkrun!   It would be great to get the word out that walkers are welcome at parkrun whether it's solo walkers, families or groups of friends catching up after the working week.

The Reynolds family after completing their first parkrun

If anyone wants to walk but is worried about finishing last - don't be!  There is a Volunteer Tail Walker at every parkrun who will be the last person to finish and we also have a new volunteer role of parkwalker who walk the full 5k and are happy to chat to other parkwalkers.  Both the Tail Walker and parkwalker roles are a great way to volunteer while also getting your 5k done.

This week's volunteer parkwalkers - Cillian Ryan and Geraldine Lavin

And if you are worried that you may not know what to do - there's a volunteer for that too with a First Timers briefing taking place at 9.25am every Saturday morning.  Whether you're a first time parkrunner or a first timer at a particular parkrun, join the briefing for a quick overview of the course and how parkrun works.

Pat Newham and Paul Richardson ready to explain all to our First Timers

As always parkrun would not happen without the volunteers and this week 21 people made Griffeen parkrun possible.  Thank you to

Paul RICHARDSON • Ceara KERRIGAN • Pat NEWHAM • Brian VAUGHAN • Fanchea GIBSON • Gary DENNER • Simon WIELENS • Anne SMITH • Justin SMITH • Stephen ROWAN • Geraldine LAVIN • Cillian RYAN • Aidan KELLY • Katelyn MURTAGH • Eimear SMYTH • Kate YURMANOVYCH • Hannah OSINUGA • Gerard GABOR • Carmen POCKNELL • Róisín DUDDY • Eabha OCONNOR

This week's volunteer team

See you all next Saturday with Amanda in charge at 9.25am for the First Timers briefing and 9.30am for the off and don't forget to spread the word that everyone is welcome at parkrun!

Fanchea Gibson

Run Director 19th November 2022

On Saturday, we celebrated 10 years of parkrun in Ireland, all 137 participants and 21 volunteers. The weather was kind to us, it was a pleasantly mild November morn, without the hurricane like winds experienced during the week.

We had 5 first timers including Akasha Izreen MOHD JALANI (pictured below), 16 PB’s, and tourists from Poolbeg and Kent.

The first three males home were Arlen Szep-Szabo, Joseph Richards and Ciaran O’Raghallaigh (pictured below) and our first three females through the chute were Anne Whelan, Jiaojiao Wang and Tricia Gough.

 

As well as parkrun Ireland celebrating a 10 year anniversary, we also had Lisa Moloney achieving a personal milestone of 50 parkruns, well done Lisa.

As the saying goes “Not all heroes wear capes” and that is true of our trusted volunteers, who, on a Saturday morning don the bright yellow high-vis vests with the parkrun logo. They arrive before you do and leave when you're gone, all to make your event possible in the safest way. Without them parkrun does not go ahead, so a special thanks this week goes to:

Sharon ASHMORE, Marta CIENIUCH, Tracey DENNER, Róisín DUDDY, Geraldine EVANS, Gerard GABOR, Maggie JEZ, Geraldine LAVIN, Nicola LE ROUX, Martin LEUNG, Damien MOLONEY, Katelyn MURTAGH, Hannah OSINUGA, Colm RYAN, Anne SMITH, Justin SMITH, Eimear SMYTH, Brian VAUGHAN, Simon WIELENS, Kate YURMANOVYCH and Aidan KELLY (pictured below), photographer on the day. If you want to see more of Aidan’s photos from Saturday, check out Griffeen parkrun Facebook page.

See you all this Saturday where you’ll be in the capable hands of Fanchea Gibson.

Brian Vaughan,

Run Director

I arrived early to start setting up and was quickly joined by Gary and Tracey Denner and Brian Vaughan and we finished setting up.  It was a beautiful morning and the sun was shining and I thought lovely we will have a good morning.  I spoke too soon.  The light drizzly rain came and it never stopped.  The rest of the volunteers arrived and were given their Hi Viz and lanyard.  Our TY students helped out again by scanning, timekeeping and handing out finish tokens and finish token sorting. Well done to all of them.

The event was made possible by 22 volunteers:

Ceara KERRIGAN • Pat NEWHAM • Brian VAUGHAN • Marie COLLINS • Patricia BARLOW • Eileen O' BRIEN • Brendan QUINN • Tracey DENNER • Gary DENNER • Philomena DUKE • Siobhan SHERIDAN • Josephine ARMSTRONG • Theresa CROSBIE • Claire WALSHE • Moussa DIALLO • Geraldine LAVIN • Maggie JEZ • Eimear SMYTH • Kate YURMANOVYCH • Hannah OSINUGA • Gerard GABOR • Róisín DUDDY

We had a photo shoot for all our DCM runners and volunteers (photo below).  Well done to everyone.  It was a great day.

We had a couple of milestones.  Maitiú BRENNAN celebrated his 10th parkrun and celebrated with a new PB too.  Maitiú is in the age category J15-17.  Well done Maitiú.

Of course, Griffeen parkrun regular runner/walker and volunteer Philomena DUKE (photos below) celebrated her 50th Volunteer and her 100th parkrun.  Congratulations Philomena and welcome to the 100th club.

We had a number of first timers.  Christopher DEVANEY,  Alan CONNORS, Ewa KMIECIK and Sharon ROWAN who ran or walked their first parkrun. Welcome to Griffeen parkrun.

Maitiu VAUGHAN who is from Castletown parkrun ran his second parkrun at Griffeen and our visitor Robert WHITE joined us for his 75th parkrun. Hope you both enjoyed your run.

Despite the drizzly rain 164 of you ran, jogged and walked the course this week, of whom 6 were first timers and 13 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 15 different clubs took part.

Next week Brian Vaughan will take over as RD.  The roster is looking good but we could do with a marshal, a scanner, event day course check and event close down and a couple of park walkers.

See you on Saturday.

Siobhán Sheridan

Run Director 5th November 2022