Speaking of volunteers, I'd like to thank the team who supported me on Saturday as without them the event doesn’t go ahead. They were Una CASSONI, Rosemary COUPER, Tracey DENNER, John DUNNE, Suzanne DUNNE, Sophie ELLIOTT, Massimo FRANZINA, Ruairi HOGAN, Móirín LAUFER, Geraldine LAVIN, Anthony POLLARD, Stephen ROWAN, Cillian RYAN, Siobhan SHERIDAN, Lisa SHORTT, Lorcan SWEENEY, Davy VANEETVELDE and Brian VAUGHAN.

The first 3 male finishers were Will Morris, Sean Kavanagh (pictured below) and Gary Farrell and the first three female finishers were Niamh Murphy (pictured below), Anne Whelan and Treasa Kelly. We had 130 participants including 12 first timers and 20 PB’s. A special mention goes to Sean Kavanagh, a Lucan Harrier/Griffeen Grafter who was second finisher and knocked a whopping 33 seconds of his Griffeen PB. Another special mention goes to wife and husband Anne and Maurice Whelan who, after 315 parkruns at Griffeen between them, both clocked their fastest times on the same day.

A small hiccup and delay in processing the results, all came good in the end. Technology being the cause and the solution to the problem. The expertise, knowledge and communication skills I had at my disposal from the team allowed for the results to be delivered in a timely fashion. Special thanks to Gary, Tracey, Siobhan and Lisa for that.

On what was a changeable (weather wise) Saturday the last one of April 2022, 128 people ran, jogged and walked the course, of whom 5 were first timers and 13 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 13 different clubs took part.

Congratulations to Bernie STAPLETON from Lucan Harriers who ran her 50th parkrun and also got a new PB.  Well done Bernie (seen here in the orange top in the photo below).

We had a visitor from England, Dave Seedon.  Glad to see you and I hope you had a good run and that we will see you again. We had a first timer Colm McNICHOLL who ran his first ever parkrun at Griffeen parkrun.  Welcome to the parkrun family Colm.

Our first male finisher was Sean Kavanagh who had a fantastic run and is seen in the blue t-shirt in the photo below along with Pat O'DWYER and Mike CLARKE our 2nd and 3rd male finishers.

Our first 3 Female finishers were Niamh MURPHY, Katheine KILCULLEN and Nicola KAVANAGH. Photo below shows Katherine.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the pacers.  Apologies to you all as I forgot to mention you in the run brief.  You do a very important job on the last Saturday of every month. So thank you to Massimo FRANZINA, Cathal O'RIORDAIN, Gary FARRELL, Daryl PURCELL, Ryan DUNNE, Sharon ASHMORE and Stephen ROWAN.

The event was made possible by all our volunteers listed above and below:

Pat NEWHAM • Cait CARMODY • Gretta DUIGNAN • Liz ARKINS • Lorcan SWEENEY • Paula MARNELL • Patricia BARLOW •  Tracey DENNER • Gary DENNER • Gareth HENEGHAN •  Angharad WILLIAMS • Justin SMITH • Siobhan SHERIDAN • Anthony POLLARD • Brian O'GORMAN • Geraldine LAVIN • Laura G DOYLE • Martin FINN • Sophie ELLIOTT

Griffeen parkrun is in need of volunteers every week so if you can help us out by volunteering please drop us an email at griffeen@parkrun.com or a message on our Facebook page.

I would like to congratulate everyone who ran the Limerick Marathon, half marathon and the 10K on Sunday the 1st May.  It was a great event.

Next week Brian VAUGHAN will take over as Run Director.  See you all then.

Regards

Siobhán Sheridan

Run Director 30th April 2022

On Saturday we had an arbitrary milestone, but a milestone none the less, as we welcomed our 7,000 different participant to Griffeen.

If you ever hear Paul Sinton-Hewitt, founder of parkrun, speak he will tell you it was never about the run. We’re not too sure it is about the park either, after all, we have seen parkruns start on canals, greenways, beaches and even in prisons. parkrun is really about the people you meet, friendships formed, chats with strangers and stories shared. And of course, the cake and countless coffees.

This week at Griffeen we had 125 participants and 20 volunteers.

The people behind those numbers included Luke Murphy, convinced by his father to try parkrun for the first time and in doing so became our 7,000 unique participant.

We had regular Gary Farrell who arrived a little late, came over to say hello to the volunteers, before taking off to catch the tailwalker. In fact, he caught every other participant along the way to become the first one home.

We had Gary’s clubmate Tricia Gough giving out to Gary as she handed him his finish token reminding him that he had a race the following day and was meant to be taking it easy!

Scanning tokens was Sean Kavanagh, Tricia’s son, who earned his 25^th volunteer credit, as did one of our timekeepers, Ann Higgins. Congratulations to you both.

We had Al Tinoy who completed his 25^th parkrun (we’ll be seeing an influx of purple t-shirts in the coming weeks!), 22 of which have been at Griffeen. Al popped over to us after his run to add his name to the volunteer list for next week.

We had Jim Dwyer who volunteered to help with set up and although he wasn’t taking part, he stayed with us to cheer everyone home.

We had Gary Rooney who has been chipping away at his time since he took up parkrun after lockdown and was delighted to hear we would have pacers next week so he can hopefully try for his goal time, we know it’ll be the first of many goals.

We had Sharon Ashmore visiting us from Castletown parkrun and showing off her incredible 250^th volunteer t-shirt.

We always (quite rightly) thank our volunteers each week but this week we also want to thank each of those 7,000 participants who have helped to make our event what it is.

We’re lucky to have a great core team who do all the little bits behind the scenes, but we do rely on others to volunteer to give you a safe event each week. If you’d ever like to help out, you can get in touch at griffeen@parkrun.com. Just let us know what date you are available and if there is any specific role you’d like to do.

The event this week was made possible by 20 volunteers:

Ceara KERRIGAN • Anita HUGHES • Brian VAUGHAN • Jim DWYER • Lorcan SWEENEY • Massimo FRANZINA • Tracey DENNER • Gary DENNER • Ann HIGGINS • Ryan DUNNE • Tricia GOUGH • Sean KAVANAGH • Geraldine EVANS • Siobhan SHERIDAN • Josephine ARMSTRONG • Colm FOLEY • Claire WALSHE • Stephen ROWAN • David O REILLY • Colm MAGUIRE

See you all next week!

Ceara Kerrigan

Run Director 23^rd Apr 2022

On a perfect parkrun Saturday with no rain and very little wind 157 people joined us to run, jog and walk the course. We had 18 first timers and 25 recorded new Personal Bests. Representatives of 16 different clubs took part and we had visitors from Dorset and Waterstown.

We had a double milestone with running buddies Seamus Fogarty and Garry Herron completing their 100th parkrun; well done Seamus and Garry! They had great support from their Wolfpack RG on the day.

Well done to Sean Kavanagh and Niamh Murphy, our first male and female runners.

A great big thank you to all the volunteers who made my job as Run Director so much easier. A special thanks to the volunteers who took on new tasks and to the experienced volunteers who helped mentor them on the day.

The event was made possible by 18 volunteers:

Louisa LALLY • Ceara KERRIGAN • Pat NEWHAM • Brian VAUGHAN • Massimo FRANZINA • Anne WHELAN • Daragh DOYLE • Mags TREACY • Cormac DOWD • Anne SMITH • Robert KAVANAGH • Nicola MCSHANE • Jo MAHON • Moussa DIALLO • Geraldine LAVIN • Cillian RYAN • Michael LASKOWSKI • Ruairi HOGAN

You will see some familiar names if you usually read our run reports but we always need new people to volunteer. We depend on volunteers to help keep our parkrun going so do get in touch if you would like to get involved.

Happy Running, Walking, Jogging, Skipping etc.

Geraldine Lavin, Run Director, Griffeen #382

On Saturday 9th April 2022, 123 people ran, jogged and walked our course in Griffeen Valley Park. It's amazing how the buzz starts a lot earlier on a bright and sunny day. The place was a hive of activity by 9.15am, compared to a dull dreary day when it's only minutes before the start that people start to appear. Although there's always the hardy few who are early birds in all weathers.
There were 11 first timers this week, 5 parkrunners visiting Griffeen for the first time and 6 others taking on their very first parkrun. Well done all and we'd love to welcome you back to Griffeen on a regular basis.

Congratulations goes to Karen HAYES who completed her 100th parkrun on Saturday, a great achievement. Sorry we didn't catch you for a photo.

Below are our first men home, Gary FARRELL (centre), David CRAVEN and Oliver WARREN, who battled until the end, crossing the line within seconds of each other and entertaining the volunteers in the process. There's nothing like a little bit of friendly rivalry.

Our first two females home were Karrie HILL HUGHES and Nicola KAVANAGH. Well done ladies.

I'd like to thank all the wonderful volunteers who, as always, made this week's event run like clockwork. What a happy bunch! I'd also like to thank all of you that volunteered in the coming weeks. It makes the core team's job a lot easier when we have a healthy roster in advance. Imagine how creative they could be with their posts if they didn't always have to recruit volunteers.

Next week Geraldine LAVIN takes the reigns for what I'm sure will be another enjoyable event, who knows, maybe the Easter Bunny will make an appearance.

Happy Easter

Amanda Bruce

Run Director 9 April 2022