Northern Ireland Running

anyone else doing the Darragh Cross 10k 5k Fun Run? 

13 miles yesterday tough going but was a lovely morning for a run.

Portrush Park run starts Saturday 8 September at 9.30 on the east strand.

Nice to meet you on Saturday Jonny.  That was a good last mile from you.  It's not the easiest course, especially with the hill near the start, but the thought of the downhill finish kept me going.  About 57.05 for me in the end.  Nice goody bag & refreshments.  Thanks for the shouts too Mags.  I'll try to get to Darragh Cross if I'm free.

Right, Olympics over, normal life resumes.

I haven't posted on here in ages as I'm doing very little running at the minute, however I am managing to keep in touch with a lot of you at the various races and parkrun every week.

I'll be at Darragh Cross on Thursday evening, so hopefully see some of you there.  The start time has been put back to 7.30pm to allow runners time to get home from work and out again, so if you haven't done this one before, maybe think about giving it a go.

First ever track race last night in Bangor. 3,000 which I managed to break 10 minutes in so happy enough though different world of pain!

Wee shameless plug here for our own road race:

Laganside 10k

Flat  fast PB course open for all comers. Should be a big field so a good spread of abilities.

Kenny and the Balymena guys would you spread the word round clubmates?? The closing date for online(i.e. cheaper) entries will be the wednesday before the race.

TG - sub 05:20/mile pace?! Now, that's proper running!!

I have roped in another 4 entries for Laganside from work and will ask at club training tonight (Dromore).   

Looking forward to Laganside 10k which last year marked my first ever race. Will be hoping for a PB and to duck under 43:30 which I need to achieve a Power of 10 standard (for M45). Does anyone else on here use the Power of 10 website to log runs/PBs - haven't read any comments about it? I registered with the linked runbritain site and find it neat to see a record of my races and whether my time was judged to be 'over/under par' on the day.

Laganside falls nicely in my current training schedule, a fortnight before my 2nd attempt at the Great North Run and then it will only be another 6 weeks before hopefully my Marathon debut in Dublin - yikes!!

Kenny, I've not posted since your Festival of Running in Dervock. I spied the race T-shirts at Cookstown Half and was very impressed! Nice touch with the Springbok emblem & colour choice! Sorry to have missed it.

Cheers Alwyn - glad to hear you're doing Laganside. There always seem to be a good few from dromore at it.

I use fetcheveryone to record things. Poweroften tends to record my results anyway for some reason. Great place to track your results though.

That and to check out opposition - I know of quite a few who do a bit of stalking on it pre races!!

Thinking of XC over the winter (seeing pretty much the whole summer has been a disaster with injury) looking at getting some spikes. What's the concensus on size, same as road shoe? or 1/2 size up or more?

JP I alway liked to try on spikes before I bought them. I ordered my first pair on the internet and they were too tight.

Hi guys, I haven't posted for ages either. Work and olympics take up far too much time   Roll on the paralympics when I'll be glued to the tv again. 

Has anyone experienced problems with Nimbus 13? This is my first time in these trainers - usually stick with Cumulus - but they are really irritating my left achilles. Anyone else getting this?

Sorry don't use them, Cumulus all the way for me last 5 pairs have been great.

Yeah, John, think I'll be heading back to Cumulus again.

Funny you mention that I have actually developed problems with the cumulus in the last few years.

I used to wear them religously but have switched to brooks since the tail end of last year. I was getting pains up the outside of my right calf with them. Three different pairs I tried too.

I just moved over to brooks ghost which I really like. I wore cumulus for 2 or 3 years until then too. Don't understand what happened with them.

I've usually found Brooks trainers to be a bit heavy or clumpy. Haven't tried Ghost. Might consider giving them a go for a change.

I've volunteered to bring my sore achilles and nimbus to Waterworks tomorrow so maybe see some of you there (and quiz you on your trainer choice ). Not sure what i'll be doing. Helping with drinks last week so might be more of the same.

Helen - Can't help with the shoes I'm afraid, but I've got you down to help with the tea and coffee again tomorrow .

Hoping for a good turnout in the morning.  Please let the weather be better than it was last night at Darragh Cross.

Anyone on here half thinking of doing parkrun tomorrow please make an effort and come along. Theres a campagin to get as many people running tomorrow as possible so coax, pursuade and cajole as many people as you can.

I am heading to Ecos tomorrow Mags accompanied by my husband & Roxy our mad labrador.  Its Colin's 1st ever park run so I thought it would be a perfect time to introduce him to them, he might have to walk/run a bit, but we'll get there.  I just hope our mad labrador doesn't cause too much chaos!!!

That's great news Heather.  I bet he'll be hooked once he's done one. Look forward to hearing how he gets on.

Are all parkruns on Sat morns - is there any on Sundays? I work every Sat morn .

Just purchased a Garmin 305 watch & have ditched I-phone with runkeeper app so looking forward to getting to grips with it.

Niggly ankle this week so not much running but some cycling instead - just not the same!!

Hi Ricky - yes, all parkruns are on Saturday mornings, except for Christmas and New Year at Waterworks where we had an extra run both those days.  My son also works Saturdays and has only ever done two parkruns, both on Christmas day.

Good luck with your Garmin 305.  That's what I have, and it made such difference to my running.  I didn't have runkeeper prior to getting it, so I measured all my runs by driving round my route in the car afterwards.  This meant that I could only run along main roads, so you can imagine the feedom to be able to run through parks etc.  It also saved me a fortune in petrol!

Hope the niggle in the anke heals soon.  I know what you mean about cycling.  I bought a bike last year after I tore the cartilege in my knee, but I never got th4e same buzz from cycling as I did running.