Introduction

On Saturday 23rd of January 2016 533 parkrunners turned up to Tramore Valley park for parkrun. Operation Transformation had helped create a frenzy and once participants decided to walk across a dual carriageway with no pedestrian crossing to access the park the game was up. Cork City Council withdrew permission for Tramore Valley parkrun the following week and there it lay in cold storage slowly making its way to the record for longest parkrun suspension in the world.

On Saturday May 14th 2022 Julie and I spotted the call for help on Facebook. Yes we were leaving Cork to live and work in Dublin but we couldn’t let this suspension go on for one minute longer. The greatest ressurection in parkrun history was in motion.

Our parkrun ambassador John told us that Tramore Valley parkrun needed a whole new crew event directors included and that the city council were onboard for a restart. We had so many false dawns but we had finally gotten an inch. The council thrilled with the success of Glen River and Ballincollig parkruns and with Half Moon Lane now built granted permission to restart Tramore Valley parkrun 6.5 years after cancelling the event. It was hard to believe. To seasoned parkrunners in Cork Tramore Valley was now a tír na nÓg parkrun. We all hoped it would come back but we had put it into a wishful thinking category. And then all of a sudden we were in the last 10% of the run. The finish line was in sight.

I’m really good at the last 10%. The last 10% the finisher miles. I often train in marathons to get to the last 10%. At that point my mindset will do all the work. I won’t be able to face myself, my family or friends if I don’t finish. Professionally according to several bosses this is the reason I’m considered reliable. It’s nice to hear but this is my nature. I don’t leave things unfinished. I see them through. When Glen River looked like it might falter in those dark first few weeks in December 2018 I felt the dread of failing in the last 10%. I wasn’t going to let it happen. I stepped forward to bring out the energy in the team get them believing they’d be here forever. We won then and we were going to win now. I stepped forward again this time with my wife as Co-Event Director in Tramore Valley. We had to re-energise Tramore Valley but this was different I was coming in as leader to an exhausted demoralised team who still couldn’t believe that Tramore Valley was allowed to return. Even worse they now had the Captain of another ship arriving on the bridge to take charge of the restart. This didn’t feel like Captain Pike arriving on the Discovery at all. Straight away it was red alert, shields up let’s see what we’re dealing with here. What is the story with parking?

Parking

It only took 6 years 5 months 22 days 23 hours to get it back up and running. For me a lifetime of events had passed. Trump came and went as US President, Brexit happened, we had a global pandemic, I met my wife Julie, finished my career in Sport at the Mardyke Arena UCC and joined the civil service as an ICT Specialist. Cork has since Tramore Valley fell started two city centre parkruns in Glen River and Ballincollig. It is true that there are years where nothing happens and then you live in years where decades happen. Tramore Valley parkrun had both happen at once. The parkrun stopped dead and went into limbo. The rest of the world went into overdrive.

Quandary

I’m standing at the parkrun start point on July 16th 2022. We do a quick 8 seconds for Facebook. It occurs to me later that I’m one of a few RDs dressed in Black. The conventional Blue is changing in line with sponsorship arrangements I’m told. Here I am in Black turning and like Terminator teasing “it’s back”. Looking at the video it felt like slipping into a mad multiverse where I have resurrected the most badass viciously competitive parkrun. Like an in the mirror darkly version of parkrun where the tail walker is the tail whipper and PBs are mandatory. My point is that the whole morning felt surreal. We had people there who had last done a parkrun in Tramore Valley 6 years ago. It felt like time had slipped and landed 6 years later. In 2015 when it all started I hadn’t even met my wife, I was a runner (not a parkrunner) but I was also scraping a living as a coach. In 2022 I was bringing back their parkrun. I was the Co-Event Director. I was persuading a group of good people to volunteer and reminding them that they were going on a journey that I was jealous of. I had already walked the new parkrun journey at Glen River parkrun. I made friends for life from it. In Tramore Valley I knew it would be different. The volunteers would be on the journey. I was meant to be a guide, a trusted advisor and leader.

Looking at the runners on the first morning in their timeline I didn’t exist. I was an unknown or worse I was from Glen River their sister parkrun. I could feel the concern would I be nice? Would I protect Tramore Valley now that it was back? Was I a stop gap because no one else was available? Was I there begrudgingly? The responsibility of leadership was not lost on me. I felt tentative trust beginning. Thank god my wife was with me. Elections have helped her become an expert in human nature and on the morning Tramore Valley parkrun came back Julie was right there talking to everyone I couldn’t get too staying calm. We were putting the message out there we have this parkrun back and we want you to take ownership of it. It’s yours too enjoy….hopefully forever which is how I explained the soft opening. We were quiet right up until the Thursday evening before we returned because we didn’t want a sudden influx that overwhelmed the new team members or worse caused a cancellation.

My first parkrun at Tramore Valley

I was stiff the morning I ran in July 23rd 2022. I’m still adapting to life behind a desk. Before I could get away with my daily flexibility routine because I was doing it as part of my job. That is definitely no longer the case. I did the event day course check to loosen up.

The Course

The route is two laps has two gentle hills, a teddy bear graveyard and a downhill sprint to finish. Other interesting facts include that Tramore Valley is located on a former landfill site and that landfill gas collected on site is conveyed to a combined heat and power plant which is capable of producing one mega watt of power, enough to power 2% of all houses in Cork City. I wonder if there is a way parkrun foot power can contribute more energy to the Grid? What you lose in hills you make up for on the downhills by the start and finish points. This course is fast. Hilly in parts yes but they’re gentle slopes and you don’t have many sharp turns you have curves that let you keep a steady pace.

The piece that will entertain all you parkrun thirsty tourists is our cuddle toy heaven.

The Coffee

We may have been out of practice scanning barcodes for 6 years but we have not forgotten our love of coffee. We gather here every week for coffee. We’re working on our parkrun tales but how many parkruns do you know that are built on a landfill, contribute to the energy grid and came back to life after 6 years of being in a council mandated coma?

Conclusion

Revenge parkrunning is available free, weekly and timed in Tramore Valley parkrun.