Griffeen parkrun | Good to Great at Griffeen

Date of visit : 8/7/2023

Introduction

Edward is on the parkrun tourism trail. At the time of writing he’s seven weeks into his young life and he’s already bored of hanging around the apartment. He has started leering at the sun and dreaming that of what might be over that horizon (milk maybe). I can see the curiosity growing in his eyes which are now showing a feint brown. I have a feeling he’ll have his mothers eyes. He definitely takes after his Mom and Dad by chasing down what he finds interesting, enjoying that which he finds for a time and then going after something else he’s interested in all the while building up to something great.

We’ve seen a great fall this week. RTE(Irelands national broadcaster) has in the space of a week transformed from national treasure to national disgrace. It’s hard to believe it will get even worse next week but it will what we’re seeing now is smoke the fire is there we just can’t see it yet. The RTE slush fund so far has given a top presenter a nice kickback and funded flip flops for a summer party. RTE could do with taking a leaf out of parkruns book. In 2022 parkrun HQ discovered a financial irregualrity linked to it’s former CEO Nick Pearson. Pearson received an undisclosed and unauthorised £70,000 kick back from CONTRA a clothing manufacturer partnered with parkrun. The funds were returned and the new parkrun CEO took a chainsaw to the systems that allowed this to happen. I don’t sense that strong reforms will implemented at RTE any time soon. Our government are commisioning more reviews when we have just had an audit. I’m used to working in environments where a penny wrong is cause for armageddon. If the audit said we were going under (which it did once in my career) I reformed whole system the next day, implemented it ferociously over the next 90 days and built on the success forever. An audit told me what to do. I saw the opportunity in a crisis and tore after it before something even more horrible happened. Alex Ferguson (Manchester United Manager 1986-2013) in his autobiography talked about how in the last 15 minutes you throw the kitchen sink at the opposition team. He didn’t care if his team were four goals behind or in front he threw the kitchen sink and made sure you won or died trying. I throw the kitchen sink at my problems. RTE don’t do this but parkrun do. This is a division of attitudes. RTE feel entitled to my tax money despite their failing and falling market share. They seem believe it’s a free bar. By contrast parkrun are moving away from needing tax payer money to an independent finance model and growing their runner base. In a nutshell RTE depress me while parkrun energises me. Griffeen parkrun in one hour smashed any lingering misery about RTE. parkrun leaves you wanting more every week. RTE leaves you wanting less. No wonder people are running away from RTE.

parkrun Most Events Journey

Griffeen was unique parkrun event 31 on the worldwide most events table for us. We have now visited 29 events in Ireland. You can read about all our adventures here

Course

Griffeen is the course of great wide open spaces. It’s fast, flat (17 metres of elevation) and absolutley glorious in the sun. Starting over by the car park you trot passed the finish line and on towards the trees. Curving left you’ll see other participants jump the grass dividing two paths and break away to the bridge. Follow them and cut the corner to the right. Keep right on the bridge because it’s narrow then once you’re over the bridge bank right to the top Griffeen valley park. The Griffeen road side is downhill for 600 meters make up whatever time you need here. At the bottom of the downhill turn left towards the playground and outdoor gym. This is where the course undulates a little but you might miss this because your suddenly surrounded by trees either side. Keep fighting with your racing pace until you get back to the bridge. Get over the bridge and ease off until you reach the start sign again. Now go for another lap but when you reach the start sign again sprint to the finish.

Link to Strava breakdown here

Course Photos

Stroller safe

Yes you can bring a stroller to Griffeen (Don’t forget the baby). A word of caution here we own an Uppababy Ridge or basically the tank version of a buggy. We had no problems jumping through grass but if you don’t have this stroller I’m not sure how successfully you will manage this. You will see runners cut across grass. You don’t have to follow them but better to be forewarned. It gets tighter on the bridge but nothing taking the high road and yielding won’t solve.

Live a Little

The bridge has a contra flow on the second lap take the high road be courteous but enjoy the sheer chaos of hundreds of people trying to cross one small bridge on the way to parkrun glory.

Volunteers

I could feel the resilience in the Griffeen team. Nothing seemed to phase them. Even the upcoming holiday period and less volunteers didn’t seem to have a patch on them. 10 years of parkrun greatness will do that. If you want to volunteer drop the team an email griffeen@parkrun.com.

Conclusion

PB greatness awaits at Griffeen

Quote of the Week

The ability to take misfortune and make something good come of it is a rare gift. Those who possess it....are said to have resilience or courage. Mihaly Csikzentimihalyi