Introduction

The night before our visit to Naas parkrun on Sept 10th 2022 I was browsing Naas parkrun stats whilst vaguely watching Thor Love and Thunder and then I saw average finishes per participant 5.9 and thought they must have something that is unique and drawing people back. I’m becoming a bit of a parkrun stats nerd. At the time of writing I’m at parkrun 27 of the 40 I set as a goal 2022. Julie and I are one parkrun tourist visit away from getting on the parkrun world events board. My brother tells me ‘I’ve always been a nerd and stop using parkrun to sound cool’.

I wasn’t wrong about Naas parkrun!!! It turned out to be a positivity nirvana. The view below is your walk to the start line.

Operation London bridge came into full effect last week as her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II passed away. There was a point where a world wide parkrun cancellation was rumoured. The outcry from the Republic of Ireland reminded me of a debate me and my father had when I was a teenager. I refused to support the England national soccer team booing their national anthem on the telly and spewing misguided nonsense about the English. Still a premier league fan mind you.

My Dad quized on me on why I felt hostile towards the English. I had picked up some fierce Irish Nationalism possibly from friends. I was vehment in my stance siting 800 years of oppression. My Dad asked “How long we should hate the English? 800 years does that balance it out?”. I soaked in my egalatarian traits from my dad that day. He had a point. Today hate gets you nowhere. With that in mind if the team wanted too they could applaud or hold a moments silence at Tramore Valley parkrun. We receive UK visitors all the time. We have UK volunteers in the core team. The Queens passing reminded me of my Dads passing. I was sure other people would be quietly feeling a lot whilst saying very little. It may not have been sentiment for the Queen but these moments make people think of loved ones they’ve lost. If parkrun could help it should.

Journey to parkrun

We were invited to the afters of a wedding in Cork so we split the journey from Dublin up and threw in a parkrun on the way home. Yes I know totally normal behaviour. When you visit you’ll park at the racecourse. Look for the sign below.

Next up walk through the stables and down to the start area

Course

The run course is possibly the flatest parkrun in Ireland. You’ll run 2.5 laps with no serious corners and the extremely mild incline is not a hill. A Flat course is tougher mentally to me. Suddenly your much more alone with your thoughts or in my case feeling how much your lungs are burning. I almost prefer a parkrun that goes against me with serious hills they make me double down. On a flat I get bored and start listening to my body saying go slower, stop or speed up. At parkrun tough runs never go away. We had no wind the morning we visited. This maybe wildly different on any given morning because the course is a vast race course with next or near no protection from the wind.

Live A Little

Walking around the course is where you live a little. Everything about it is big. The grounds are open. It screams grandeur. Take it in, let it lift you up and remind that you’re a big part of something bigger. Then run a PB.

Volunteers

You could tell why Naas had such a high average number of finishes the second you observed the volunteers. First there were the TY Gaisce students. I tried my best to integrate Gaisce students in Glen River and we got maybe one student through our finish funnel. Naas parkrun had a small army of enthusiatic teenagers volunteering.

The RD knew everyones name and I do mean almost the entire field of 113 finishers. After I finished the run and blowing out threw my backside I started listening and I hadn’t seen an operator like this since we went electioneering with Sean Kelly the MEP. She knew everything about everyone. She knew who got a PB last week, cajoled finishers that we haven’t had a photo of you in ages, several Dublin marathoners on their long run got a shout out, Larry completing 50 parkruns from the deaf community was welcomed via sign language and their were major milestones, minor milestones and middle milestones that got attention. She was marvellous and the charisma was widespread the rest of the crew were equally as enthusiatic. They were marvelous. We asked how such a parkrun came about and the story we heard was that the founder may have been a helicopter pilot for JP McManus who loves running. Clearly the gift of gab is widespread in Naas.

Conclusion

There is a postivity Nirvana in Naas. Say Yaas and go for a run