Porterstown parkrun | Pure parkrun Pleasure

Introduction

Politics has a way of dominating the agenda. Right now despite the fact that Julie and I can have no hand act or part in any political campaign we still find ourselves surrounded by politics. Parkrun HQ decided to change their terms and conditions and it seems this has caused even more controversy than statsgate. I stayed out of it. I didn’t want to be part of what I can see will be parkruns downfall. Hypocrisy is heavy hitter and parkrun are all over the place contradicting themselves. Domestically in Ireland our Local and European elections are ongoing and I can see similarities between parkruns attitude towards volunteers and the campaigns run by our politicians. It seems as a society we’ve decided talking to each other isn’t how we solve our problems anymore. I think this is wrong because a large chunk of what I do as a civil servant is reach consensus on how we solve a problem. If I didn’t talk to my colleagues nothing would get done. This isn’t a new concept it was the exact same in the private sector when I worked in Sport. I understand why the disengagement is happening the abuse suffered by those in parkrun HQ and in frontline politics is rare but real. It stings. My father in law cornered me in 2019 during Julie’s campaign investigating the ‘‘hate mail’ coming to his daughter on Facebook. It was the only time I lied to him downplaying it as small. It wasn’t small Facebook analytics told me exactly how many people where engaged either commenting or reading. It felt awful. The abuse I didn’t know whether to dismiss it as a keyboard warrior or someone who might turn with a knife and start slashing. We considered disengaging but then as we pushed through not indulging in insults or profanity we found a lot of support. The center consensus ground is quite but powerful.

Fast forward to today we can’t cut off communication with the majority because a minority are outraged to the point of violence. As I said at the start politics is no longer my way of life my hands are tied I can’t do anything about it anymore, parkrun is hurting itself and recent engagement was rebuffed and so with that I headed to Porterstown parkrun and all of that disengagement vanished. Porterstown put on the pure parkrun pleasure that left me feeling positive for the rest of the day. We were among incredibly nice people in Porterstown.

Journey around the parkrun World

For Julie and I this was location 40 on our journey around the parkrun world and we have now completed every Dublin parkrun.

Course

The course is very flat clockwise three lapper. You’ll be surrounded by all manner of activity throughout your parkrun but all activities were mindful of each other. I observed some soccer coaches gave a few parkrunners some encouragement as they passed the edge of the pitch. There is only one short hill just after the GAA pitches. The hill is far from a mountain but you go into it straight after a left turn and of course you repeat it three times so it can sap a bit out of your legs.

Brief Course Video

Stroller safe?

I had the Uppababy Ridge out with me on the morning we visited Porterstown and I had no problems getting the stroller around the course. There is a grass patch just by the car park but when we visited it was June and dry I honestly couldn’t tell you what it might be like in the rain though I will say that Fingal tend to manage their park’s extremely well and rain may not be an issue for the pitches.

Live a Little

If you’re celebrating a milestone personnel (or otherwise) or touring in Porterstown parkrun tell them because they will find a way to celebrate with you. They were celebrating birthdays with cake, the RD gave an anonmyous shout to a 50th parkrun Milestone and Julie, Edward and I got a shout out for finishing all the parkruns in Dublin.

Talk to the volunteers in Porterstown they had interest in everyone and everything. A few people asked us about favourite parkruns in Dublin or the hardest one or most unusual. Like I said the Porterstown guys were interested and engaging conversationalists.

Volunteers

If you would like to volunteer email porterstown@parkrun.com

Conclusion

Pure parkrun pleasure awaits you in Porterstown.

Quote of the Week

‘All political careers end in tears.’ Arthur O’Leary