50% of the Compass Club Complete.

[damienair]

Today was a day of many new parkrun firsts. Got a new furthest travelled parkrun of Eastville parkrun which is 370Km from my home parkrun. First UK parkrun. 29 completed in 2019, which is my most completed parkruns in a year, 1 more and I’ll be in the Bronze level obsessive club. I got my East for the Compass Club, I have Southport and Northwich left to do. I got an E for my alphabet challenge. 12th different parkrun and my 54th parkrun. I have a UK 🇬🇧 flag next to my name on running-challenges.co.uk . I got to proudly wear my lovely red 50 milestone t shirt for the second time today, but my first time wearing it my my 10 year old Son whilst he was wearing his white milestone 10 t shirt. It was my 10 year old Sons first time in the UK.

But the highlight from today was meeting for the first time 4 lovely forum members whom are the loveliest people you could hope to meet. Dexy5 and UpTheStanley drove over 2.5 hours to meet us at Eastville parkrun this morning along with cheekychipmunks and SkiMonday . Skimonday was an amazing volunteer today and scanned us after the finish funnel. The 6 of us spent a lovely morning together and had a very enjoyable post parkrun breakfast.

I’m home now, back in Navan in Ireland. We had a ball in Bristol. I’ll sleep well tonight.

Damien

[cheekychipmunks Graduate10]

I’m so happy we were part of your day of firsts Damien! Brilliant achievements for both of you and how wonderful that Eastville was helpful for your compass and alphabet challenges. 😀 Shame you missed out on the lake, but you guys dealt with the hills admirably! 👏👏👏

[damienair Administrator in reply to cheekychipmunks]

You never know, we might come back to Bristol again some time and run the A course at Eastville parkrun. There was so much of Bristol we never got to see. Bristol City Centre was beautiful and I’m sure my lovely wife would love it. I might come back on a romantic weekend away sometime and sneak in a parkrun.😀

Damien

[cheekychipmunks Graduate10 in reply to damienair]

Yes Bristol is a gorgeous city. I’m sure your wife would love it too! There’s tons to see and do, and of course that Eastville “A”’course will be waiting for you! 😀

[backintime Graduate10]

Sounds like a great time was had by all, I hope your son will keep good memories of his first visit to the UK.

[damienair Administrator in reply to backintime]

Oisin absolutely loved it. He genuinely thanked me about 5 times yesterday evening after we got home. He had a wonderful experience and one of his highlights was playing with flossie the dog and friends at parkrun. It really was magical father and son bonding for 2 days. Bristol is beautiful. We only got to see a tiny piece of what the city had to offer.

[backintime Graduate10 in reply to damienair]

That's great !

I would have been playing with the dog too : )

[AlMorr Ambassador Graduate10]

So glad that you enjoyed your visit with your son to the UK at Eastville Parkrun yesterday, a lovely photo of both of you. I like the sound of those alphabet challenges, perhaps sometime soon you and your son could visit a parkrun in Scotland.

[damienair Administrator in reply to AlMorr]

Hi Al, thank you. Actually I am planning some parkrun tourism with a twist hopefully for next summer. I fly a little Microlight whenever weather, work and family commitments allow which as you can imagine is not a lot😀. I am planning to fly from Ireland to Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 basing myself in Perth. Visit local Airfields and some of the western islands and also fit in a parkrun.

Damien

[AlMorr Ambassador Graduate10 in reply to damienair]

You fly a Microlight, nice to know, the town I live in has a very small airfield, I'll use the word field rather than airport, I think Cumbernauld airfield has a club for Cessna one engine planes and microlights.

[cheekychipmunks Graduate10]

I’m now working out what letters of the alphabet I’ve done ....... A,B,C,E,L,L,S,S,S - I’m S heavy and I have another (Stratford) coming up in November! Also a P in a couple of weeks thanks to JonathanP ! Oh well, it’s a start. 😀

[JonathanP Graduate10 in reply to cheekychipmunks]

Glad to be able to help in your quest Cheeky!😀

[cheekychipmunks Graduate10 in reply to JonathanP]

👍😀

[RunaroundSue Graduate10 in reply to cheekychipmunks]

Have you got this ?

running-challenges.co.uk/

Warning, it is addictive

[RunaroundSue Graduate10 in reply to RunaroundSue]

I am also spelling my name (short version and long version) and also trying to bag everywhere I have lived

[damienair Administrator in reply to RunaroundSue]

Ha yes I’m on it. With couple of busy weekends coming up with family meetups and my brothers wedding I won’t be running at parkrun until Halloween weekend. That will be my 30th parkrun this year and I’ll be going into the bronze level obsessive club.😂 I’m doing the compass challenge from this website. I still have to get 26 numbers on parkrun bingo. In 2020 I’m going to do some extra parkrun tourism based upon the Alphabet Challenge , I’ve only got D, M, N, O, R, T and W so far. Your right, it’s really addictive.😀

[RunaroundSue Graduate10 in reply to damienair]

We (Manchester based VRB's) are scheduled to do South Manchester in January. Everyone welcome to join us.

I plan Eastville sometime next year hopefully, then we need to find a suitable West. North Sydney was the first compass point for us.

You can plan most of them but not the Stopwatch Bingo.

Luckily we are retired and have a lot of trips in our Romahome so we can plan around parkruns - Clevedon Salthouse next weekend because we have to be in the area from tomorrow.

We are hoping to get to the Giant's Causeway event next year, we will make a tour of it so plan to find at least one parkrun in Ireland to get another country badge

[damienair Administrator in reply to RunaroundSue]

I’ll definitely be at Giants Causeway next year. Looking forward to it. I did Westport in Ireland as my west and Eastville as my East. Southport and Northwich next. I’ll pick one of them in the Spring and do it with my Son. I’m going to be in Italy next year on Holidays in June. I’m thinking of hiring a car whilst I’m there and doing a parkrun. Just to get the Italian Flag 🇮🇹.

If your ever coming over to Ireland at any other time let me know.

Damien

[RunaroundSue Graduate10 in reply to damienair]

Thanks, I will.

Let me know when you plan to do Northwich because that is not far from me. Come to think of it, Southport is also near enough. We could plan a camping trip around it.

[damienair Administrator in reply to RunaroundSue]

Perfect. I will do. I might try one of them in March. Yes in would be great to meet you.

[RunaroundSue Graduate10 in reply to damienair]

We might get a party of our local VRB's along as well

[cheekychipmunks Graduate10 in reply to RunaroundSue]

Oh my word, that’ll keep busy for a while! I can see how it could get addictive. 😅😅

[Dexy5 Graduate10 in reply to cheekychipmunks]

We seem to be doing it in pairs: S, S, P, P, H, H, E and W. It’s a good thing we haven’t got google chrome, this could get crazy.

[Couchpotato2]

Sounds like a lovely meet up and trip to Uk! I bet your son will remember it too.

[UpTheStanley Graduate10]

Great to meet you both Damien - next time at the Giant's Causeway maybe

[damienair Administrator in reply to UpTheStanley]

Absolutely. I’ll be there, we will hopefully enjoy a beer together too. Pre parkrun hydration.

[UpTheStanley Graduate10 in reply to damienair]

🍺✅

[Chris141 Graduate10]

WOW!

[Dexy5 Graduate10]

So many boxes ticked this weekend Damien. Flying out of the country to get a compass point goes beyond obsessive, so driving 2.5 hours to join you at Eastville didn't seem so bad, especially as we also owed cheekychipmunks a visit. Having said that, a wake up alarm of 5.15 was hard. A good job I wasn't driving.

See you in October 20 I hope.

[damienair Administrator in reply to Dexy5]

Absolutely Dexy, it will be great to meet you again and hopefully spend longer with you the next time, a few drinky poo’s too 🥂🍻🍷.

It was so lovely spending quality time away from PlayStation and Screens with Oisin. Collecting the compass points with him is worth it just for that quality time alone.

Damien

[Coddfish Graduate10]

Well done Damien.

[damienair Administrator in reply to Coddfish]

Thank you Coddfish