Low lake again

Some more pictures taken on two lakeside runs.  Some of this under-foot is hard going when no shoes are allowed.

Autumn

Tree roots like crabs

Ancient ruins exposed

Blessington Greenway

Evening lake

They say this tree will fall and block the road

Course of the Valleymount road before the Flood

Same, looking the other way

Ancient tracks, dykes or ditches

First long run 2018

Ali is away in Kenya of all places, leading a seminar for teachers of all activities. Having no other call on my time I ran away (and back) yesterday and exercised my bike today.

Just over 13 miles

The route evolved as I went along and followed much that I have traversed in former years. The jiggle on the left, at Ballymore Eustace, is my checking up on the Old Woollen Mill the renovation of which is coming along although I do not what the objective is.

Shepherding somewhere near Broadleas

River Liffey crossing at Ballymore Eustace

The old woollen mill under renovation

The next off-road segment is on the way to Russborough where one climbs over a broken bit of wall. I feel sort of entitled to do this because Russborough is open to the public. And any way I like running across grassy meadows.

Russborough from behind

The final off road segment is my habitual use of the Blessington Greenway. One has to support any attempts to increase the number of public footpaths in Ireland, few as there are.

Misty trees along Blessington Greenway

The last 4 miles or so was hard work. The only way to survive it was to try not to think about one's legs, just keep going and going and going. Thinking about the goal - turning into our drive, undressing and a hot shower, a cup of tea - any detraction from the thud, thud of bare feet on tarmac.

Why do I do it? Really enjoyable runs are the long ones, but not without working up to them. Four or five miles (my default) just are not long enough to get past the initial hard work. And remember I had quite a few weeks "off" with the broken rib and then two weeks in Kenya.  So 13 miles is a precursor. I have a sort of goal of getting to Lobawn but it would be a long round trip.

And then today I didn't bother with tracking as the route was not in any way special. I cycled around the Lake Drive through Lacken to Manor Kilbride and then back home via Blessington. It was drizzling most of the time with very occasional sunny bits, and cold. But it was exercise, and one that I would prefer hands down to this activity called "working out" carried out in unnatural gyms.

Then fish and chips, home made, followed by choc brownie left over from last night, washed down with a can of cider.

Convection run

My route, 9.84 miles

Saturday afternoon run in between convention meetings, steady light rain but fairly mild (about 9'C) and the lake fairly low at the moment.

Access to the lake close to Poulaphouca

Loch Ness has nothing on this!

Strengthening works along this section close to the N81

Then back along the Blessington Greenway, across the Baltyboys bridge then along the lake shore to the Valleymount bridge.

On the road back home - superb example of interference

The lake (again)

Combining yesterday and today I ran (barefoot of course) 17.7 miles which sounds impressive but it doesn't count so much when summed over two days. I may have said before how much I love our lake but, because I do and there were some cool light effects with a storm around, I have to inflict some more photos on you. Sorry, but that's just the way it goes. It is, after all, my blog.

The elusive dead-end of Blessington Green Way

15.62 km including part of the green way

The lake is low at the moment making it easier to run along the shore line, although some parts are stony. My quest today was to use the curious dead-end of the Blessington greenway shown with a green blob on the official map below. The main part of the green way connects the Avon Rí leisure centre to Russborough House and there are car parking facilities either end. But the most southerly part ends rather abruptly and  ignominiously at the lake and thus is not very useful unless of course one wants to get to that particular random spot. Which is why I had not, up until this afternoon explored it. So now I have done the whole length, although not in one go.

Blessington green way - part of the official map

The weather forecast was for rain which I positively embraced, and rain it did. Fortunately I was running barefoot and wearing only shorts, and as I have waterproof skin I was able to enjoy the rain to the full.

View from the point where I joined the lakeshore

This is about where the greenway ends at its south end

Same place, looking back. Yes it did rain quite heavily

I took the opportunity to swim at my usual spot - I stayed in at least a couple of minutes. I cannot tell you where this spot is, for obvious reasons, but I will say it is somewhere between the two places pictured above and below this text. Which narrows it down to perhaps 5 miles of shore line.

Nearer to home, showing how low the lake is

Avon Rí

Another new route - the purpose was to explore the Avon Rí end of the Blessington Greenway. Not that there is much to report - the last section that ends at the Avon Rí is a relatively boring path without much of a view. The 'S' shaped section near the text "Burgage" on the map is likewise, and also rather stony in places for barefoot running.

The total distance was almost exactly 12 miles (19.31 km) and my pace is still over 10 minutes per mile.

Longest run yet

Lake run 27.94 km

Sometimes in life you just have to do it. For a week or so I have been deliberating running this route. Can I make it? - am I stupid to even contemplate it? So, like other difficult decisions, I resolved not to dwell on it and at the appointed time, bad weather forecast or not, I simply started running. And soon it was too late to turn back.

I was wearing my ForeRunner 15 "watch" hence the GPS track. The Garmin activity site was down so I found an excellent alternative "GPSies" - hopefully if you click on the link it will display my stats.

Basically 17.4 miles, virtually all road running, barefoot of course, I ran the course anti-clockwise along the Lakes Drive through Lacken and thus to Blessington, then along a small stretch of the greenway, through Baltyboys and home. No problems except for one stretch of road that was dressed recently so rather stony, and exceeding lethargy for the last few miles.

Oh - and did I mention the weather? It was forecast to and did rain for the second half of the run, thankfully not heavy as it was rather cold and windy. And, wow, am I stiff!

Going around in circles

Yellow is Blessington greenway, red was my path approx.

I ran (barefoot) about 10 miles today. Towards Blessington then south along the greenway to Poulaphouca then back home. Only, for added interest, I veered off from the greenway into the woods and towards the lake along what seemed a well-worn path. But it degenerated into nothingness as such paths do, so then I tried heading back to the greenway but got lost. Regrettably I had no GPS with me. I passed this corrugated iron shelter and then found myself passing it again some while later. And getting tangled in brambles - bad enough, they would have been impassable later in the year. I didn't think I could be so dumb as to go round in a circle, but dumb I was. A lesson to one and all!

I seem to recall that the early Israelites could have got to their promised land in less than two weeks rather than the 40 years it actually took, and most of them died on the way so the 40 years becomes a bit irrelevant. Back when I lived in London I was part of a Christian youth group and I remember one sage among us announcing that he thought we were about to "move into the promised land" (figuratively speaking) - none of us knew what this meant but it had a good feel to it. But I recall thinking - what will change?

This set me thinking (I had plenty of thinking time among those brambles) about my own life. I often marvel at the robustness of my fellow Christians - how they can keep on believing that they will "get there" wherever "there" is, whilst never actually (yet) achieving it. I hope this is faith rather than wishful thinking. But what if the direct path to get "there" was actually quite short, and the reason for me (or anyone else for that matter) not seeming to get any nearer my goal was because I am going around in circles?