from Galway City Harriers Not content with taking a group on a training session to Knockma on Saturday 20th September (see related article), GCH’s Bernie Kelly continued up the N17 to Deerpark Forest in County Sligo to participate in a novel 5K run organised by the local club Calry AC later that same day. Here follows Bernie’s own account of how the day and the run went: Attached are results and a media report from the Deerpark 5K held in Sligo last Saturday. The times recorded will give an idea of how difficult it was. Imagine Knockma but worse and with one really steep descent as well and I mean a steep descent!Deerpark is about 4 miles outside Sligo and the local club is Calry AC. They organised an absolutely super race with the best selection of post-race refreshments that I have ever seen. A real community effort with lashings of tea/coffee, homemade scones and jam, homemade sponge cakes to die for, apple tarts, mounds of sandwiches and bananas, oranges, etc. – truly amazing. This was a real family event. The weather was beautiful, scenery fabulous, runners enthusiastic, walkers encouraging. This was the first time that this 5K was held. Deerpark, as the name suggests, was once an enclosure for deer. It was an area set aside for hunting by the gentry. The focal point of the site is the presence of a court tomb which dates back to the 3rd millennium BC and is considered the finest examples of it’s type in the country. There is also a stone circle close by to the trail with a cashel, wedge tomb and souterrain in adjoining lands which is accessible from the trail.
All in all, it sounds like a great day out, so if you’re looking for a novel race to add to your running calendar…
Included below is a selection of images from Bernie’s day “deep in the forest”: