Profile of an Offaly parkrunner: meet Patrick Carlyle

When did you first complete a parkrun?

It’s a funny story actually. Myself and a few friends signed up to do a parkrun right before lockdown happened with Covid. I lived in Mullingar at the time, and then Covid hit the next weekend and the whole place was shut down. I had to wait until lockdown was over to do my next parkrun. By that stage I had moved, so Mountlucas was the closest one. At that stage I was doing a fair bit of weight training so I wanted to do a bit of fitness and just get out and meet people, and start running again a bit or do something active after spending so long locked up with restrictions. I think it was the very first Saturday that Mountlucas parkrun had reopened, that I did my first parkrun there an ran around very slowly- but didn’t stop, and was very proud of myself.

What is your favourite thing about parkrun?

The standard answer is, it’s good for your health and all that sort of thing but for me, my favourite thing about it is that it has been a great springboard onto other things. It’s something nice and simple but it gets you to other things like, I did a couple of adventure races and a few obstacle course races that I never would have done without parkrun. That’s probably my favourite thing about it, that it’s so simple and it gives you the confidence to go for bigger things, for example I’m going to try a half marathon this year and I never would have done that if it wasn’t for parkrun. I’m a bit of a parkrun tourist in that I go to other parkruns from time to time and that’s a hidden aspect of parkrun that people might not realise. You could go to Dublin on a Saturday morning, or I’ve done one recently in Athlone and another in Galway. It’s a nice excuse to go and see different places and do something different and meet different people. It’s an aspect of parkrun that people don’t know about as much. And there are parkruns in other countries. I had options to do them in Berlin and Vienna, although I might have been a bit too hungover for a parkrun on those occasions!

What is your favourite parkrun memory?

I’ve two favourite memories. One would be breaking the 30 minute mark. It was fairly soon after I started and then my picture was taken and it was uploaded to Twitter. I’m not on social media but a lot of people were telling me they’d seen the picture because parkrun Ireland had shared it. So that was funny and I’ll always remember that. The second one would definitely be completing 50 parkruns inside of 2 years. I completed my 50th parkrun on my Birthday, so everyone singing happy Birthday, and then completing my 50th parkrun was really, really nice. It was a really good moment.

What words best describe Mountlucas parkrun?

Feckin’ friendly and feckin’ flat! Everyone there is so nice and friendly; it’s a really good atmosphere. When you start volunteering down there you really get to know people really well. It’s so welcoming and it puts you in really good form because everyone is really nice and asks how you’re getting on, and particularly if you’re there consistently. And it is feckin’ flat- it’s a lovely course because it’s flat. It’s not so hard on the legs because it’s not fully tarmacked like the road. I really like running down there. It’s a nice environment; a nice calmness, and the wind, and it’s away from the busy road. It’s just a lovely place and a great parkrun.