We met one morning in Bray (20 minutes south of us), at John's cousin, Gary's place. This was a secret run in order to surprise John for his 40th birthday - a milestone he was not too excited about reaching.
When we walked in, Gary showed us the brown "pile" of cake and said this was his final product. He is 45 years old and has never, ever baked a cake. I find this....shocking. Well, sadly, we teased him but believed that this really was his final product - after all, he wrote "Asics" on it (shoe brand) and told us it was meant to be a running shoe so we just felt bad for him. (he's very good at keeping a straight face....)
Five minutes later, he brings out this pristine work of cake-manship genius and got that moment he lives for - the sigh of relief from us and huge laughter. He did very well!
Last phone calls coordinating go-time. John and Maria were going on John's birthday run up to the Leadmines (a beautiful mountain top, just outside Dublin). Well, we ran a different route, from Bray, to beat them to the top and hide in the heather for a surprise ambush. I got John some "40" balloons and carried them up in my backpack (got a few people honking at me along the road and I just said,
"Ya, thanks, it feels great to be 40!"
The view when we reached the summit! It was a gorrrrgeous February day (after many weeks of horrendous storms, record-setting wind and floods across the country). So this day was all the more beautiful because of the darkness that preceded it.
Looking down toward Dun Laoghaire and out to Howth.
(Didn't plan for the balloons to be in it, but it was windy enough that they whipped around for a cameo)
Out the other way toward the Great Sugarloaf mountain.
Nearly all of us hiding in the bushes up at the top. Maria (running with John) called us and pretended she was calling her daughter - she told us it would be 10 minutes and they'd be coming from a different path so up we went to find a new hiding spot among the sticker bushes (with me squeezing tight to the 4 balloons so they didn't all pop).
Gary yelling at us: "Everyone, get DOWN! Shut up! Quiet, I see someone!"
Ten minutes and 12 false-alarms later, we see Maria's small white dog come up the trail.....behind us (not in front of us, as we thought). Thankfully, we were so deep in the bushes that he still couldn't see us so we all stood up and screamed "Happy Birthday" to John, as he made the summit. He was completely shocked and so happy. We had noise-makers and all went into a very ugly rendition of "Happy Birthday" for him. It was not the best choral performance but hopefully he got the gist....
Then over to the next summit where the actual Lead Mines are. This is the old chimney from the mine.
John is a really incredible member of our group and he was not happy about turning 40 so we all wanted to do our part to ease the transition into this new decade. John is a huge inspiration to me - to all of us. He lost a great deal of weight in the last year and half (nearly 100 lbs.), ran a very fast marathon in the process and continues to run circles around every member in the group. He is the best person to go on long runs with because he tells stories non-stop and by the end, you barely know you've covered 15 miles, and spent half the time talking about each other's grandparents. The mark of a truly wonderful running companion - and friend. :) So, to John and his 40th year - may he feel as good about his 40s as we all feel about him!
After the run, we met in their favorite café in Bray and had lunch (where Wayne & Norah and a couple friends were waiting). Before heading home on the train, we stopped on the beach for Norah to throw some stones. Here's a look up toward Bray Head.
