Wicklow Half Marathon and Suzy comes to Town

A beautiful morning a couple weeks ago, on the walk to Norah's school. 8:30 am, crisp, dry, gorgeous Spring morning.

In the summer, the side of this house has a thick wall of green ivy. You can just barely make out the vines but Spring is coming! 

I may have shown this before but next door to Norah's school (a church building), was the site of a soup kitchen during the Great Famine in 1848.

"At the time of the Famine in 1848, food prepared in a kitchen behind this wall was distributed to the needy through a window here."

I love walking past this site every day.

Gorgeous reflections in the harbour at the West Pier.

 This was one of those days that felt like a small reward for surviving the worst of winter.

Chemist-pirate?

She wanted me to photograph their jewels.

#2

Finished product

 This little succession shows Norah's personality to a T!

And.......in motion.

After school one day we were off to a play place with Kirsten, Lilia and baby Rowan.

They....playyyyed....hard.

On the 3rd story (of 4) on one play-structure - the slide that even I was a bit afraid to go down. 

Half an hour drive home and all three were conked out in the back. Evidence of a good afternoon.

 

Twelve from our running group at the Wicklow Hospice Half marathon. (This is the charity that Daniel Day Lewis is the spokesperson for. He lives in Wicklow and apparently this one is near and dear to his heart. No sightings at the event though, sadly.)

This was February 22nd - so a couple weeks ago now. My fourth half marathon.

Afterward we were given this feast of home-baked treats, tea, coffee and chocolates all made by residents around Wicklow. I couldn't actually eat anything that soon after the race but it was frigid cold so the tea was incredible.

They even made French Fancies! (an Irish/English cake treat)

I don't think Maria will mind me sharing here (since news is out) but I thought you should know....this woman just completed the half marathon while.....5 months pregnant! And in a damn good time as well. She is by far the strongest, most determined woman I know. What a warrior woman. She finished in 2 hours 15 minutes (which is a quick time for pretty much any new half-marathon runner, let alone someone over 5 months pregnant). She also ran the entire Dublin marathon while pregnant (though she wasn't aware at the time). Incredible athlete. (Maria has run since she was a child, and has several Olympic runners in the family. It's genuinely, "in the blood".)  

We were both proud as can be. I finished in 1:53:21 (1 hour, 53 minutes) (Caveat though: the course was short so we probably need to add 2 or 3 minutes to that to be fair). They're calling it an "official half marathon" and saying the times are valid but my watch came up short.

Either way though, I was ecstatic. My only goal was to get 1:59:59 because my last was 2:05 and I've never broken that coveted 2 hour mark. Well, you can imagine my surprise when I turned the last corner, sprinting for my life and saw the race clock. I was in disbelief. Really a fun race and it was the first one where I felt like a strong, competitive runner. Next half marathon is coming up on April 6th - Wayne and I will run that one together so it should be a great. Our first half-marathon together, his first ever and a very tough route. He's more than prepared though so I think we'll have fun pushing/pulling each other around.

Donal finished in 1 hour 29 minutes!

 

This race was held on the grounds of the estate of Charles Parnell, (high ranking member of Irish politics in the late 1800s). The awards ceremony/coffee/treats afterward were held in what would have been the stables.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Stewart_Parnell

 Big news for us: My cousin Suzy arrives TOMORROW! She's coming to Dublin to stay with us for a week! We've been counting down the days for a very long time now and can't wait to pick her up tomorrow.

Not to be too obnoxious but here's us in Paris in September.... (She's a fox) And you wouldn't believe me, and maybe she'll punch me for saying this on a blog but she's turning 50 in less than 3 weeks. No one will believe her. Man, does she make fifty look incredible.