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Running the Irish Way with a detour through Deutschland

On our vacation this past week we had to take advantage of the beautiful places we were by running through them.  The first opportunity came when we were in Deutschland.  I used to always run the path along the River Kyll and the Deutchebahn to train for marathons.  It is about 20 miles down this beautiful path to Trier and so for my 10 and 20 mile runs I used to run down this path towards Trier and a few times the opposite direction towards Bitburg.  Mark and Allison and I went the Trier way later in the afternoon on Saturday and we had a great time.  Instead of Spargelzeit or mushroom time it must have been Holzzeit because all along the path from Auw and der Kyll to the next town there were chopped trees and brush.  It was muddy and getting dark but we had a great time running along and telling Allison about Deutschland and the river and the Train. The river was very high and the valley was beautiful.  We ran really fast, and did about 6.5 miles in an hour.  We were still pretty jet lagged but it was a great way to end the day after shopping in Trier.  I missed Mommy running with me as she and I used to run in Scharfbillig and along that path when she was training for marathons but Mark and Allison did a great job and we had a good time. 

When we were in Ireland we also went running sometimes together and sometimes I went by myself.  The cool thing was that within 4 miles of our house in both directions were different parts of Killearny National Park.  So if you went to the right out of our street you could enter the park nearest the entrances that led to Muckross Abbey and Muckross House an old manor house and if you went left you were within 4 miles of Ross Castle and Guvnor's Point a rock overlooking a cool lake with a drop off of about 40 feet.  The first time Mark and I went running we were by ourselves and it was about 5:30 pm when we left so we didn't finish till it was dark.  When we got to Governor's (the actual spelling) Point it was past dusk and the wind was blowing and the waves were crashing and it was very impressive.  I took some pictures of Mark but it was hard to see him as it was so dark but the image left in our minds is very beautiful even though we didn't get great physical pictures.  Running through the park past dusk with all the overhanging trees and thick forest obviously felt kind of like Mirkwood but that only added to the coolness factor. 

The next day or two I ran by myself and I visited Muckross Abbey and it was so cool I brought Larisa and the kids back and they loved it too.  It was only about 3 miles to the Abbey so I ran out behind it for some distance down this cool path along a stream that ran away from the Abbey and was quite mystical in how it looked.  Running through the Abbey Graveyard was also a neat experience. 

The last day Mark and Allison and I all ran to Governor's point and we had a great time running together.  It was kind of rainy but with warm hearts we made our way together to the point and this day the lake was much calmer and more serene. 

I really feel like when I run a place I get to know it in a different way and this experience was no different. 

One kind of scary thing happened with my knee which kind of stressed me out while we were on our running jaunts:  as Mark and I were running to Governor's point the second run I felt a pain and I was worried I tore my meniscus again but after a few days it felt fine so that was a relief as I love to run the world! 

Comments

  1. I still remember you pushing Abigail in a stroller and running along as the rest of us biked through Killarney National Park all those years ago! You're a running inspiration!

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