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I booked this trip to Belfast back in November when I found a reasonably priced National Express ticked which came with only one or two major drawbacks, such as having to travel via London. I was not sure which parkrun I would aim for, but in the meantime Stranmillis College parkrun started up and at 0.7 miles from my youth hostile it seemed the easiest to get to.
On the Saturday morning I walked to the campus, walking along a main road without a care in the world at ten past nine of a Saturday morning felt quite wrong (all but eight of my previous 160+ parkruns had started at around 9 am). The campus was easy to find, the start line was less so, but fortunately I found a volunteer who was able to warn me about the hills, direct me to the start line and offer some sightseeing tips.
The run itself was quite challenging, the undulations reminding me somewhat of the University of Glamorgan (only more scenic), but I pushed on around each lap and finished with a time of 26’21.
I finished 25th (19th Male, 2nd SM30-34) out of about 62.