Dreaming

I'm loving the recovery days of this marathon plan. Five miles to just trot easily along dreaming of possibilities. It's very relaxing.

Sunrise with Mt. Rainier Peekaboo

Beating the Heat

Mid-80s in the evening this week. It's great that summer is back! Do I really want to get my miles in when it is 80? Not really. I've been splitting the medium long mid-week runs as it is typically a little hard for me to get in more than 10 miles. At about a 10 minute pace, 10 miles take 1h 40 minutes and I generally need to stop for a bathroom break, water breaks and traffic breaks. The schedule called for 12 today.

It was time to suck it up and get up early to get the miles in. I was out the door by 5:01 and feeling good. My easy pace has gotten a bit faster (heart rate is staying low even though I'm running a bit faster). I saw a friendly face out there too. She was out there beating the heat as well!

How many repeats again?

Monday morning track? Is there anything better to get you up and ready to go for the week? NO! My legs were a bit sore in the quads from the lovely stair loop of Saturday. Why yes, it is like a trail run, sneakily enough.

The workout this morning was long with many repeats. The trick to completing it? I was honest and probably conservative with the 5k paced repeats. And those recoveries were at a super slow recovery pace. Ok, the last repeat, I did uphill heading back home. I did that one for effort and it was challenging.

the last challenge of the workout was running up these stairs on the way back home.  Oof!

Cherry revisited

Recovery day and I slept a full 8 hours which felt luxurious. This weekend we had no plans nor did i have to be getting ready or planning for a vacation or a relay. It was nice to kick about the house. I spent a fair time in the yard weeding. And I realized I needed toenail polish to cover that one nasty toenail. Pink! Add cherry juice to a summer cocktail. And the sour cherry dark chocolate chip ice cream that K made was delicious!

Leschi Stairs and cherry season

We debuted the next stair loop today at the group run. I'd first sat down with maps and books and mapped out the run in mid-May. I didn't get a chance to explore the route until a month later. I really wanted to go back to rerun the route but vacation, ragnar and marathon training didn't allow that. So I knew which route I was aiming for but wasn't quite sure of total distances nor was I sure I could find the correct trails through some of the parks.

This was totally successful and a lot of fun! The neighborhoods adjacent to Lake Washington have some really amazing features and I was really happy to get people exploring them. And oh yeah, 6.5 miles took almost two hours to mark the course! It was a tough one!

The dilemma was how to fit marking the stair loop of 6.5 miles with my need to get in an 18 mile long run. I decided to treat that 6.5 miles as a trail run and just run by time. So it took about 1h30-45 minutes to run the course and i needed another 1h30 minutes of running. After marking the course, i headed off trotting back towards our house. However, it is cherry season and I wanted to get some different cherries than the usual suspects (Bing and Rainier) that we can get at our local grocery store.

The University District Farmers' Market was the perfect ending point. K finished the group run and leisurely drove towards the market and parked while i roamed around a bit to get in time on my feet. And they had some great cherries! We got two pounds of a sweet cherry (Sweetheart) and a pound each of two different varieties of sour cherries (Montmorency and North Star).

What's planned? Sour cherry ice cream! boozy cherries! And yes, it's exciting.

Active for Life

I walk by a larger retirement community on my way to the bus. Regularly, I've been seeing this group all dressed up and out for their morning walk. One uses a cane and they walk pretty slowly. I love that they are dressed up. They are out there many mornings. Active!

Calories in.

No, I don't always get all the calories in with an extra cocktail. I had extra bananas from the relay and made banana bread so i could have an extra snack at work. Tuesday I ran just over 14 miles split between two runs. I'd brought extra snacks and had them. I've not been counting calories lately but decided to tally up what I'd eaten versus what I'd burned running. The results were telling. I was about a thousand calories short! I know I'll tend to eat more on those easier days but still that it a very big deficit. I'm feeling great right now and know that for higher mileage to be sustainable, I have to fuel for it.  It was a good reminder. 

Meanwhile the evening out with friends who were visiting from out of state was really fun and I had no qualms about having a hearty dinner.

Orange

Hey! Good photos that are free! Thanks Ragnar! It's not often that you can get a group of people really happy about wearing orange. Success!

Updated: I'd wanted a record of what I ate this Ragnar. I never had a gel and never felt underfueled or too hungry at any time. That was a success!

Thursday AM: I had a really big breakfast out with sour cherry oat pancakes, berries and eggs. Seriously I was stuffed all day long. Lunch was a lentil/bulger curry with spinach and some fruit. Dinner was chicken parmesean with pasta and steamed broccoli with a smaller than usual portion of pasta as I was still full from breakfast!

Friday AM: my usual oatmeal with a dollop of peanut butter and a mushed banana. I was hungry when we were about to load the second van around 10:30 so had an english muffin. Lunch was half a turkey 12 inch sub from Subway as usual from when we got to Bellingham High School and some blueberries.

My first run was 3 pm and it was hot! I finished and immediately had a shelf stable low fat chocolate milk and a lot of water with an added nuun tablet. I had some cherries and "dinner" around 5 pm when Van 2 was still out running. This was the usual pasta and chicken cold salad with added kalamata olives and feta. It's dressed with lemon juice, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. I do add some blanched green beans. I use less olive oil than I would if this were a side for dinner. Portion was say 1.5 cups. I kept chugging water because i was thirsty!

We made it to our rest area and I had a couple cookies (oreos) and a banana and tried to sleep. No luck with that but it was nice to stretch out and rest. Once we got the call that they'd be coming in, i had a cup of coffee and added via to it. I had a pancake (i brought mine) too.

My second run was at 2 am and I was able to use the bathroom at that point. The added fiber from fruit etc helps move things along quickly for me! I had a great run and immediately had more chocolate milk and more water with nuun. I had more pasta chicken about an hour later and immediately I was very sleepy. I arranged to try and rest a bit in the back of the van while our last runner was out on course. I could actually almost sleep at that point which works because then i'm more awake at that larger exchange waiting for Van 1 to come in (I also restocked the teams water supplies just in case).

We went to our next rest area and everyone scattered to try and sleep. I got the van and was able to almost sleep for an hour or so. It was probably around 7 am when i went to have breakfast that you can buy at the Coupeville High School. It's coffee, oj, pancakes, eggs and bacon. I couldn't finish the eggs (because they are nasty) but had another cup of coffee. Most everyone was spending a lot of time in the bathrooms and porto potties and i was not an exception. As someone put it, it's a lot of food for your system to process!

About an hour before our van was to start running again, i had a couple more pancakes and a packet of sweetened almond butter. My last run was around noon. I had one last chocolate milk and pounded water again. At that point, i lost all interest in eating much more but had some random things that were in the van: cookies, cherries, more pancakes and lots and lots of water.

it worked though. i ran well with no distress and felt like i recovered well! 

Miles and Miles

It's that time. The marathon plan is definitely bumping up in miles and the only way to get what the plan calls for mid-week for certain runs (over 10 miles per day) is to divide them into an morning and afternoon run. At this time of the year which makes it feel tough but I am running by some areas which are so beautiful and I do enjoy it. It also helps when I receive texts from the metro transit system which tell me I was better off running home anyway!

Nice Shirt!

Its a nice Ragnar Relay shirt this year and is nice and bright. I wore mine this morning and saw a few others. We gave each other a nod! Marathon training resumes with nary a break. Ten miles yesterday and a total of 14 today. Anything over 10 miles midweek and I have to break it up to two runs and my pace has just naturally slowed. However, I've noticed my heart rate has dropped. This is a good sign.

Ragnar sign!

Tutu Running

Helping sort Ogre gear

While most everyone on the team is nervous about running and the unknowns of the relay, I tend to be nervous about logistics and getting everyone in place at the right time. Thus, I very seldom look at what I'm actually running until I'm in the van and about to run.

Giving myself the most miles did take the pressure off. I knew I'd run strongly and well under our average team pace. At 5.7, 7.7 and 5.7 miles, none of my legs were short either so I'd not have to worry about running at those faster paces that I am not used to running right now. I'd kept last week as a full training week and even done a 17 mile long run last weekend. The unknown was the weather and we lucked out!

It was fairly warm on Friday with higher humidity and stronger winds. Ragnar had changed my run from year's past which was a good change for the runner before me as they have almost as many miles but more hills over the course of the relay. I still wasn't too thrilled about the 4.5 miles uphill I'd face as my first run. GVB, our lead off runner, ran fast too and traffic is always bad to get to the next exchange. I had no time to warm up or even go to the bathroom before i was being shouted down that he was here!

And I was off at a sensible pace and relieved to finally be running. I wore a tutu on this leg as I always do and love how much honking and support you get from all the teams plus random drivers out and about. It's all about the fun. I had forgotten how to wear my tutu though and it interfered with my running watch which eventually fell off! I caught it but must've turned it off. Since I refused to look at pace the first few miles this wasn't an issue and once I eventually realized my watch was off and turned it back on, i knew i was having such a tough run that it was better not to know just how slow I was going.

I still did pass a few people and did enjoy a nice trail along Padden Creek heading towards Padden Lake. Once we got back to the previous year's exchange, i knew i had 1.5 miles more uphill and then a fun downhill. I just set about surviving the last uphill. The downhill as expected felt wonderful and I did make up some time. Still I was pretty annoyed by the slow first leg.

Leg 2 has been my favorite in years past and this year didn't disappoint. The weather cooled and there were lots and lots of blinkie lights ahead of me. I passed 14 people on my run and felt I could've run much longer at that same pace. Strangely enough, I checked the last time i ran this same leg in 2011. I would've said i was faster in 2011 but nope. I ran the 7.7 miles then in 8:16 pace and did the same in 2014 but it felt much easier! I was aiming for 8:15 so perfect! 

RPD handing off to K at Bush Point portopotty line up!

The last run is always the big unknown. If the sun is out and the wind and humidity is up, all bets are off as to what to expect for the run. The last run featured a 3.5 mile climb that wasn't as steep as the first run. I used the first steeper climb to warm up and just relax into pace. I was wearing my tutu again, of course. I didn't look at pace and just kept effort, cadence and form in mind as I powered up the hill. I knew i needed to stay focused until 3.5 miles where the super fun downhill would start. 

I peeked at my watch around 2 miles and was shocked to see 8:45. I'd originally hoped for about 8;30 pace overall for this run but once i looked at the course profile again had told my van mates to expect more like 9,could be longer as I thought this would feel as bad as the first hilly run. With that 8:45 pace, I knew I had this and kept it strong. At mile 3 when I could see the last half mile ahead of me, I was delighted because I knew I'd OWN that hill! Haha!

Then the swooping downhill started and I was moving. As I passed a guy I'd been eying for miles, he called out "nice pace" I got passed by Van 1 in here too which was fun to see. They were making their way towards the finish line to wait for us.  I realized I'd told my team that i was going to take much longer but what to do but keep running and hope RPD was ready for me.  RPD is always on top of this sort of thing though so from about a half mile away, I could spot him and give a little grin of relief. I was done! 5.7 miles at 8:31 pace.

19.4 miles at 8:46 pace overall. Solid running and I felt great. I think now that my slower pace first leg was just right for conditions and preparing for solid faster runs later in the race.

Oh Ragnar, My Ragnar

Mid run view back to Anacortes Refineries  - it's rather dark

That's it? We are all done with the most fun event of the year already? 

Ragnar was just part of the training plan for me this year which meant i wanted a lot of miles and I wanted to run solidly but mindful that I need to resume marathon training. That means I needed to run solid times but nothing too hard and I needed to eat/drink well during and after the event to recover. Done and done! 

I gave myself the most miles on the team (Runner 8 with 19.4) and it also meant i returned to some legs I've run before (the run course is tweaked every year so there were some changes). I'll cover the running in a later post. Having run later in the van rotation the past two years, I can say that for me as Captain, it works better if I run later in the rotation just for energy level and monitoring within the van. 

K handing off after a great last leg!

I do find that changing energy level very interesting to follow. People typically get worked up and ready to run and then have a big spike of adrenaline after the run. After changing, eating and continuing along the course, 2-3 legs down the line they can crash and need to sleep. Thus those last runners in the van don't necessarily get the same sort of support as the earlier runners as people drop out to rest when their bodies are demanding it.  I can't really let myself relax until we have the definitive "off times" and once we are to our rest areas. Generally this isn't much of an issue for me but it is something I'm mindful of and this time I did arrange a time where i could try and rest in the back of the van while others drove and navigated. It helped. 

We were a slower team this year after going through so many runner changes and we were also a mixed masters team. We've always been close to that but finally this year managed all over 40 (and some much more!). We had a group of very solid runners but no one who is really speedy which can help bring up the run average of someone who is much slower. It's no big deal about being slower (our average pace was 9:45 which really isn't that slow!) and our overall time of 32 hours was a good  finish (fastest team 22 hours - slowest 38.5 hours). It also meant we were always surrounded by many teams which was fun and energizing. On the negative, we finished later and got stuck in ferry lines trying to get home. K and I didn't finish from returning vans until 9 pm.

I love seeing the costumes, van decorations and clever team names. I love seeing our runners be so nervous and unsure and sandbaggers and then go out and RUN! 

This year we also had an athlete who has been on the team twice before as a van captain for me. In those previous years she has only completed two legs and had someone else run the last leg. This year despite some hip issues she was able to finish all three. Even though she had the least miles of anyone on the team, she was out there working longer overall than anyone else by a lot as she is a much slower run/walker. Gutsy. As I said. And that is the essence of Ragnar. You do it for yourself and for the team and it is a challenge on every level.

Ragnar Northwest Passage - In the Van!

The team changed and changed and changed once more as I went through runner recruiting this year. Last year, I had 12 runners commit, sign up and race early in the year. And even though I always expect runners to drop, no one did. This year was completely the opposite and I lost many runners due to injury and even had two drop within the last few weeks. Fortunately, some last minute cajoling and runner shuffling meant we got to the start line with a full crew. I contemplated running the relay with 11 members and splitting the missing runner's legs with a fellow van mate as a last resort.

The shift in runners had changed the speed of our group however so were slower overall than we've been before. No biggie but it changes times for start time, finish time and more importantly getting the rental vans back to the car.  Here is my ragnar vacation starting with smiling, fresh smelling friends. It ended up being a great group this year plus some fine running.

Ragnar - the prep day!

It's here! Rangar is tomorrow! I wasn't sure how the big vacation and then Ragnar less than two weeks later was going to work. It helps that this is the 4th time i'll be captaining this team and am going into the run portion with the idea of getting a solid workout in instead of going for time. Still. I woke this morning AWAKE and ready to get it all done. I'd left more things to do today (day off from work) than i usually would have but I'm sure it'll be fine.  

Most importantly, I went out to breakfast with my mom and cooked another interesting rice bar to try at the relay. The breakfast was a cherry oat pancake with a nice berry additions from the berry bar. Yes, the berry bar. Yum. The pancake was tart and very tasty. 

the rice bar is a food zone portable of sushi rice, egg, bacon, almond butter, almonds, chopped dried apricot with just  a hint of dried ground ginger. I'm looking forward to trying it as it is not sweet. Generally there are too many options for sweets at an event like Ragnar and i am always craving the salty. yay for bacon! The original recipe is a bacon cashew rice bar but i was out of cashews and i thought the ginger would be a nice addition. it calls for raisins but since i'm not a fan, dried apricots will do. 

Onto Dublin

Kilbeggan Distillery tasting

 We had an easy drive to Dublin from Galway. This was mostly larger highway with a few tolls and not a lot of traffic until we hit Dublin.

Georgian Doors

Dublin was exciting after the quiet villages we'd been in. It was packed full of tourists yet was still enjoyable. We utilized the handy hop on/hop off tourist buses which take set routes through the city and give you commentary. This gives you a chance to rest your feet and also see areas that you might not see otherwise. There are two competing lines and they seem indistinguishable to me. I did prefer to hop on buses which had live commentary and that was noted on the front of the bus. Sometimes the drivers would break out with comments on drivers around them which was pretty entertaining!

I'm guessing the biggest tourist attraction/trap in Dublin is the Guiness Storehouse. It was a zoo and felt a bit like an amusement park ride/attraction. There was even a waterfall! The beer was tasty of course and the views from the top floor bar couldn't be beat but there were just too many people!

This is the last blog on our Ireland vacation. I feel like I've covered maybe a tenth of what we did and saw. I feel the same way about our visit to Ireland. We saw so much yet it was only a little bit of what I'd want to see. Dublin, in particualr, would be a wonderful city to go back to in the off tourist season. We will have to go back!

Inishmor

on the wee plane to Inishmor!

limestone rock goes on and on..

 We were on Inishmor, an Aran Island almost a week ago and what do I remember? The very short flight was really fun and so immediate. The landscape has a surreal rocky tumbled appearance with very orderly rock walls climbing all about the small island.

Cows, in Ireland, have some of the best views! I crawled to the edge of the unbelievable drop off to take a selfie but look at that cow strolling along the edge.

It was pouring off and on while we were on the island and the rocky trail up to the main tourist attraction, a 2000 year old ring fort perched on the edge of the atlantic ocean, was pretty tough.  We were there on a day trip and on the ground for about 5 hours. I would happily stay overnight at this island and wander about even more. 

Selfie with cow.

meanwhile, baby snail on a snap pea in the garden.

Farewell Castle!

 We had a very leisurely morning with breakfast and then exploring the castle more. K and I went for a run on the castle grounds. How often can one say that!? These were either roads or access roads through fields. It was very peaceful. 

We were headed to Galway but first we stopped at Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery. This was another peaceful setting with many megalithic stone circles, dolmens and a large cairn. the weather had changed and it was pretty windy out in the fields but it really wasn't cold.  Seeing all the stone circles etc really just makes you ponder what those people were doing, planning and dreaming of. We made it to Galway with time to wander a bit through the very busy shopping streets, have a wonderful dinner and finally a pint of THE Irish beer. It was delicious!

From Castle to Castle

Lough Eske

Staying at a castle was one of my friend's desires for our trip two years ago to Scotland. it didn't happen then but we were able to fit in a castle or two this time. Generally these were manor houses (ie houses where the local ruling family lived) and they'd been given from Irish earls to protestant and English families. It's a pretty complicated history. Many had romantic face lifts in the late 1800s to give them the castle look.

Now? You try and keep up a castle. Many have lodging available and we stayed at a higher end, newly remodeled one (with attached conference center and spa) and then at an older one which had layers and layers of history upon it.  Both were interesting but I really liked the older one which had all sorts of interesting nooks and crannies to go exploring. It was really pleasant inside with the perfect weather we were having but I can't quite imagine what it must be like in the winter.

After a really wonderful run with K again on that loop stopping to take photos, we had a leisurely breakfast and checked out of the newer castle. We drove to where we could show the friends the lovely view of the lake that we'd seen on our run.  It was even more gorgeous!

Markree Castle

And we headed to the next older Castle. It was nice to have some more leisure time to just read and relax and explore the castle. It's a well lived in castle and worn in places. The owners have owned the castle for 350 years. Yes, we did have a turret in our room!

Meanwhile back at the castle... haha! Relay stuff.

Hot!

View of Rattlesnake Ledge

Doesn't Rattlesnake Lake look inviting? there is a heat advisory and it is expected to hit 90 degrees today. What was I doing? Running 17 miles and no, i did not get in the lake.  

I figure it is good heat training for Ragnar which is next weekend. We started running early which helped and I did a lot of out and back sections on the Iron Horse Trail to get in the miles. It did get tough the last few miles but I worked on keeping running cadence up and acknowledging and accepting the challenge my legs were protesting about. I planned on a much slower pace overall  as the gravel plus the grinding climb of Iron Horse trail really does get hard.  Done!

Rattlesnake Lake

The Northwest (of Ireland)

Grianan of Aileach Ring Fort

The next day we had a more leisurely schedule. K and I went for a run along the trails of the River Foyle in Derry again and then we were headed to our next hotel just two hours south. We were traveling in the northwest of Ireland and it was funny to see references to that. It seemed quite familiar!

We did stop at a couple of very interesting sites along the way. The ring fort pictures above was very dramatically perched on the hills above a beautiful valley. It was great fun climbing all over the ring fort and taking in the views. 

We next went to the Newmills Corn and Flax Mill historical technological site where it felt like we got a private tour from a very knowledgeable and dedicated tour guide. It was a very peaceful setting and a huge watermill which was still in use (and owned by the same family) up until the early 80s. Corn refers to grains in Ireland and none of us knew anything about the production of flax for linen. It was fascinating!

We made it to our next stop with plenty of time for me to ask the front desk about running loops. They gave me a map and said the loop was about a 5k. I had about an hour before dinner so I hurried and ran the 3.6 miles fast and had a blast. 

Newmills Corn and Flax Mill: a

Derry, Northern Ireland

Of course i need to do a vacation recap. It is too hard to do while we are in the midst of vacating.

1. The Peace Bridge pedestrian crossing of River Foyle.

Why Ireland? I was asked that quite a lot. No, I'm not Irish. I think the first time I ever saw a photo of the Giant's Causeway, I knew we had to go see that and K agreed. We'd hoped to visit Ireland the very first time we went to the United Kingdom way back in 2004 but quickly realized that there were so many places to enjoy in England, Wales and Scotland that it didn't make sense to cram in Ireland and Northern Ireland too.  So we waited and waited.

2. The Runner, bogside Mural.

3. Dark lava rock and beautiful bluey green fescue.

The Troubles are a long and complicated part of Ireland and I think as an American, I really cannot explain all the nuances. I will just say that The Troubles although settled with a 1998 Peace Accord still is very much present as recent history even those events that took place a century ago or more. That is very recent history to be sure.

I chose to base our explorations of Northern Ireland from Derry (Londonderry technically). Why Derry and not Belfast? Derry has intact medieval city walls and a very interesting history plus an easy access to the Antrium Coast and the Giant's Causeway.

We got in very late Saturday and drove towards Derry. I expected a lot of traffic and was surprised by how very little traffic there was. That was true of most of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Yes there were rush hours in main cities but in general, very little traffic. After such a long day of (delayed) travel, we opted to sleep in a bit. The sites we were visiting required time to appreciate and I didn't want to be so tired.

good call.  I did go out for an easy exploratory run before breakfast, of course!

And The Giant's Causeway, Dunluce Castle and Derry itself was amazing!

Photos:
1. The Peace Bridge connects the more traditionally Catholic older side of town with the Protestant newer side of the river (Watertown). It's a pretty stunning sinuous bridge. there are pedestrian/bike trails on either side of the river.

2. Free Derry and Bogside Murals. The murals and peaceful atmosphere of these streets at dusk Sunday evening made me teary. What terrible events happened here so many years ago. We walked by flats where kids were playing outside now and that was a poignant reminder of what a toll this history must have taken on generations.

3 & 4. The Giant's Causeway has multiple trails that are always open. We did a harder overlook trail and then added on an out and back trail which just had spectacular views. It helped that the weather was amazing. I would love to go back and hike/(ok run) more of these trails. 

4. Giant's Causeway

Ireland is greener.

The Evergreen State doesn't do too badly in comparison but we definitely have more evergreens and the greens just don't look as green.

The cure for Jet lag

Keswick is happy we are back.

1. Run 3 super easy miles soon after you wake up very early at 4:30 am. 

2. Sit on couch with cat many times during the day. I was spacey feeling but never sleepy during the day.

3. Run a 10k race on trails in evening. 

I think i have found the magic cure! I still feel totally spacy today and was happy i could take one day off from work after getting back late last night to deal with grocery shopping and laundry and the garden. The 10k race was at a park I've maybe run through once or twice. It's a warm day here and I'd hoped that the park's location right next to puget sound and it's deeply forested creek would help keep it a bit cooler and I think it was. 

I just wanted a good tempo effort and to enjoy myself and i did! I ended up 4th woman overall and did chase the 3rd place for the last half mile but i couldn't catch her.  Oh well. I tried. I felt really underfueled and this trail had a lot of stairs in it but I ran well. I took my garmin off of automatic lap splits and just did a manual lap once i'd completed the 5k loop once. I ran by myself for almost the entire race as these are very small races. I was very steady though! The first loop was 28:49 and the second loop was 28:48.

One last run...

I managed 36 running miles while on vacation last week and felt like it was no problem getting those miles done. I didn't have to get up too much earlier and didn't hold up any plans. And, as usual, felt like i saw so much more getting in runs in each area we stayed at.

One last run before we head to the airport. We were a block away from Aviva Stadium which seats 51,000 people for various Irish sports (rugby and gaelic football).

Another Dublin Day

A fantastic run and more tourist sites. We nearly didn't see the book of Kells and the Trinity College Long Room Library because the line was so long but it was well worth it. We did skip one site because we were done waiting in lines so yet another reason to come back.

Dublin

it was packed full of tourists yet i am still feeling like there is so much to see and do. we will have to go back.

Seagull Saga

Juvenille seagulls huddled. Not quite fully independent yet not quite sure what to do with themselves. This is just outside the front door of our B&B which was a great choice, by the way. Scenic views from the rooms, just a block away the main streets of Galway and an incredible breakfast. I'd go back to The Heron's Rest at any time. it poured Thursday morning and was very windy. K joined me for a 3 mile loop and then i headed out to explore a bit more along the River Carrib. It took two full days for my running clothing to dry.