Leaving Killarney

Our time in Killarney has come to an end. We learned quite a bit during this time, and had a few more adventures in the region. The weather turned during our trip, and we took less photos and spent a lot more time inside when it was raining and windy and muddy outside. But on sunnier days, we took advantage and explored outside. Here are some of our local fun outings:

Innisfallen Island

This little island, called 'the island of learning', hosted monks many years ago. The ruins of their living quarters and a cute walking path around the island was fun to go visit via hired boat.

Music nights out

5km Park Run 

Jason found something called a 'park run', which is quite popular in Ireland (maybe a lot of Europe / the world?). In Killarney it's a 5km fun run that is free and hosted by volunteers. They had official timing and music and a plotted out course. We decided to have a try, and had a good time.

The following weekend, Jason went back and did it again, and ran a very fast 5km for fun. Great job, Jason!

Horse Races

Right next door to our house was the Killarney racing track. Horse racing is big business around here, and we have seen it on tv a few times. One night at the pub we saw people exchanging in friendly betting and cheering on the horse on the tv.

So one afternoon when M was busy, Jason took the girls to watch. They had fun and were shocked at just how face the horses speed by. Rachel picked two winners before they actually decided to place a small bet on the next two horses, which weren't as successful. Oh well!

I finished my doula training, so I'm now a birth doula! I'm so grateful that this worked out. It ended up taking up the majority of three weekends while we were here with some homework and other reading throughout. I still have more to do as I work toward becoming certified, but I really enjoyed the training and feel inspired to support people through their birth experiences when I return home.

Gap of Dunloe

The 'gap' is a beautiful valley in the National Park next to our house, but in order to access it, you have to either boat across the lake, or bike/walk/hike on some narrow sketchy roads. We found a way to have the family enjoy this and allow me to get in a long run for the day.

We rented Ava a bike and took the two bikes we had, and biked to Ross Castle. We put our bikes on the boat with another lovely couple and their e-bikes. A lovely boat driver took us across the lakes (about 90 min), including a part up-river and under a bridge or two.

When we arrived at the shore (Lord Brandon's Cottage), I took off on foot and started running home. Jason and the kids had a picnic lunch and then biked along.

The first 5km / 3 miles were a good climb up, and we had to watch out for jaunting cars (horse drawn carriages), cars, and people on foot hiking here and there.

The kids did really well with the bike ride, and the weather held up well. It was beautiful. 

The run was also beautiful and I was thankful for the weather, but the initial climb and the pavement and the very crowned road ended up challenging my legs quite significantly.

The bikers met up with me (running) at the end of the gap as we were coming back toward the town of Killarney. It was fun to have them cheer me on, and they pulled over to cheer for me a few times. The kids/Jason ended up biking 25km (15.5miles) and I suffered through my last few miles to make it 19miles (30.6km) total for the day.

Marathon Training Update

The day before we left Killarney I was able to run 20 miles / 32.2 km. The last 5miles /8km were challenging and my legs just hurt all over after about 15miles... my left ankle isn't thrilled about the longer runs, but I am doing it. I am really proud that I have been able to methodically inch up my mileage this year. In January 2022, running 5km was about my max, so it's been a big improvement. I have noticed that I felt stronger when I was doing more hill workouts, and that I've missed that in Killarney with less access to hills. Doing intervals hasn't been as successful for me, so I plan to find some hills in the next few weeks. The Athens Marathon is on Nov 13 and I'm feeling confident that I'll be able to complete the event.

Hiking Mangerton

Around the National Park there are a handful of good mountains. Some have more accessible trails than others. The highest peak in Ireland wasn't far away, but getting there without a car required a good bike ride. Jason and I thought about leaving the kids and going for it one day, but the weather up high didn't give us much inspiration so we passed.

Instead we decided to try a family outing to go up "Mangerton". We rented the kids bikes, but Jason had a hair appointment before he could join us. So Meggan/Rachel/Ava biked to the trailhead - tat ended up being a bit of a battle with a long slow climb, some of which was on narrow roads without any shoulder. We started to hike up and then Jason biked and caught up to us part way up. 

It had rained for the 2-3 days prior to this hike, so the trail was very wet and muddy with sheep poop everywhere. The sun was peaking through into town and provided a lovely view of rainbows and mixed weather. But we didn't get any of the sun ourselves, and instead only got more wind and mist as we ascended. We had a fun time climbing up, but decided to abort before the top, and return down in a hurry to get out of the wind and rain.

It was really fun scampering down the mountain with the kids, who did an excellent job trail running down. The hike ended up being about 6km up and down, with a 10km bike ride to and from the trail head.

Jason's caught up to us with his newly died green hair

Rachel and I found a geocache here at this rock but the wind and mist
were getting more significant as we ascended.

We decided this would be our turnaround point, since the weather
was deteriorating and we had less and less view...

Sunny back in town under the rainbow, but misty where we were standing

Sheep on the trail!

We sold our bikes at the end of our journey, so that ended up working out pretty well (buying two bikes and reselling them ended up being quite a bit cheaper than renting them would have been). We returned our library books. We ate up weird leftovers in order to finish the food we had. We packed up all of our items and fit them into our four big backpacks and four little bags. (We started this trip with 6 big backpacks and have now sold one and sent one home, so we are traveling much lighter now - no camping gear and no ultrarunning mandatory gear for races.)

It's almost Rachel's birthday so we really enjoyed all the mail we received!! THANK YOU!

The night before we left, the girls fell asleep but were really disappointed not to finish a puzzle. So as a birthday present for Rachel, I stayed up late and almost finished it. On her birthday and our last morning at the house, she woke up and was able to put in the last few pieces to finish it before we left.

Sunshine for our walk to the train station! Thank you Killarney, Ireland!