Portrush, United Kingdom

Saturday, and so parkrun. The farm is only 2.5 miles from the start, so I jogged down-and it is down-there. This is the only parkrun that lets parkrunners run (almost entirely) along the sand, starting with a few hundred metres on the prom and then straight onto the sand, down to the shore where it’s firmer, to the end and then back the same way. Glorious in the sun, and almost windless.

We’d been asked who was a visitor at the start, a natural question in a holiday resort. I wasn’t the only tourist there, a few from London and other Irish parkruns put in the shade by Richard, a Kiwi who was running his 50th different parkrun. I kept my total quiet till the end, but we did then compare notes in the coffee shop afterwards.

The rest of the day, with it being a hot one, was a beach day, and I sat on Portstewart Strand with the car as a windbreak for most of the afternoon before a group of youngsters saw me off with some EuroelectroIt’sJustNoise.

I took my bike out in the early evening, in glorious sunshine. The kids from the other camping group were interested in how I had got so fast, and I decided encouraging practice was a good idea. Better, anyway, than encouraging them in the truth, that I’m not that fast and anyway how did you get the idea I am, young man? They were interested in all the bike, why it had no wheels on, why the handlebars were bent, what this attachment and that sticky up bit were, which neatly managed to be cute and quite annoying.

On the ride, a jaunt down through Portstewart to Ballysally and back round via Portrush, I spotted a Supervalu shop, at first admiring their commitment to keeping signage costs down, but now I wonder if they might not have done without the first e, too. They seem to be a chain, maybe I’ll get a discount voucher if I write and suggest it.

The ride: glory be, sunshine in Ireland.

Tonight’s guest nationality: Irish Summary: a parkrunning, beach hopping, hottest place in the UK kind of day.