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| Our beautiful banner. We pretend that we let small children help us make it, but really, it was was all us... |
So my mom has been talking about running her first (and last) marathon for her 60th birthday for about 2 years. She finally told enough people that she had no way of backing out, so she started training instead! She decided to run her marathon in Dublin with some of her close running friends (Nanette, Tammy, and Roz), and all three of her children came to cheer her on! Since I had known about this trip for a while, the organizers of the Dairy Production course were good enough to work with me and allow me to take vacation during the 8 week rotation.
Mom, Brendan (my brother), Tammy, and Roz started their trip a few days before me, my sister, and some of their other friends arrived. They headed out to the west of Ireland and made it back the afternoon that I, Nanette, Carmel, and Doreen arrived (the last two being friends of Nanette's who came to cheer the runners on). And that was when the fun really started!
The first few days were spent in Dublin while the runners acclimated and prepared for their race. We went out for a Literary Pub Crawl in Dublin (code for: drink a lot of beer while pretending to learn something), a nice dinner with our cousins Tony and Mary, collected Lauren (our sister) from the airport, made banners for the runners, and checked out Malahide and Howth on what might have been the coldest day of the year.
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| Mom and Roz at the Literary Pub Crawl |
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| Why we braved the freezing cold weather... |
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| Seriously, it was so cold. We were not dressed appropriately. |
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| Tammy, Doreen, and Carmel at dinner |
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| Visiting the cousins in Navan |
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| Mom and I helping to bring in a boat... or something |
Race day was more fun for the 5 of us NOT running than the 4 runners, for sure. We cheered them on at about mile 10, then headed to the Guinness Brewery for a tour and a pint before meeting them at the finish line... with our amazing banner... that looked like 3rd graders made it. We are not particularly artistically inclined, but mom seemed to love it anyway. After a hearty Irish meal and some more beer, the runners crashed, and the rest of us headed home to plan for the rest of our trip.
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| Mom and Nanette being very excited at Mile 10 |
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| Our race alternative |
The rest of our trip? Yup! The marathon was only the start! While Brendan had to head back home, the 8 ladies headed out of Dublin for the next few days. We caravanned down to the southern coast for a few days to stay in a gorgeous 5 bedroom home overlooking the ocean in Ardmore. The next few days were filled with lots of fun, lots of food, and beautiful scenery; we couldn't have asked for more!
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| The Miller women in Cobh |
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| Lauren, an official whiskey taster, pretending she likes whiskey |
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| Mom at the Jameson Distillery |
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| Lauren and I hiking the Ardmore Cliff Walk |
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| Requisite trip to Blarney |
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| Lauren through the murder hole |
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| Mom and her new friend at the local pub in Ardmore |
We split up when we left Ardmore so that Lauren, Mom and I could visit
with some of our relatives before heading back to Dublin while the other
5 could see more of the sights. We got a chance to catch up with our
cousins, play with the little boys, and of course eat lots of food :)
Then we all reconvened in Dublin before heading back home, where we all
needed another vacation to catch up on sleep!
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| Lauren and I at the top of our hike |
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| Simon and Barry, the two littlest cousins in Kilfoylan |
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| Breda with Barry |
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| At the Grand Hotel |
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| Breda and I |
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| In Dublin |
