Uploaded August 2023 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
Our first parkrun in our Van Tour of Ireland was Stormont. We'd planned an anticlockwise tour, roughly hugging the coastline of Ireland. Next up would be Portrush and then some sort of wiggle down the west coast loosely based on the Wild Atlantic Way.
Running around the grounds of the Northern Ireland Assembly was awesome. The faculties here are incredible, the grounds are beautiful, but it was more the feeling that was special. Like a big city event. It was super important to celebrate our wonderful NHS as well as promote organ donation too - Do sign the register if you can!
organdonation.nhs.uk/register-your-decision
The team were incredibly friendly and welcoming and it was an absolute privilege to meet Jimmy who was celebrating his birthday. He reminded me of my dad which was special as I bought the campervan with the money from dad's inheritance after he passed away. It felt nice that 'dad' was at the first parkrun of our trip. Huge thanks to the brilliant team at Stormont, and to Dave the Dog for making Poppy's day! Here's to the rest of the adventure!
Van Tour of Ireland 2023 - You can follow our adventure on Instagram: instagram.com/nicolaforwood
Happy running, Nicola :)
You can check out Stormont parkrun here: https://www.parkrun.org. uk/stormont/
Our first parkrun in our Van Tour of Ireland was Stormont. We'd planned an anticlockwise tour, roughly hugging the coastline of Ireland. Next up would be Portrush and then some sort of wiggle down the west coast loosely based on the Wild Atlantic Way.
Running around the grounds of the Northern Ireland Assembly was awesome. The faculties here are incredible, the grounds are beautiful, but it was more the feeling that was special. Like a big city event. It was super important to celebrate our wonderful NHS as well as promote organ donation too - Do sign the register if you can!
organdonation.nhs.uk/register-your-decision
The team were incredibly friendly and welcoming and it was an absolute privilege to meet Jimmy who was celebrating his birthday. He reminded me of my dad which was special as I bought the campervan with the money from dad's inheritance after he passed away. It felt nice that 'dad' was at the first parkrun of our trip. Huge thanks to the brilliant team at Stormont, and to Dave the Dog for making Poppy's day! Here's to the rest of the adventure!
Van Tour of Ireland 2023 - You can follow our adventure on Instagram: instagram.com/nicolaforwood
Happy running, Nicola :)
You can check out Stormont parkrun here: https://www.parkrun.org. uk/stormont/
