Stormont - City Hall

Route 4
Stormont to City Hall

We caught a bus to where I used to work at Stormont Estate today.
Brian and Darren provided the usual laughs and route advice.  Unfortunately, in this photo - no laughs and the wrong route advice.

We began with the big hill, up the side of the glen.  It's quite a climb up there and that did little to raise spirits.











Things got better when we reached Belmont park.  We asked a married couple to take our photo; the
husband's attempt didn't work and Brian joked "would your daughter like to have a go"?   Very funny but definitely not  appreciated by her husband.

Next stop was Little Lea, former home of CS Lewis.  He's the man who once wrote:

"The safest road to hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts".

If that's the case, I've been on the way to hell for most of the past year.  Nevertheless, it's all been great fun and when I do eventually get to hell, there will be lots of my running friends there.

 

 The Thomas Patton park, off the Holywood Road, is the temporary home of Victoria parkrun.  In this wilderness it's east to forget how close you are to Belfast city centre.
Parkruns are held here every Saturday morning at 9:00am.  You can run or walk - try it once and I bet you will be hooked for life.














We were getting near the city centre now and murals began to appear on walls.  This one celebrates David Healy's wonder goal against England.  It creates a good positive feeling (at least amongst non-English people) and should be repainted.

We finished today in The Streat cafe in Wellington Place.  Good view, good toast and good to be joined by the injured running star Billy Mol.  Hope to have him join in one of our runs sometime soon.

Next run - early January.