Couldn’t find the exact history of the Sunday long run in Phoenix park but I was told a number of years ago that the route has been going for over a hundred years. Above is one of the photos from Donore Harriers clubhouse just outside Phoenix park showing some of their runners from 1896 who would of run parts of the route we run today.
The meeting place for the last few years for the long run is the Visitor Centre Car Park near Aras An Uachtarain. Its normally an easy place to get parking at 9.30am on a Sunday morning and the scones and soup are pretty good after a long run too. The below Strava map shows the route is mostly around the inside edge of the park on trails. At the moment the trails are dry and not too soft and are good for doing a long run off the concrete.
It takes a few Sunday runs to remember all the turns in the standard loop but if you need to make the run shorter its easy to cut off sections or if your doing marathon training its easy to add on loops without having to run on the same ground twice. There are normally different groups on Sunday at different paces but mostly it’s a pace you can talk at. Some people can talk more than others.
There are roads through the park but its easy to stay away from any traffic and even though the park is in the city centre it feels like you’re a million miles away.
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