It’s Week two of @healthsquared Six Week Health Challenge! I'm a little late with this one. Last week we were challenged to cook a healthy new recipe you can find mine here. This week Ben has challenged us to get out and explore nature, by means of a walk or run. Having recently gotten a Fitbit blaze and being in a challenge with my girlfriend, who spends the whole day on her feet, this challenge cannot come at a better time. Now to strap on my Fitbit and lace up my runners and set off for a jog around Galway Ireland.

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Galway

Outlet for a stream into the Corrib

Galway is the largest “city” in the west of Ireland and the 4th largest in the Republic of Ireland. Galway has a population of about 80,000 of which roughly 25,00 are students, of which I am one, and the city is packed with tourists all year round. It’s kind of know as Ireland’s party town as when the students are here for the winter you can pretty much walk into a pub on any night of the week and find it packed. During the summer there are also a number of significant events in Galway such as a 2 week long arts festival and Ireland’s largest horse racing festival and in 2020 it will be Europe's capital of culture. What I love about Galway and most of Ireland, in general, is how close you feel to the wild, and nature itself, the industrial age kind of passed this country by and because of that I feel we the Irish have an innate wildness about us. Nowhere else in Ireland do you find this more than in Galway where the countryside and the city-run side by side. The Corrib, which is Europe's shortest and fastest flowing river flows through the centre of Galway and out to the Atlantic and I will take you along his river on my run today.

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Run Boy Run

My first 2k is very boring, nothing but shops and roads until we reach the salmon weir bridge of normally during summer this part of the bridge is packed with fishermen but it's winter in Ireland so there right now the river is bursting at the banks.

The Corrib river flowing under the Salmon Weir bridge

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Moving quickly on we can see Galway Cathedral in front of us, fun fact part of this building was a prison prior to being converted to a cathedral.

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Galway Cathedral

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As we continue on we pass into NUIG the university where I study, sadly on this run we don’t pass by the quad, which was built in 1845, making it Ireland's second oldest university. However, we do pass the new Engineering building where I’m currently working on my PhD. And in classic Irish fashion, the weather has turned quite nice (No word of a lie this was the weather forecast for the day

Irish weather forcast

Engineering building

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Now we’re heading into the wilds of Galway, as we follow the Corrib river about 1.5k up we can see Martin Tea-House Folly the Tea-House Folly is part of the remains of the once powerful Martin family's residence It is also thought that the location of the Tea-House was a sign of contempt or indifference by the Martin's to their rival family the Blake's who resided in Menlo Castle on the opposite bank of the river. The Blakes and the Martin’s were 2 of Galway’s 14 tribes.

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Martin's Tea house foly to the left Menlo castle to the right

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Passing this we can see the Rugby pitch where I spend my weekends getting battered and bruised and were back the way we came stopping shortly in the forest to take some pretty snaps

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Some nice greenary

Winter Sun

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As we run across the quincentennial bridge we pass yet another castle, Terryland Castle built in the 1600s and like Menlo castle destroyed in a fire.

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Terryland Castle

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Almost finished now as we pass by the Galway United stadium and up into my estate. Overall a nice run of about 8k on a brisk January afternoon below are some of the stats from my run, all recorded on my Fitbit, along with a map of the run if you are in Galway and would like to check out some of the sights. All in all Galway is a vibrant city full of life and culture and I have truly fallen in love with it over the past 6 years, just don't mention Ed Sheeran!

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Still gonna lose my weekly challenge