Lauren (thebestpossibletime.com)

Run Killarney 2025

22/05/2025 Lauren (thebestpossibletime.com)1 Comment

This past weekend I ran the 10k at Run Killarney. First of all, I want to say that this is a fantastic event. It’s probably the most well-organised of any of the Irish races I’ve done, the course is a gorgeous loop that takes you through the national park, and the weather always seems to cooperate. They also have the nicest medals!

My only complaint is that I think it’s weird there are no bananas at the finish line, but at least as of this year there are vegetarian and gluten free options for the post-run snack of a breakfast sandwich.

My time was 51:17, which is pretty much in line with my recent running. 51:17 works out to about 5.08 per kilometre, and I ran the Streets of Killarney 5 Mile a month ago in 41.28 (5.15 pace, in fairly heavy rain), and my last couple parkruns have all been in the range of a 4:58-5:10 pace.

It’s not my 10km personal best – that would go to a flukey 48:49 at Run Killarney a few years ago – but it was a solid effort. Before the race, I told Steve that I’d love to get between 50 and 52 minutes, although I thought 55 minutes might be more realistic. So not only was I much faster than my “realistic” 55 minutes, but I was right in the middle of the range I was hoping for.

I didn’t train too hard for Run Killarney, and one of the main reasons why is pretty silly. I have thick hair, and a lot if it, and it’s extremely slow to dry (and I hate using blow dryer). So the harder I run, and the more often, the more frequently I have to wash my hair. I just wasn’t in the mood for that the last few weeks. If my hair-washing laziness is more of a priority to me than my running speed, then it’s no surprise that I wasn’t breaking any personal records over the weekend.

And look, that’s part of life. I’m not an elite athlete; I’m not being paid to run (or to wash my hair). I’m just trying to stay fit and healthy, and not feel like crap when I go out for a jog. My big goal when I ran my last marathon was to maintain my running routine afterward – it’s so easy to “take a few weeks off” which somehow spirals into months and months. I managed to keep up a more-or-less twice-a-week habit of a Wednesday evening jog with my running group and a Saturday morning parkrun that felt like enough.

That said, even if I’m fairly content with my current running fitness, there are some elements I still struggle with. One thing is the natural peaking and dipping of my athletic performance. The women in my running group were talking about this the other week – how one week you might be flying effortlessly, while the next you’re huffing and puffing while going slower or for a shorter distance.

Sometimes it’s obvious why – tiredness or dehydration or spending hours walking around the Berlin Zoo the day before you run a marathon like I did – but sometimes the reason isn’t so clear. And while anyone can have an off day, women can be particularly affected due to our hormonal changes over the course of the month. And the annoying thing is, the points where your energy is likely to be the lowest are also the times when your emotions are likely to be the most sensitive, a double whammy of poorer performance + letting it get to you.

Now, I’ll be frank, I don’t track my menstrual cycle (and I haven’t gotten a period in years thanks to my IUD) so I couldn’t actually tell you when it’s the cause of my faster or slower runs. But sometimes you just know when, no matter how hard you push yourself, you’re not going to be getting any of those cute little medals when you upload your activity to Strava. Sometimes you know that you’re not running as fast as you can, but paradoxically you know that you can’t run any faster, at least not on that particular occasion.

I’ve digressed here, because I did feel pretty good during my Run Killarney 10k, and although I didn’t feel as though I was running as fast as I could, it also felt clear to me that the reasons were the overall lack of training and the hot, sunny day, rather than anything internal and undefinable.

But it’s a good reminder that these good and bad days will come and go, and you can’t always predict or explain why. And regardless of the result (which again, I was mostly happy with), it was a great day out on a gorgeous sunny day. And the pints afterward went down well, too!

A parkrun for everyone

14/04/202514/04/2025 Lauren (thebestpossibletime.com)Leave a comment

This week I hit a milestone and ran my 50th parkrun. For those who don’t know, parkrun is a free, community/volunteer-run weekly 5k event that takes place every Saturday morning. Since the first event took place in London in 2004, parkrun has grown to encompass over 2000 locations in 23 countries.

I first started parkrunning at an event in Australia in 2019, and since then I’ve run at 10 different locations in three different countries. But most of my parkruns (38 out of the 50) have been at my local parkrun, Killarney House, a beautiful 3-and-a-bit lap looped run in the national park, and that’s where I ran my 50th on Saturday.

I’m a bit of a parkrun evangelist — if you mention that you’re thinking of getting into running, or that you’d like to get a bit more exercise, I’ll probably start singing parkrun’s praises. And I figure that my 50th parkrun means that it’s good timing to do that here as well. So here’s why I love parkrun and why you could, too.

fun fact: i have never looked good running in a photo ever 🙂

Anyone can join, anytime

Parkrun is completely free for participants and doesn’t require advance registration for any individual event — once you sign up once, you can run at any parkrun, anywhere. All you need to do is go to the parkrun website and register. Once you register, you’ll receive a barcode that you can print out or show on your phone to be scanned after you cross the finish line. That’s how your attendance at an event and your time are tracked.

It’s a great way to get involved

If you’re not a runner or walker, you can also get involved by volunteering! Parkrun depends on volunteers, so you can register to be a marshal, a barcode scanner, a timekeeper, or a number of other roles and become a part of this great and welcoming community. It’s definitely encouraged for runners to volunteer occasionally as well! I like to do the first timer’s briefing, where I explain the route to new participants or visitors and welcome them to our parkrun. As a bonus, it’s one of the volunteer roles where you still get to run as well.

Parkrun meets you where you are

One constant refrain at parkrun is that it’s an event, not a race. Whether you’re an Olympian or a couch-to-5k-er, you’re equally welcome and your participation is celebrated. At Killarney House, for example, finisher times usually range from just over 16 minutes to just under an hour. One of the most valued roles at parkrun is the tailwalker, whose job it is to be the final finisher, so you don’t have to worry that you’re “too slow” for parkrun. There’s also no pressure to maintain a certain pace; some weeks you might run, some you might walk, and sometimes you might do both.

You can meet parkrun where it is, too

There’s a whole group of people who are avid parkrun tourists, travelling to events around the world, whether just for the fun of it or to try to complete unofficial “challenges” like running a parkrun that starts with every letter of the alphabet. While one of the great things about parkrun for me is that I don’t have to travel far to reach my local event, which is convenient and better for my carbon footprint, I definitely like to check out the local parkrun if I’m visiting a new place anyway. Even if I’m not around on a Saturday morning, looking at the parkrun’s event page can be a nice way to find a fun, safe 5k route in a new town or city.

The stats are so satisfying

Because each individual parkrun event takes place on the same route, it can be fun to look back over your personal results and see how they change over time. If you’re on a fitness journey, you might enjoy seeing the times getting quicker as you go, or if you’re the kind of person who parkruns in all conditions (internal and external), it’s interesting to see the numbers go up and down week to week depending on the weather, how you’re feeling, etc. Less than a month ago, I ran my fastest parkrun in two years. This weekend, after two days of hiking, I was over a minute and a half slower. That’s the way it goes!

If you want to get involved, find your local parkrun HERE and sign up to run, jog, walk, or volunteer! As a note, there definitely are far fewer parkruns in the United States than in other countries that have the event, but numbers are growing all the time. And if you’re looking for an event that’s local to you, maybe it’s time to consider starting one!

What I ate in Lisbon

11/04/2025 Lauren (thebestpossibletime.com)Leave a comment

Last month, I spent a week in Lisbon with my husband and my parents. It was a great way for us all to meet up, visit a new city, and for the most part (barring one two-hour torrential downpour) get a break from the dreariness of Irish winter.

It was also a GREAT place to eat — as we spent the week consuming our bodyweights in pastéis de nata, Lisbon quickly became one of my new favourite food cities. Here are some of my favourite dishes we had while we were there.

Two notes:

1. A lot of the restaurants in Lisbon are family-style, so it was nice that we were a group of four so that we could share and try more dishes. Likewise, it was nice for my husband that my dad also eats meat (my mom and I are both pescatarian) — while they were both willing to stick to fish and vegetarian dishes, they were able to try some of the meat dishes like the pica pau steak that they might’ve missed out on otherwise.

2. This is not a list of “hidden gems.” One of my travel content pet peeves is when someone goes to a place for the first time, and then comes back a week later claiming to have gotten “off the beaten path” and found the “hidden gems” where “only the locals go.” Is it possible? I guess. But if you’ve gotten your recommendations from No Reservations and Somebody Feed Phil and Instagram reels (as I did), then no, you probably didn’t. And that’s okay. Just be a tourist.

Pastéis on pastéis on pastéis

On our first day, Steve and I kicked things off with the most touristy place possible: the Time Out Market. This massive food hall is full of bars, restaurants, and kiosks selling all kinds of Portuguese foods (and other cuisines as well). When we went, we made a beeline for the pastéis de nata at Manteigaria, which pretty much set the tone for the trip (I don’t think there was a day that we didn’t eat at least one pastel).

Later in the week, we took a trip out to Belém, where pastéis originated. I think that the pastéis in Belém were crispier and slightly more eggy than the ones in the city, and I loved both in different ways. Mostly, I learned that the best way to eat them is fresh out of the oven and covered in cinnamon and powdered sugar.

Swimming in seafood

As a city on the water, Lisbon is famous for its seafood, and we certainly had no shortage of amazing fish and shellfish dishes. Here were a couple of standouts:

Carabineros shrimp at Ramiro

There was one restaurant that was mentioned in pretty much every guide to Lisbon food I read and watched in the lead up to our trip: Ramiro. I’d heard you need to prepare for a long wait, but we skipped lunch and to plan for an early dinner and were seated pretty much right away. When we asked the server what we should order in addition to our own picks, she suggested the scarlet shrimp. A giant, lobster-like crustacean that the server prepared at the table by cutting in half and mixing the meat with the creature’s brains, it sounds a bit gross but we quickly got over any squeamishness once we tasted how delicious it was.

Sardine toasts at Miguel Castro e Silva, Time Out Market

These sardine toasts were so good we got them two days in a row (my parents arrived a day after Steve and I, so we went back to Time Out Market on day 2 as well). Big, meaty chunks of sardines topped soft yet crusty bread rubbed with tomatoes, and the fish was covered with pickled vegetables and herbs. A simple, delicious snack that went perfectly with a glass of dry white wine.

Laminas de polvo a lagariero at Tascatinga

I don’t eat octopus very often because I know it’s a very smart animal and I feel bad, but I couldn’t help ordering it as one of the tapas when we stopped for lunch in Sintra in between palaces. And if I don’t intend to eat octopus again for a long time (because of the aforementioned guilt and because of it not being widely available in Ireland), I’m glad this will be my most recent memory. It was perfectly cooked, mostly tender but with just the right amount of chewiness, and covered in fried onions that gave it some extra texture.

Grilled sea bream at Restaurante A Linete, Palmela

My family is not normally the guided tour type, but we did book one day tour on our trip, a wine tour down to the Setúbal region about an hour south of Lisbon. It was definitely worth having a knowledgable guide who could explain the history and traits of the wines we tasted, and of course to have a designated driver that meant we could all sample the vinhos. After our winery visits, we were taken to a restaurant in Palmela for lunch before our return to Lisbon, and on our guide’s recommendation we all ordered the grilled sea bream. I think the main hallmark of Portuguese cooking is simple food done well, and this dish was a perfect example of that.

More food porn

I could probably go on for hours talking about some of the other dishes I loved on our trip to Lisbon, but a picture’s worth a thousand words, right?

Cheese board, Prado wine bar — this lovely little wine bar was near our accommodation, and after a day spent grazing and snacking we were too full for a proper dinner. So this delicious cheese board (and a few glasses of amazing orange wine) was perfect. We also became obsessed with a raw sheep’s milk cheese called queijo de azeitão that just came from the local supermarket chain, Pingo Doce.

Barnacles (and scallops), Ramiro — a lot of the reviews of Ramiro mentioned the barnacles, so we figured we had to try them. Small and salty, they were a little bit of an acquired taste, but once we got the hang of opening them they were a delicious addition to the dinner and a fun thing to try. Also those scallops were amazing.

Pumpkin dessert, Tascatinga — another odd dish ordered based on rave reviews, I don’t even know quite how to describe this dessert. It was a bit like a lava cake, except that as soon as you put your spoon into it, it melts in to a warm and custardy mush. I have no idea if it’s a traditional Portuguese dish or a restaurant specialty, but I’m so glad I made room for dessert even after a large lunch.

Bifana, O Trevo — Anthony Bourdain is Steve and my patron saint of good food, and we always try to visit some of his recommendations on any trip. In addition to Ramiro, A Ginjinha (a hole-in-the-wall bar counter serving sour cherry liqueur), and A Tasca do Chico (a tapas bar known for its traditional Fado music) we stopped into O Trevo so Steve could try a bifana. This marinated pork sandwich wouldn’t be my cup of tea, but judging by the number of people in high-vis at the tables in this small shop, it’s an ideal work lunch. The Super Bock stout was decent too… more on that later.

Fried sardine fillets at Maratimo, Cascais and various dishes at Pinóquio, Lisbon and seafood rice at Monte Mar, Time Out Market — okay I have to stop but here were a few other favourites. Happy eating!

Book Review: Blood on Her Tongue by Johanna van Veen

25/03/2025 Lauren (thebestpossibletime.com)Leave a comment

Happy publication day to Blood on Her Tongue! Johanna van Veen’s My Darling Dreadful Thing was one of my favourite horror debuts I’ve read in a while — delightfully gothic and romantic and gruesome — so to say that I was excited about snagging an advance reader’s copy of Blood on Her Tongue may be an understatement. Thanks very much to the author, Netgalley, and Poisoned Pen Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Where does one end and another begin? This is the question this novel asks repeatedly. Where does Lucy end and her twin sister Sarah begin? Where does Sarah end and the thing she has become begin? And where does love end, where does family end, where does duty and morality and desire and… where does the horror begin?

I went in expecting a vampire story thanks to the Dracula epigraphs, the protagonist’s name, etc. and Blood on Her Tongue does certainly have vampiric elements. But it’s also much more, an intriguing blend of horror elements from the natural horror of death and decay to something decidedly supernatural. I loved the super evocative imagery, gruesome often to the point of grossness (the pen! the eyes!), and as someone who lives in rural Ireland I found it easy to call to mind the smell of the peat and the sucking thickness of the bogs, but I think even if you’re not familiar I think you would be able to imagine it based on van Veen’s writing.

Lucy is a fascinating protagonist. She’s not a nice person; she’s obsessive and greedy and haughty and her relationship with her sister is nothing short of toxic, and yet she’s so compelling. Sarah, too, is equally riveting. Even though so much of the action in the first half of the novel takes place around her, her presence is key and her perspective, as told through her letters and journal entries, rounds out the setting and the wonderfully creepy gothic atmosphere so well. And when she (or someone) starts to really take the stage, well. It takes talent to do a good exposition scene, and there’s one around halfway through this novel that’s particularly good, managing to build the tension while delivering a lot of information about the nature of the being that has gotten its grips into Sarah.

There are some great layers to the plot that also help to build the overall world of this 19th Century Dutch manor and its inhabitants. Early on, the men in the novel are quick to dismiss the sisters’ fears as mistakes or madness, and although the women’s violent actions in the latter half of the book certainly aren’t out of any sort of feminist intentions, Arthur’s and Michael’s paternalistic mindsets do bring an interesting element to the story, although as characters they are far less developed than Lucy, Sarah, or even some of the other minor characters such as Magda the serving woman.

Overall, I think I enjoyed this even more than My Darling Dreadful Thing (although I seriously loved that one as well). Toxic codependence will always be a favourite horror trope of mine, especially when it leads to devastating consequences, and it’s so well executed here along with an exquisitely-crafted story that grows the creeping, unsettling tension to a truly disturbing climax. Van Veen has quickly been added to my list of the authors whose work I will eagerly devour (ha) as soon as I see it.

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Just be a tourist

20/03/2025 Lauren (thebestpossibletime.com)Leave a comment

I see it all the time in travel groups, on instagram reels, in the comments of blogs and articles. “How do I avoid looking like a tourist?” “Where do I meet the locals?” “How can I get off the beaten path?” “Places to eat that aren’t touristy?”

To an extent, I understand these desires. Most people don’t want to be shunted around from place to place, talking only to other visitors at only the most overrated of tourist traps while sticking out like sore thumbs from the locals going about their days.

(Some people do, if the folks wearing matching bright green, shamrock-adorned “Smith Family Vacation” tee-shirts coming off the massive tour buses around town every morning when I’m on my way to work are any indication, but that’s their business)

And sure, there’s something to be said for not immediately being identified as someone who doesn’t know the area, especially if you’re somewhere susceptible to scams or pick-pocketers.

But whenever I see someone asking for recommendations for non-touristy locales to visit on especially their first trip to Ireland (or another country), or how to blend in with the locals, I just want to say: “You are a tourist! Just be a tourist!”

*Is Killarney National Park “touristy”? Sure. But it’s also gorgeous – why would you skip it?*

When someone asks what they should do on their first-ever trip to Ireland, I don’t shy away from recommending things like the Guinness Storehouse or the Ring of Kerry. The closest things I recommend to “off the beaten path” are probably places like Glasnevin Cemetery, Newgrange, and the Aran Islands, which all still see plenty of visitors but aren’t immediately at the forefront of every tourist’s mind.

I don’t even discourage them from visiting Temple Bar (although I do tell them to go for one pint max and a bit of atmosphere, then head elsewhere for better, cheaper pints). Just like if someone is visiting New York City for the first time, I will take them to Times Square. Although I’ll hate every minute of it, it’s Times Square; you have to go and see the ridiculous array of neon lights and the even more ridiculous crowds once (and only once).

*I didn’t have a picture of Times Square handy but I did go see the tree at Rockafeller Plaza over Christmas, which is similar vibes*

I recently spent a week in Lisbon with my parents and my husband (more on this soon). Did we visit the Castelo de São Jorge and take a day trip to Sintra? Definitely. Did we eat pastéis de nata at Pastéis de Belém and bacalhau croquettes at the Time Out Market? You betcha. Did we queue for an hour to listen to fado at A Tasca do Chico? 100%. Are these all super-touristy things to do? Yes, but we were tourists!

If you fall in love with a place and you visit it over and over, you’re not going to want to go to the same tourist hotspots. What I would recommend to someone visiting Ireland for the tenth time is not the same thing I’d recommend to someone visiting for the first. If (when) I go back to Lisbon, I won’t do the same things I did the first time.

But some of that comes naturally — as you get to know a place you discover things on your own, rather than relying on blogs and social media to guide you. Sometimes on your very first trip you stumble upon something wonderful and “off the beaten path,” but if not on vacation number one than surely on future visits.

So, as long as you’re not rude or boorish, don’t worry about “being a tourist.” Worry about enjoying your trip, enjoying yourself, and if you love it, looking forward to exploring more next time.

Thinking about the catharsis of the Hadestown gasp

05/03/202504/03/2025 Lauren (thebestpossibletime.com)Leave a comment

I was listening to Hadestown the other day (and feeling jealous of anyone who got to see the OBC on the West End this week… even though I also saw the OBC plus a few truly exceptional understudies a few years ago) and thinking about the Hadestown gasp.

If you don’t know what the Hadestown gasp is, it’s — spoilers ahead for the show and the more-than-2000-year-old Greek myth — the audience reaction when Orpheus turns back to look for Eurydice as she follows him out of Hell, breaking the deal he made with Hades and dooming her to return to the underworld.

For those who don’t know the story, it’s a shocking moment in the musical, even though it is foreshadowed in the opening number: It’s a love song / (It’s a love song) / It’s a tale of love from long ago / It’s a sad song / (It’s a sad song) / But we’re gonna sing it even so. It’s inevitable that, at every performance, there is a gasp in the audience when Orpheus looks back.

But it’s not just from first-timers, or for those who don’t know the story. I’ve only seen Hadestown once, but I knew the myth it was based on going in, and I still gasped. And even knowing this particular iteration of the story apparently isn’t defense enough when plenty of audience members who have seen the show multiple times have commented that they, too, still gasp every time.

And when the reprise of the opening number comes near the end of the show, it comments on this, too: See, someone’s got to tell the tale / Whether or not it turns out well / Maybe it will turn out this time

There has to be an element of hope in tragedy or there’s no point. Romeo and Juliet isn’t one of the most performed plays of all time because we love to watch foolish teenagers die — some part of us has to believe that maybe, maybe they won’t be star-crossed and their their plot will work out just this once.

To quote one of the title characters in my favorite play of all time, Tom Stoppard’s riff on another of Shakespeare’s oft-performed tragedies: “There must have been a moment, at the beginning, where we could have said—no. But somehow we missed it […] Well, we’ll know better next time.”

If you know Hamlet then of course you know that there is no next time for Guildenstern (or is it Rosencranz?) but there must have been a moment—no. But you have to believe there might be. A story can be unrelentingly miserable and still be a good piece of art, and some stories have no choice but to be hopeless, but these aren’t the ones we revisit over and over.

It’s part of the catharsis that has been discussed as an element of theatrical tragedy since the Ancient Greek times that first birthed the Orpheus and Eurydice story. Those slivers of hope are what allow us to empathize with what we are watching on stage (or reading, or seeing on screen, as it is not solely limited to theatre). And our empathy allows us to vicariously feel our emotions through the story, and feel that catharsis through the tragedy.

Kurt Vonnegut wrote in Slaughterhouse-Five about another age-old character who couldn’t help but look back when she wasn’t supposed to: “And Lot’s wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human.”

Maybe there’s a life lesson here, I don’t know, but what I do know is that Orpheus must look back, and we must be shocked. If ever there comes a time that no one reacts, then there is no point anymore to the story being told. But I don’t think that will happen, soon or ever. Someone, at least one person, will continue to hope, and he will continue to shatter that hope, through no fault of his own, but because that’s the way the story goes.

It’s a sad song, and we’re gonna sing it again.