The trip

After three years of working at RSM, I handed in my notice in July with my last day scheduled for October. I had a week off in between leaving RSM and starting at Buzzacott and decided to use it effectively. On the first weekend, Ciara and I went to Tirana, during the week, I then went to Poland on my won and on the second weekend, we went to Dublin with Ciara's parents, although I didn't run there. I had a very enjoyable leaving drinks with my team on Thursday, a very short final day on Friday and then we were on the plane Saturday morning.

The run

We were staying at Hotel Villa 1928 near the centre of the city. We checked in, I got changed and was out pretty quickly to start running. This ended up being a run where I didn't have any hotel room pitstop so I wasn't back for another five hours or so. I didn't have too much of a plan for the run other than to make use of Tirana Lake Park and possibly the Athletics track that google maps suggested was in there. Getting to the park was pretty much a straight line a mile long. This start to the journey confirmed to me that I probably want to make use of the park only and not much else. I didn't run a single step until I got to the park, just walked. The pavements were narrow and busy with people during the early afternoon. There were lots of road crossings and a fair number of cars on the road. The road that ran alongside the Lana river would have been a reasonable option but the pavements weren't very wide there either (and neither was the river).

When I got to the park I did eventualy start running. The park can basically be split into two halves - the flat section around the lake and the hilly section. I started with a lap of the lake. It was a busy day out and many people were doing the same thing, runners, cyclists, dog walkers and families. The main path along this side of the lake was very busy but the thin winding path round the back was much quieter. These carried me round and morphed into the tree covered hilly section.

I then explored this hillier section for a while. It really was quite a nice park all round. I was hoping to find the athletics track and just generally learn my way around the park and what it has to offer. After a few miles of exploration though, I was disapointed. I just couldn't find the track and started to think it must not exist. I decided to give up and headed back down to the lake for a few easier miles on the flat paths.

There were lots of little stalls and shops around this section of the park and I also noticed a toilet block so the combination of these two points, as well as the camel pack on my back, meant that I wouldn't need to stop back at the hotel and confirmed to me I'd be staying in the park until the job was done. There was also a KFC just outside the park that I could see on each lap. I'm not a fan but it became more and more tempting each time I went past.

After a few more miles by the lake, I thought I'd give it another go at trying to find the track and luckily was successful this time. It is definitely one of the more unique tracks I've been to, completely surrounded by trees in a slight dip in the hill. There wasn't any sort of leisure centre complex or anywhere to pay so I just went up to the track and started doing a few laps. There were a couple of others on the track as well but not too many. Running many slow laps of a track is not the most thrilling thing ever so I did start to get a little bored eventually. I put in a few more and got the watch up to 22 miles then headed back through the tree covered section towards the lake. A final lap and then I called it a day.

I treated myself to a banana smoothie from one of the stands. It was expensive but very tasty, and was gone in 10 seconds. I walked back to the hotel keeping an eye out for a 'supermarket' and a restaurant for dinner. I got back to the hotel and had a shower in the wet room bathroom. We did end up heading back to an Italian restaurant that I passed for a similarly very enjoyable but much more reasonably priced dinner.

Evidence