On the night of Friday, the 6th of May, 2016, I went to bed sometime roughly between the hours of 11 and 12 PM.
On Saturday, the 7th of May, I got up at 3 Am, got dressed and got into a car with my friend Nicholas Pochinkov, heading for a pub in Wicklow town to meet a larger group of friends, Rian, .
Why?
Because at 4:15 am, hundreds of people (actually, apparently over 120,000 this year in Ireland alone) at different locations around Ireland would set off for 5 km on foot to mark the beginning of the 8th Annual 'Darkness Into Light' run/walk (of which two verbs, it was admittedly the latter in which my friends and I engaged) in aid of Pieta House, a charity for suicide prevention.
When My friends Nicholas, Rian , John , Gabriel, Evelyn, Katherine, Mia, Jane, and Caroline and I myself arrived at the 'Leitrim Lounge' pub in Wicklow town, the area was decorated with lovely little electric candles, provided by Electric Ireland, the main sponsor for the event.
Some of these candles were arranged on the grass, to spell out the word 'Hope', the main message of the event.
For registering and paying our donations online, we received a sheet to print out as a ticket of sorts, which we could hand in at the venue in exchange for a t-shirt. Due to popular demand for these t-shirts, and especially the 'medium' sized ones, when I arrived with my friend Nicky, they had them in only 'small' and 'large'. I got one in the latter size and will hopefully grow into it.
The girls all arrived together and a bit later than expected, as often seems to be the case and were disappointed to find that they were out of shirts, especially since many of the dogs were wearing them who would be par were wearing them, and had themselves not likely purchased a ticket.
The walk itself was very nice, despite being quite cold and the rain which started right as we began. It was about five kilometers in length and took only around one hour to complete.
I did, however, experience, shortly before commencing the walk, a sharp pain in my head, which translated itself during the walk as a worrying headache, tension and lightheadedness, exacerbated when I moved my head to the left. However, confident in the knowledge that I most likely would not pass out or die or do something otherwise terrible and dramatic like that, and that ambulances were parked at regular intervals should this actually occur, I simply continued the walk with my friends.
Upon arriving back at the site where we'd begun, which had been set up to happen just as dawn was breaking, symbolising hope and redemption, we were invited to sign the banner of hope, which we did. There was a small reception including coffee, tea and some biscuits in the pub. Me and Nicholas, whilst waiting for my Dad to pick us up, being the lase remaining two in the pub, ended up being given a tray and several packets of leftover biscuits which were seemingly quite desperately handed to us by the organisers who had layed them out.
It was a great experience and I would definitely like to do it again next year if I get the chance.
The girls all arrived together and a bit later than expected, as often seems to be the case and were disappointed to find that they were out of shirts, especially since many of the dogs were wearing them who would be par were wearing them, and had themselves not likely purchased a ticket.
The walk itself was very nice, despite being quite cold and the rain which started right as we began. It was about five kilometers in length and took only around one hour to complete.
I did, however, experience, shortly before commencing the walk, a sharp pain in my head, which translated itself during the walk as a worrying headache, tension and lightheadedness, exacerbated when I moved my head to the left. However, confident in the knowledge that I most likely would not pass out or die or do something otherwise terrible and dramatic like that, and that ambulances were parked at regular intervals should this actually occur, I simply continued the walk with my friends.
Upon arriving back at the site where we'd begun, which had been set up to happen just as dawn was breaking, symbolising hope and redemption, we were invited to sign the banner of hope, which we did. There was a small reception including coffee, tea and some biscuits in the pub. Me and Nicholas, whilst waiting for my Dad to pick us up, being the lase remaining two in the pub, ended up being given a tray and several packets of leftover biscuits which were seemingly quite desperately handed to us by the organisers who had layed them out.
It was a great experience and I would definitely like to do it again next year if I get the chance.
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