In early 2007 after a serious talk with my doctor where I had little to add to the conversation other then the odd nod or grunt in agreement my weight and blood pressure was fast becoming a serious health issue and I had to do something about it rather quickly. I like everyone else decided to take up this running lark.
Now in my heyday I played plenty of sports but the one area I really detested was the necessity to run laps of a field every time we trained, suffice to say that my first attempt at this running lark ended pretty quickly and sorely.
At the end of that summer my weight had gone up more, and I did not fancy the battle that lay ahead of me. One night while trying to get some info on the film named Cool Running's for my kids I stumbled across a website by the same name. A little bit of digging and I found the now famous Couch to 5k running plan.
The runner within me had finally been unearthed and over the next 2 years got up to running in local 5K's and 10K's.
In the spring of 2009 I ran my first half Marathon, The Burren Challenge and boy was it just that a Challenge. In very wet conditions running up the side of 2 mountains was a new experience to me. Found this promo years later which shows the conditions on the day, I featured @ 1:50 and no doubt the cameraman remembers me plough through him. After completing it I knew that I could finish a marathon so entered for Dublin the following October.
Like most people with no formal training I found a plan in the internet and followed it. However I made the mistake of running all my runs as fast as I could. My father passed away 3 weeks before the start and as he lived in England it was the Saturday before Dublin when we finally laid his ashes to rest in Ireland. This meant I had no running done in 3 weeks (which in hindsight was a good thing). On the day I decided to forget my 4 hour target and take it easy and enjoy it. Felt brilliant throughout that coming up Merrion Road 3 quick miles would get me under 4. Head down great support on the way home I dipped under 4 Hours and was trilled.
Same training plan for Belfast 2010, same strategy run ever run as fast as I can. Training went well (or so I thought) looking at sub 3:45. Well the wheels came off big time. Horrible experience, trashed my quads trying to make up time on the decent from the zoo, and was in bits @ 19 miles. Struggled from there on. A relay runner got me going again @ mile 24 and sub 4 was possible. Rounded the bend into the finish, watch @ 3:59:xx, started to what felt like a sprint finish but I have no doubt it did not resemble anything of the sort. Crossed the finish line my watch @ 4:00:36. Soul destroyed I limped/hobbled to the finish area in need of a good rubdown.
In February of that year I had entered the 2500 anniversary run of the original Marathon in Athens. After my experience in Belfast I did not want to suffer like that ever again. Discovered ATR forum on boards.ie and had found the Novice Marathon thread, where I learnt that you don't need to run every run flat out. Got a HRM watch in Aldi and transformed my training. My Athens experience was on the other end of the spectrum to Belfast. A detailed race report can be found here.
Now in my heyday I played plenty of sports but the one area I really detested was the necessity to run laps of a field every time we trained, suffice to say that my first attempt at this running lark ended pretty quickly and sorely.
 |
| Clare People 10K 2008 |
The runner within me had finally been unearthed and over the next 2 years got up to running in local 5K's and 10K's.
In the spring of 2009 I ran my first half Marathon, The Burren Challenge and boy was it just that a Challenge. In very wet conditions running up the side of 2 mountains was a new experience to me. Found this promo years later which shows the conditions on the day, I featured @ 1:50 and no doubt the cameraman remembers me plough through him. After completing it I knew that I could finish a marathon so entered for Dublin the following October.
Like most people with no formal training I found a plan in the internet and followed it. However I made the mistake of running all my runs as fast as I could. My father passed away 3 weeks before the start and as he lived in England it was the Saturday before Dublin when we finally laid his ashes to rest in Ireland. This meant I had no running done in 3 weeks (which in hindsight was a good thing). On the day I decided to forget my 4 hour target and take it easy and enjoy it. Felt brilliant throughout that coming up Merrion Road 3 quick miles would get me under 4. Head down great support on the way home I dipped under 4 Hours and was trilled.
Same training plan for Belfast 2010, same strategy run ever run as fast as I can. Training went well (or so I thought) looking at sub 3:45. Well the wheels came off big time. Horrible experience, trashed my quads trying to make up time on the decent from the zoo, and was in bits @ 19 miles. Struggled from there on. A relay runner got me going again @ mile 24 and sub 4 was possible. Rounded the bend into the finish, watch @ 3:59:xx, started to what felt like a sprint finish but I have no doubt it did not resemble anything of the sort. Crossed the finish line my watch @ 4:00:36. Soul destroyed I limped/hobbled to the finish area in need of a good rubdown.
In February of that year I had entered the 2500 anniversary run of the original Marathon in Athens. After my experience in Belfast I did not want to suffer like that ever again. Discovered ATR forum on boards.ie and had found the Novice Marathon thread, where I learnt that you don't need to run every run flat out. Got a HRM watch in Aldi and transformed my training. My Athens experience was on the other end of the spectrum to Belfast. A detailed race report can be found here.
No comments:
Post a Comment