The family that run together...

Not sure that I believe it happened, even though I was there and I saw it. Conor ran a half-marathon with me last weekend. Without any proper training. It was a really difficult course but he did it. And he suggested we go back next year and do it again. I think he might be broken!

(Check out the elevation on this!)


I finished in 2:17:56 (an improvement on my last attempt and this was definitely a tougher run), with Conor right behind me on 2:18:01. Yeay us!

Check me out! (again)

OK, so I tried to embed the map of yesterday's training run directly into a post, but MapMyRun's new mapping tool sucks a bit. They've had some vaguely worded feedback to this effect. Let's see if it actually makes a difference.

Anyway, failing that, here's a link to the map, if you can be bothered to follow it. (Just make sure to change the units back to kilometers - another pain in the arse with the new MmR is that it all defaults to miles.) You'll see how wonderfully well my training is coming on. Not sure if I'm going to be ready for the marathon at the end of October, but the half-marathon in September will be a cake walk!

By the way, can I just mention that running up the Captain's Hill in Leixlip is a bastard - but I beat it!

Check me out!

Connemarathon - I did it!

How great am I lads?
I did the half marathon in Connemara on Sunday in the not too shabby time of 2 hours 21 minutes. Granted, I was hoping to do slightly better and finish in about 2.10, but a foot cramp at mile 9 put paid to that plan...
Anyway, yeay me!

I'll be back to do it again next year and hopefully improve on my time. Anyone want to join me??? Connemarathon

I did it!

I've been threatening to do it in my head for a couple of days, but today I finally went and did my first 15 km run - that's just under 9 1/2 miles in old money - hooray! I went from Celbridge to Leixlip towards Maynooth and back to Celbridge. That's pretty far in anyone's map!

It took me slightly longer than my target of an hour and a half, but only by 4 minutes, so all in all I'm pretty proud of me.
Can I just mention that it was freezing cold this morning, with a blustery wind (that I was facing into for the whole 6 to 10 km points, which, incidentally, was all uphill.
I'll say it again - hooray! Go me!

Does that put the fear of God in you, Gerry?

I've been listening to too much radio, with the ad for GiftGrub where Mario whatshishead is ripping off Ben "Does that put the fear of God in you, Jackie Skelly?" Dunne. Anyway, it seemed like an apt opening line.

Gerry has decided that he is going to become the guardian of the physical health of the old Shantallians. He is trying to shame us all into getting into shape to run the Dublin marathon in 2009 and is dangling a crazy money fund before our greedy little eyes as some form of Carrickmacross-carrot.

There are a few problems with his crack-pot scheme. One is that Amo has been involved in athletics for years, is really fit and has already done the marathon (in 3 hours 45 minutes or something equally incredible), so she's pretty much guaranteed the prize, or at least the major share of it. James (aka Jim) is too busy playing happy families and walking the dog. According to Gerry though, James is wavering. Gerry thinks he can get him on board. Another problem is that my husband (or wuss-band as I must now call him, apparently) isn't really interested in engaging with the whole process. The boys may be calling him yellow, but he stands by his woeful tale of shinsplints. Ow.

Suzanne has agreed to participate. So has Amo, but then of course she would, seeing as she's most likely to win. Gerry's got to because it was all his crazy idea. And I'm in. But I've got a sneaky plan.

I'm going to do the marathon in 2008. Ha! Training is in full swing. My first test will be in April when I do the half-marathon in Connemara. I'm reliably informed that it's a demon. The last three miles are all uphill. I figure that if I can manage that, I'll be good for the full jobbie in October.

I'm up to 12.5km, 3 times a week. This week, I'm going to bring it up to 15km, which is three-quarters of the distance of a half-marathon.

Going metric

Further to the whole running thing - I'm really taking it seriously now. I've set myself an actual goal to do the marathon in 2008, rather than the wishy-washy 'maybe someday' line I've taken previously.
I'm trying really hard to go out 3 times a week now (definitely twice) and I'm up to 11 km (I've gone metric, that's around 7 miles in old money) in just over an hour. Sounds great to me!
There's a problem though. The marathon is 42 km (26 miles). At my current pace, I'm looking at a finishing time of 4 hours. That's crap. I'd be embarrassed. I'd probably not admit to doing the marathon at all if that was my time.
I've been running regularly since mid-September and I've been cranking it up every week or two since then but to be honest, I really don't see much of an improvement. I mean obviously I'm increasing my distances, but my pace doesn't seem to be getting any better. If there happens to be someone reading this with some useful tips or advice, please pass 'em on.

Running on empty

I started running again last month and I'm taking it a bit more seriously than I used to. Granted, I'm still not very fast and I don't go terribly far; but I'm paying a lot more attention to how fast and how far I'm not going. Why? I've decided that I want to run the Dublin City Marathon. Not this year (it's on in 2 days, so I've left it a little late to train!) but maybe next? At any rate, it's on my list of things to do before I die (see my50.co.uk).

I was watching a comedy show called Dan & Becs a couple of weeks ago, and Becs was talking about a website called 'mapmyrun.com'. I thought it was part of the joke, but checked it out anyway. Sure enough and lo and behold, there it was. A great way to keep track of all my runs and how quickly I don't do them and how far they're not. It's made me feel so inadequate that I'm pushing myself a bit harder so that I don't look like a total loser if someone happens to look at my profile/runs/training.

So, now I'm almost up to 6 miles, at least 2 mornings per week. It's a start.

I have an owwiee (another one)

Well, I did it. Yesterday, along with 7,499 other gluttons for punishment, I ran the Great Bupa Ireland 10k Fun Run in the Phoenix Park in Dublin. It was also David's first birthday. But mostly, I ran 10k.

Granted, it was the first time in 3 or 4 years that I'd done the full 10k but to be honest, I was a little disappointed with my time of 1 hour 2 minutes. That already takes into account the time lapse between the starting gun and my crossing the starting line. Congratulations to my pal Ann Marie Brooks who finished it in 47 minutes - there's a time to be proud of. Gerry Gainford didn't start. So, even though I went more than 15 minutes over my target, I still beat Gerry. Go me!

I was also a little horrified by how shattered I was for the rest of the evening. After we got home, I lay in a hot bath for ages and then just vegged out on the sofa until I crawled back up the stairs to my bed at 9 o'clock.

Anyway, it was a great day and I really enjoyed it. Conor and David came out to cheer me on. My friend Aiveen and I ran nearly the whole course together until I had to take a break between 7 and 8km. I almost caught her back up at the end though, finishing just a minute behind her.

I got a bit emotional towards the end as I turned onto the home straight - just 600m to go - and I looked at my watch. It was 2.30 pm... a year to the minute when my beautiful brand new baby was handed to me and I remembered the feeling that I could do anything in the world that I wanted to. So I straightened up and dragged every last bit of my energy up from the ends of my hair to my toenails and I ran those last 500m (it took me 100m to gather my energy!)

My legs hurt today.

I have an owwiee

Rather foolishly, a couple of weeks ago, I allowed myself to be goaded into challenging a "friend" to a 10k race. Our race will coincide with the Great BUPA Ireland Run in the Phoenix Park (which we're both signed up for) on 9 April this year. I said I'd do it in under 45 minutes. Not 45 minutes. Under. 45. minutes.

I've been in training ever since. Luckily for me, I like to run and there are plenty of nice places for me to go at work and at home. I've been going out at least twice and mostly 3 times a week.

I did a drive around at home over the weekend and realised that I'm going to have to train a bit harder. My main route takes me around 25 minutes to complete, but it's only 5.5k.

So I decided to ramp up my efforts today. I did this circuit in 30 minutes, but I'm not sure how far the route is, because there's no scale on the map. Anyway, I feel like it's a lot further than I normally go and that I did it at a quicker pace than I normally run, because Oh My God, my legs are like jelly this afternoon. I am exhausted.

I suppose that it's all good - another couple of days like it and maybe even 10k in under 40 minutes will be looking promising!

Gerry, are you listening? The gauntlet is being thrown back at you!