It’s been quite a weekend of running for me – on Saturday I ran the Walk 4 Life (yeah, I know it was a walk, but why walk when you can run?), and, for the first, and probably only, time in my life, I finished in third place – okay, it wasn’t really a race, and, out of the hundreds that did it, perhaps 10 at most ran it, but I don’t care – I came third, dammit, and that’s all there is to it. It was a great ego boost to an old guy like me too, that I was probably at least 20 years older than anyone else that ran it. When your victories are rare, you take all you can from them.
The event itself was an amazing experience, and a huge amount of credit is due to the organisers, Lorraine and Poshey. The event was very well attended, and the facilities were top class. They have done a great service to raise awareness of suicide, and to encourage people to speak openly if they need help – well done guys.
If you would like to donate to the 5 charities Walk 4 Life supported (Pieta house, Jigsaw Kerry, Aware, Kerry Peer Support Network and Be Aware! Prevent Suicide) you can find details on their Facebook page here.
Here’s some video of the event:
On Sunday morning I was due to do a 15 mile run with the 100k training group, but decided to postpone it until later in the day, due to a combination of laziness, and my son having football training.
I set off on my own at lunchtime, and, in one of my frequent fits of madness, decided to include the Short Mountain in the run – because, you know, 15 miles in the heat isn’t enough punishment.
It was certainly a testing training run – as well as the Short Mountain, I also ran Farmers Bridge hill at the end – another tough hill. I ran out of water halfway through, but luckily was able to drop into Brian ‘O Se for a top up (and a minute or two of a rest!). I made it home exhausted but happy, as I felt it was a good achievement at this stage of my training. Afterwards, I had to go straight to a football match to watch my son play, something my legs definitely didn’t appreciate.
A good weekend, and a good basis for moving forward with training.
RandRuns 