Dublin City Marathon

This year I'm going to try and run a marathon! (Note: I said run, not race.) I've entered for the 2007 Dublin City Marathon on Monday 29th of October. This is my first time, I'm 36 and not an athlete, so if I finish it in under 4 hours I'll be delighted.

I've actually entered all of the following series of races, so there's a gradual buildup:

Date	Distance	Race
Saturday 14th July 2007	5mi / 8km	Adidas Irish Runner 5 mile
Saturday 18th August 2007	10mi / 16km	Adidas Frank Duffy 10 mile
Saturday 22nd September 2007	13mi+ / 21km+	Adidas Dublin Half-Marathon
Monday 29th October 2007	26mi+ / 42km+	Dublin City Marathon

"Why?", you might ask...

A couple of weeks ago I managed to get up at 7am one morning and go out running before work. If I can do that, I maybe have the discipline to keep up the training. I can do 10 miles already in about 90 minutes and feel fine the next day. I'm doing about 20 miles a week on average right now.

I entered a couple of weeks ago, (right after the morning run), and I've been telling people about it, so this is probably old news to my readers (all 3 of them - Hi Honey, and hello Mum & Dad). Telling people about it is a part of my motivation strategy - I'll feel stupid if I pull out.

I'll follow up this post in a few days with some recommended reading links on running and my 5 day a week, 19 week, training plan. I just have to write it up first. (I'm not just drawing up plans and writing blog entries - I ran 8 miles today.)

Wish me luck...

Weekend in Mayo

I went home to Belleek Park for the weekend. As well as doing a few odd jobs around the park (including a bit of garbage collection), I updated the images on the web site.

You can see more images of Ballina area here:-
   http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/belleekpark/BallinaBelleekWoods
These were taken in a rush on Monday evening when we realised we needed more pics for the Ballina page!

Some more pictures of the site here:-
   http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/belleekpark/BelleekPark
Most of these were actually taken by my Dad and Mum over the past couple of months.

All in all I had a good long weekend. I took Tuesday off so I could avoid the worst of the weekend traffic (drove on Sunday and Tuesday), and the weather was fantastic (unlike the rest of Ireland). Back in Dun Laoghaire since yesterday. Next I'm off to London for 1 day. More news coming soon... Dublin City Marathon...