Long time, no post and no inspiration from a poet...

Currabinny Wood and its excellent network of trails

It's been so long since I last posted, I had nearly forgotten my password.

Since my last post, I got married and went on honeymoon, visiting St. Lucia, San Francisco, Yosemite and Vegas. I never met Ray. Also the country is in recession and is on its way down the drain and in the last week or so is experiencing an unbelievable cold snap. 

So where are we now? No closer to where I was a few months ago to be honest. It was a miserable November in terms of training - I think I had a total of 10 runs for the whole month, and I may be exaggerating a little, it was probably closer to 8. The lack of training was down to two things - firstly my own laziness and secondly some slight shin splint issues. It was mainly the laziness, however.

Since I returned from honeymoon in early August, training has been excellent some weeks, disastrous others. Between hill runs in Currabinny (see above) and loops of the Glanmire GAA pitch (plus a disaster of a time trial on the old train line), I have not found a regular training rhythm, but will struggle on trying to do so. I have, however, gotten very good at Prince of Persia on the Wii and also defeated the Nazis on more than one occasion on Call of Duty. Both involved a lot of running by whichever character I was controlling.

My buddy Elmer has decided to try and run a sub-3 hour marathon and has turned to running in Vibram Five Fingers. This was followed by him standing on a rock and injuring himself, which is unlike him. You can see his blog here: http://www.canirunasub3hourmarathon.blogspot.com/

So onward and downward into December - downward when I fell on my ass due to the ice and snow. The cold weather has allowed me to improve my Rayman Raving Rabbids score, but not so much on the running side, but we will soldier on.

I bought a copy of the republished Soundings (the poetry book you study in secondary school in Ireland) the other day and whilst looking for a reason not to go running, I decided to open it for some inspiration...I got Kavanagh's Stony Grey Soil. I stayed in.

I shall struggle on...

A Ray of Reality

The Book That Started This

As of my first post, I have thrown myself into the book (left). So far, so good. The author, Steve Cushing, describes his mileage, his training and staying injury free...all of this is okay with me. His gradual build up of mileage seems achievable, although he does say the programme suited him, but perhaps it will not suit me. At any rate, it is an interesting read.

As of my last post, I have a friend semi on board. He likes the idea of the training, which is funny because I don't! He's not so sure about 151 miles across a desert in 40 degrees though. We ran a 5 mile race in Glanmire last night (the Monday after my stag weekend), about 15 degrees in the lashing rain. I sent him a text this morning - ''only 146 miles to go in the MDS''. He was mildly amused.

Next things next - speak to someone who has done it, in some ways bypassing the book and in others adding more information to the what I am already gathering. I found just the man on the Internet. His name is Ray O'Connor, he is an ultra-marathon man, a member of Athenry AC. Once I got his details and emailed him, I awaited his reply - ''it's the hardest thing I have ever done, you'd be mad to even attempt it'' was not what he said, to my surprise.

He said that it was a great event and spoke very highly of it. I am becoming more and more interested. He was coming to Cork for the marathon on the bank holiday this June and was happy to meet me.

Hopefully he'll have time to have a chat and he'll put my mind to rest!

Phone a Friend

As I began to digest more of the book, I started to realise how life would be easier if I could find someone to share the training and the race with. I phoned a friend of mine, leaving a message of intrigue for him and he eventually returned my call.

After a general explanation of the event, the training and the challenge (during all of which I was glad he didn't hang up), we decided to consider the prospect. For me I will make my decision on finishing the book. He might take a little more convincing though, but he thought he would at least share in the training.

Yippeee, now there's some bit of an incentive at least! If it doesn't work out, I suppose I could always buy a dog, like my old pal, The Littlest Hobo!

It will be at least 2013 before I could race, as it's booked up until then, but I will keep an eye on the website!

Marathon Des Sables - What am I thinking?

18th May 2010 - Marathon De Sables. Am I nuts? Why am I even considering this?

I have no idea why I want to do it. Sitting on my couch at home, it is easy to think I'll bite the bullet, sign up and complete an event with over 150 miles in the Sahara's sand, rocks and dunes.

I ran today - 5 miles in the drizzle on the GAA pitches in Glanmire, no pack on my back and no heat to deal with, all the time thinking about the MDS. Could I do it? What about my shin splints? What about the training? What about the organisation? How would I acclimatise? Madness.

I had a half day at work today, had a nice lunch in Wildways in Cork. Visited Waterstones, said to myself that if I found a book on the MDS, I would go for it.

I was horrified when I saw it, sitting there on the shelf - an account of the MDS.

"Right" I thought, "I'll buy it, read it and see if I can convince myself to do it". And we're off...