If you go down to the woods today...

Or at least if you go down to the woods this evening. After a good interval session in "the Pike" yesterday, I am off to check the proper off-road worthiness of the fingers tonight. They have struggled occasionally for a bit of traction on the grassy pitches in Glanmire (mind you they have no problems on the wet roads) but tonight should test them between up hills, down hills, tree roots, gravel, loose rocks, sand and the occasional rabbit hole. It is time to return to Currabinny (pictured), scene of my last run before my last bout of shin splints and the venue in which Harelquins HC Men's 1st XI least like to train in during pre-season, hill reps ahoy, or as they say, "how many of these f**kin' hills are we doing?"

Probably my best experience in terms of running in the fingers, so far, was a 40 minute jaunt down in Redbarn (site of the BHAA "Stride by the Tide" 4 mile beach race in May - my second favourite race) with the tide out on a very wet and windy day. I never realised how much extra beach you get when the tide is out down there, it adds miles to the area you can run in. This was also probably my worst experience in terms of my health though, as I developed a sore throat and a cough which I still have almost two weeks later.

Apart from a bit of pain and tightness in my young cows, my legs have felt good, still running intermittently in my normal runners with the orthotics in.

With regard to the MDS, I am still waiting for the entry to open and the company running the whole thing seem a little disorganised in terms of coming back to me. I'm still here with my fingers crossed and keeping an eye on the website. If we get in, expect an entry to the Dublin City Marathon for October (in runners I expect), maybe a bash off the Warrior's run in Sligo and perhaps even the Dingle Marathon. Despite having 2 years to train for the thing, I may as well start getting the miles into my legs.

Also spare a thought for young Elmer (that's his real name) who if he had taken part in the upcoming Paris Marathon would have looked like the photo due to his inability to recover from a finger-related rock standing-on incident. Now as a geologist, this made me laugh, but the seriousness of his injuries have caused much dismay as no one likes to see a fella missing out on a marathon, he'll just have to run a sub3 somewhere else, like in the desert? You know you want to Morrissey...