Background

I've been running since July 1984. My original intention was just to keep my weight in check - over a period of 4 or 5 years, it had been gradually creeping up, from my "normal 10 stone 4 pounds to nearly 13 stone.

I started out with the cheapest of the cheap tennis shoes and used to run about a mile in roughly 7:15 and I thought anyone running a marathon was an absolute lunatic.

I entered my first race, a 10k, in October 1984: 46:44 and three weeks later ran 45:21. That Christmas I ran my first of, so far, 25 consecutive Goal miles. That one was 6:21 and remains my slowest.

Early in Spring 1985 my brother-in-law asked me if I would run for a charity in a local Marathon. He had been planning to run it with three friends, however the three friends had all dropped out, injured. I said "OK!" and off I went and increased my training to 15 miles a week. I did actually do one week where I did a 13 mile run and brought my mileage for that week up to 18. Stop laughing as you read this!!

Marathon day arrived and Joe & I set off, running together all the way to 18 miles, until I stopped for water. After that I walked and jogged, to the finish. I went through 20 in 2:48 but it took me 4:10:03 to finish. I reckoned I was beaten by the event - not distance or time.

And so I'd caught the marathon bug, and with it a real love of running. Six months later I ran my first of 15 Dublin City Marathons, on 56 miles a week, in 3:11:17.

Since then running has been a major part of my life and has helped me through many of life's crises. It has also help me maintain a high level of fitness and health........until now.

Beginnings.....

Where do I start?


I suppose with myself and how this came about.


I have prostate cancer.


I'm a 54 (nearly 55) year old runner. Been running for 24 years and never been ill in my life. Never hospitalised and rarely sick. Prostate cancer has raised it's ugly head and previous records are worth nought.



Over the next few posts, I'll outline the journey to date and I'll try to follow that with what I'm doing about it and why. Interspersed, I'll post bits and pieces about my running and my hoped for comeback after Radical prostatectomy - scheduled for May 22nd, 2008.

Why have a blog about Prostate Cancer and running?

Well, when a routine PSA prostate check in May 2006 showed a slightly high reading of 4.3 for a 52 year-old, and a subsequent test 6 months later showed a rise to 4.9, I started checking things out and found little or nothing on the Net relating to runners or running.


I was convinced that vigourous competitive running influenced the PSA reading, in a fashion similar to cycling but found little to back the hypothesis up. Googling found little relating to running after Prostate surgery.