September 2010

Tomorrow I'm running in the Cork Half Marathon, in Blarney Co Cork. All going well, I hope to run somewhere in the region of 1:34 - 1:40. I'm not racing this one all out - I hate this particular course and intend going at Marathon pace for the first 8 miles and then, if I feel like it, giving the last 5.11 miles a "bit of a lash".

I'm entered for the Dublin City Marathon, on October 25th, and hope to run 3:18 or better. With that sort of time, I may be in with a shout for a Masters category medal in the Irish National Marathon Championship, which is being held as part of the event. My club, Eagle AC also has a Masters M50 team in the event: myself and two other 'auld fellas'. Training has been going well and I've three 20 mile runs under my belt and am consistently around the 60/65 miles a week mark.

I'll be running for Cork ARC and the Irish Cancer Society, but must set up my charity donation pages (get the finger out man!).

The training hasn't been causing me too much bother, I should really say the 'leakage' hasn't caused me too much bother. The marathon will be a different matter, but we'll see. Come what may, it will be an education.

This will be my 20th marathon, my first in 7 years and my second in 12 years. In many ways I feel like a Marathon Novice again, but I still have the confidence that I can go the distance at a fairly fast pace, i.e. 7:10 to 7:20 per mile average. I just hope I'm not being too ambitious. I'll probably set my final pace after the Cork to Cobh 15 Mile race, in three weeks time.

One thing I've found, over the past month or two, is that my 'leakage is gradually lessening and it's now conceiveable that I may soon become fully continent, i.e. nil leakage, when running. I have been fully continent at all other times since shortly after the operation (about 6 weeks afterwards), so this will be the icing on the cake. Either way, I certainly can live with the current position - well I have been running with it since resuming running in August 2008.

With all the mileage and long runs, I have to ensure that I'm fully hydrated at all times. That hasn't given rise to any problems, but I generally don't drink heavily within 3 or 4 hours of a run/race, prefering to ensure that I 'top up' well at all other times.