It was a week of marathons and park runs.
Last Monday, the Dublin Marathon took place. It was a tough day for the runners. One of my mates from the fire service was taking part, and the day before – Sunday – was absolutely perfect for a run: calm, bright, no rain, no wind… Sadly, the following day was wet and windy and not a day for doing a PB.
It showed in the times too. The winner came in about 2.14 which is a few minutes slower than normal for the Dublin route. Ciaran came in on 4.02, having planned and trained hard to break the 4 hour barrier for the first time. He was relatively sanguine about the whole thing, as he is about most things, in fairness. He had promised to give up the whole marathon malarkey once he came in under four hours.
“What’ll you do now”, I asked?
“Just have to do another one”, came the reply.
I won’t do a marathon, I suspect, ’til next August, when it will be part of the Hardman. Probably do the Lock up the Year run along the Royal Canal on New Year’s Eve. That’s a fun event put together by local man Jarlath Hynes of Grassroots and Le Chéile AC. There is a marathon option but I will do the half. Saoirse hopes to do the 10k.
I settled for more modest fare over the Hallowe’en break. I have yet to work out a new training programme for next year’s event. I am, to be blunt, all over the place.
There are plenty of 5k runs on, and we are doing a 10k this month in the Phoenix Park. Plus there is the half marathon at the end of the year. But no real structure as of yet.
Swimming is fairly haphazard. Biking is relatively non-existent.
I plan to get my hands on a book, and any recommendations on a good triathlon training book would be much appreciated. Rob Cummins of Wheelworx recommended the Triathlete’s Training Bible by Joe Friel. I suspect that may find its way into a Christmas stocking.
Hallowe’en seems to have lost its Celtic pagan edge of late. The trend for ‘trick or treating’ was something of an American re-import (having been exported from here centuries ago). The penchant for sweets over apples and nuts points to a general trend of consumerism over tradition. Probably the most scary thing that appeared over the weekend when the barriers between the living and the dead crumble and the lost souls come back to scare the bejaysus out of their relatives was a report from the World Health Organisation. This pointed out the perils of eating too much red meat, and in particular, processed meats.
So, in response, here is a picture of the brunch we had after a long walk with the dog. We’re Irish. No-one tells Irish people we’re not entitled to colorectal cancer like everyone else. No way! If it’s going, we want some!
And to add a little balance to that, a few Kennys did the Hallowe’en park run again this year. Seven extended family members did so the year previous, but we could only muster four this time around.
My brother Rob took the honours in just over 22 minutes and I followed in about 30 seconds later. Oren finished up next, and both he and Saoirse got PBs.
The tiny conical paper hat I wore for the whole race clearly slowed me down…!
Tamsyn (my daughter) didn’t run, but did, in fairness, push the boat out in terms of dressing up for the big day.
The family of foxes that have taken up residence up the road have really settled in. The last pic here is rubbish quality, but there were three foxes – an adult and two decent size cubs – getting some warmth out of the old tarmac. Good luck to them.
unironedman 