Running in Heat

By God that was a tough run tonight.  I was so close to ringing Jon and Ray to tell them I couldn't make training tonight, I really didn't want to go, and I had a good excuse, I've been up at 4am for the last two mornings, and only got home at 8pm last night and 6pm this evening.  I was quite tired, and the temperature is hotter today, than any day in the last 7 years. It was the first time I've had to have a shower before training, I'd been sweating that much.

John said we were going to go on a light run, to loosen the legs after the race on Sun, but I knew we were in trouble as soon as he pulled out a belt which carried water bottles. He'd also stashed a bottle of water on the route to refill the bottles.  It's a good job Ray drank 10 Litres of water during the day today, because he finished all of John's water, and we reckoned, if he didn't have all that water earlier, we'd need to pull a water tank behind us to keep him hydrated. We went for a seven mile run, the same seven mile run I so enjoyed the Sun before last, and we finished in 72min. That is actually quicker than we ran on that Sun, and I had no extra kick left at the end. Looking back, I'm quite happy now that I did go, but I must confess that I wanted to stop many times on the run, and it was another one of those battle of wills, that I suppose are necessary to prepare for the Half Marathon. Andy O Grady joined us for a part of the run, and he ran with me, while John and Ray were about 10 metres ahead. I'm afraid if Andy was looking for conversation he was with the wrong buddy, but I did appreciate him running beside me.

Michelle Mullaney, Ray and myself were on Midlands 103, with Will Faulkner, this morning. Will was asking us about our progress to date, and also asking Michelle about the Harriers in general. I was happy enough with how it went, although I'd have liked to get across the point that, while Ray and myself might be going on about our challenge as if it's like climbing Everest, there are loads of people in the Harriers who've started where we've started, and are now running long races regularly and quickly, which just goes to show once again that anybody can do this running lark, and get the benefits from it, if they persevere.

The Harriers posted pictures from the 10k in Mountbolus on their facebook page, I've nicked two of them. The first one show's the crew from the Harriers that ran in the race, I'm not sure if there's anyone missing, but there's bound to be a few, as such a large contingent competed, wearing the Blue and White. The second one shows me finishing the race, and although it looks like I finished ahead of Miriam Brady, I didn't, but I couldn't bring myself to show the one taken just before the finish line, as Miriam had just pipped me.  I'm not sure how training will go for the rest of the week, but I'm sure I'll tell you all about it, one way or the other, in due course. Until then Slán.