The Big Photo

There was a great atmosphere at training tonight. People were asked to wear their Harriers Vests, for a photograph before training, and I think there was around 80 people in the photo, although Fionán Minnock seemed to have forgotten his blue and white top! maybe he'll wear it for the race though. Back to this evening, Adrian Martin gave a short talk about the race on Saturday, and congratulated everyone for the effort they'd put in to get to the start line, and he said all we had to do now was get to the finish line. He offered special congratulations to the people who are attempting this distance for the first time, and wished everybody the best of luck.  After the photograph, Ray and myself were presented with a Good Luck card each, which had been signed by a lot of the members, it was touching, and I'm very grateful, and a little embarrassed. The only thing extra that Ray and Myself have done with regards to training for the race, is tell everybody about it, a lot! There's loads of people running on Saturday who'll be attempting the distance for the first time. And while I wont be able to give a card to all the other competitors, I would like to wish everybody the best of luck themselves. John  O Connell was also presented with a framed photo of the club members taken some time back, as a token of thanks for all his work for the club during his tenure of 8 years as club captain. I can appreciate, and I'm very grateful for all that John has done for Ray and myself, and the presentation showed that the rest of the club feel the same way, as John seems to have helped nearly everybody up there as they started.

After all that excitement it was down to the running. Ray and myself went with the rest of the gang down to Charleville for a short run around. We did around three miles at a relaxed pace, although I think some people did a bit more than that. I started my watch when we left the Harriers and when we got back the clock said we'd run for 32 minutes.

On Thursday we'll be picking up our race numbers, and running for around 30 min around the outside track of the Harriers. It's hard to believe that this night 10 weeks ago was our first training session. The time has flown, the progress remarkable and the crack has been mighty. Thanks everybody for reading the blog, and all the messages of support. I've enjoyed writing it, and I must confess that it's given me an added incentive to go training at certain times, as I've felt I better go, or I wont have anything to write about in the blog. Anyway, I'm going to make a decision before Thursday about whether I'll keep blogging or give it up. I'll let you know then, so until Thursday, Slán.