I was a really active kid, who played hurling, football and cycled everywhere for about 15 years. Roll on to 2008.
If there was somewhere to go I went on the bike, I was even on it when there was nowhere to go. I was fit a fiddle, 5’8” and about 9 stone. At 18 I went to college and spent the next 5 years training to be an Electronic Engineer. While in Carlow RTC I still cycled during my free time, but at 21 I went to Coventry to complete a degree and thats when my fitness went down hill. Most of our spare time
was spent in the pub drinking beer and smoking cigarettes. It was great fun at the time, but I had no idea that it would be the start of a period of 14 years of complete inactivity. I saw a picture on Facebook someone posted from a birthday party. It was of a man with a big fat belly and a pint of guinness in his hand. It was me of course and I was horrified. How the hell did I get like this?, I swore as a young man I’d never get like that. Anyway, something clicked in my head and a decision was made to get fit. One January night in 2009 I pulled on a pair of old runners and told my wife I was off out for a run. By her expression it was obvious she thought I was nuts. The plan was to run to the end of the road and back, about 1.5Kms. I got to 100m and had to stop, then run again and stop again. It went on like that until I got back to the house. I think it took about 15 minutes to cover the distance. I continued to run until injury halted me in my tracks and didn’t run again until 2012. I started back in Jan 2012 and ran the SLOT 10K, nearly died but completed it in 1:04. Followed by the great Ireland run in 1:02 and finally broke the hour during the Samsung night run in 57mins. I started a marathon program in June and ran the DCM in Oct in 4:48. I’ve since completed the DCM in 2013, 2014, 2015, Derry marathon 2016, Stone Mad Ultra 62K 2016 and Plan to run the Berlin and Dublin Marathons this year. I’ve ran loads of other races along the way but the marathons stick out for horrendous pain I went through to complete them. One of my goals is to run a 100Miler (160K) within the next 5 years. I suppose the moral of the story is that it’s never too late to get fit and the brilliant thing about running is that it is free, the road is essentially your gym. The journey to fitness is a hugely rewarding experience, however there are two benefits I hadn’t anticipated when I started;
1. Around the time I started running my career had peaked, I was a director in a company, working long hours and stressed to the hilt. Since I started running one of the side effects is that there is no stress in my life, or at least if there is a hint of it, then I pull on my runners and the stress is gone.
2. The Social side of running. I was living in Carlow about 10 years and essentially knew no one. Since I started running I’ve gotten to know so many fantastic people with a similar outlook on life who have also got the bug. I believe we all run for different reasons but I also believe we all do it for the same reason. We all have our baggage and I can’t think of a better way of dealing with it. I started this blog in an effort to share the experience and maybe it will help to inspire someone else to pull on the runners and start an amazing journey to fitness and well being. Anyone can do it, all it is is putting one foot in front of the other. I can honestly say there is no down side to running. My PB's
