On the Way to Boston

I didn’t know how long I would rest for. On Monday evening I felt like never running again, on Wednesday I still felt like taking two weeks off, and on Friday the old itch seemed to return. When I saw the weather forecast and got annoyed by the prediction of rain, I knew I was ready for a return.

My legs had already been fine, but mentally I needed the break more than physically. It’s a bit strange because the heart keeps thinking of Cork as a very successful run and Dublin as somewhat of a failure, and then the head points out that the Dublin time was 4 minutes faster.

Anyway, I managed to squeeze a run between the early morning rain showers. This proved that Niamh knows me better than I know myself, because she had predicted a return to running before the week is out. It was not long, and it probably was faster than I should have, but I guess after four days of idleness the legs were itching to burn some rubber. We’re still in Dublin, and will drive home tomorrow, and I will only run if I have time and if the weather is agreeable. Next week is still an easy recovery week of unstructured running before the next training cycle will commence, provided I feel ready. I will type out a proper training plan once I find the time, but I’ve already decided that the first 4-6 weeks will consist of only easy runs with a ceiling of 80% HR. I’ll set the alarm on the Garmin to make sure I’ll stay there (I didn’t today).

The official marathon photos are finally ready, after a long wait of 5 days. Needless to say, I won’t be spending my money on any of these shots. I think that all of them were taken during the last mile, and Niamh’s comments were not too flattering.


There are at least a dozen sets of photos from private photographers to be found on the Internet, but somehow I managed to squeeze past all of them without registering apart from one that shows me being chicked at mile 25. Not that I’m overly keen on being reminded how wrecked I looked.



The kids enjoyed Halloween, and I’ll post some photos next time. There’s no need to mix those lovely shots with the ugly ones of me in the same post.

1 Nov

4.5 miles, 35:27, 7:57 pace, HR 154

October mileage: 210