Records And Champions

Just two weeks ago I had the pleasure of running significant parts of 2 of the Sixmilebridge marathons in the company of Ruthann Sheahan. I knew she was going to run the 24 hrs race in Belfast and at one stage asked her if she would be going for Valerie Glavin's Irish track record. Ruthann gave the best answer possible by absolutely smashing the record with the astonishing distance of 225.5k, which would have been good enough for 9th place in this year's World championship (and 4th in the European)!

In the same race the men's record was also broken by Eoin Keith, who had a hard time at last year's race but had the class of staying around and supporting the other athletes and also having some very kind words on my own performance. Eoin more than made up for last year's disappointment by posting a new record of 244.6k, a distance that would have seen him finishing in 12th place in the World championship (6th in Europe). These are absolutely mind boggling performances and I hope I will be able to join them again next year, though not with the view of beating them.

As for my own running, that is very much at the back burner right now. I got several comments that I should be recovering rather than training, but to be honest I thought I was doing exactly that. I posted no more than 38 miles last week, less than half of what I would be doing in a typical training week, and all of those miles were set at a leisurely pace. I ran 5 miles every morning with the exception of Sunday when I ran 8 miles for the only reason that I wanted a change of scenery.

Connemara is less than 3 weeks away, but rather than counting down the days in nervous anticipation I am hoping they will pass slowly to give me more time for recovery. Not running the marathon this weekend was definitely one of my smarter decisions, quite unlike me.

The nice weather seems to be coming to an end, which is a shame. I enjoyed running in the sun most mornings, today in contrast felt extremely humid not particularly enjoyable. At least it's not raining. Yet.

20 Jul

5 miles, 38:36, 7:43 pace, HR 138

21 Jul

8 miles, 1:02:52, 7:51 pace

22 Jul

7 miles, 55:59, 8:00 pace, HR 130

Weekly Mileage: 38