Friday, March 02, 2012

Sinead Kane Appeal

Can I make one confession: I am not a fan of the women's mini-marathons. I have heard too many stories about inept organisation and the general attitude of some of the participants (having a fag in the middle of the event? having a pint?? queuing at an atm for a pint in the middle of a 4 miler??? and you expect me to sponsor you for that????) to be impressed. However, this runner is a bit different and deserves respect:

Sinead Kane is appealing to the women of Ireland to join her in running the Women’s Mini Marathon for ChildVision, the National Education Centre for Blind Children. Sinead is blind; she has only 5% vision in both her eyes from childhood. Because of this, she is also appealing for one exceptional runner.

“I want people to run with me to help raise funds for this brilliant school,” said Kane. “And I also need one special competitor who will run tethered to me to help me cope with cobbles, potholes and anything else that I’ll have to avoid or cope with. They’re going to have to be fit enough to talk to me right the way through.”

Sinead was joined at the launch of her campaign by Aniela Kostienko and Hannah Flynn, both aged 8, who attend ChildVision’s primary school. While they have been lucky enough to get into the school there are already 45 children on a waiting list for ChildVision’s preschool. Because it does not charge fees to the blind and partially sighted children who attend, fundraising is essential to provision of services at ChildVision. So, to make sure children who have sight loss, and who often have other disabilities, have the right environment to thrive a successful team run at the Mini Marathon is important.

Registered in 2009 as Ireland's first blind solicitor Sinead is no stranger to adversity or to long distance running running. She ran a 10k 12 years ago and was in the first half of the finishers.

“That was a long time ago and I’ll need to get myself fit again,” explained Kane. “And the mini-marathon is only three months away, so anyone who wants to sign up needs to do it soon.”

Last year the maximum number of runners for the mini-marathon was reached one month after registrations opened. Registration has now been open for 2012 for over a week so acting quickly is vital. Anyone who wants to join in can get their Marathon pack (ChildVision t-Shirt, sponsorship card and Training top tips) by contacting the fundraising team at ChildVision on 01 8373635 or by mailing fundraising@childvision.ie.


I'll add a little note on my own training, if you don't mind. My legs are clearly still recovering from Donadea, because even though Wednesday's workout had felt exceptionally easy, I still paid for it with rather heavy legs on Thursday. I savagely cut Friday's mileage in response and did a set of 5 hill sprints and a couple of strides in an attempt to sharpen them up for Sunday's race. I travel to Ballycotton more in hope than expectation, but I'm very much looking forward to the buzz that always surrounds the event all the same.

1 Mar
8 miles, 1:03:35, 7:57 pace, HR 135
2 Mar
4.5 miles, 38:09, 8:29 pace, HR 140
   hill sprints and strides

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