People often rightly find wonder in the dedication of those who take on the marathon challenge. Training day by day, week after week, in preparation for the task of running twenty six miles, three hundred and eighty five yards when the big day comes. It surely is a big undertaking but one that people only ever really get involved in if they want to.
We run, because we can - not because we have to.
Others less fortunate, have little in terms of decision about the greatest challenge they must face in life. Sadly, cancer is something that nearly everyone of us has an unwanted connection with and our family is no different. Watching our loved one (and my father-in-law) Philip John Collins, dealing with the everyday battle of a disease that eventually took his life in July of this year has helped put a lot of things in perspective.
He, like so many of the other courageous cancer fighters, took on treatment, exercise, rest, nutrition and more because his very life depended on it. If he adhered to what the medical specialists advised then he might have a greater chance of living longer and maybe even overcoming a challenge that he probably never imagined having to deal with so soon after his fiftieth birthday.
The mental and physical struggle that Phil and others go through to try and stay alive is not something that I can truly understand but from a distance, and only through observation, I know that fight is something that goes far beyond what I will ever face when preparing for a marathon. It is this thought that has occupied my mind a lot in the recent weeks of training for next months Amsterdam Marathon.
Wherever the road has taken me, whatever the situation with the quality of my training or the condition of my body, I am just most grateful for the chance to run. To do something that maybe one day, sooner or later, I won’t be able to do anymore. Keeping the body and mind in tune while enjoying the beautiful world around us feels to me like the best thing I can do to make each day as fulfilled as the last. Always chasing the miles but in many ways, chasing life as well. Running everyday like it might be the last.
Last weekends performance at the Boston Scientific Clonmel AC half-marathon (81.30) suggests that we are not too far away from top form but as Coach Emmett of perfectpacing.com rightly reminds me, we have to move up another gear if we are to find improvement on my current PB of 2.57.36 which I ran in Amsterdam back in October 2015. Regardless of your own knowledge or experience, having a good coach to point you in the right direction is key if your are focused on improving. Knowing when to hold back a little and knowing when to push on is always easier with a second set of eyes looking in on all the facts and figures.
Training and recovering in a low stress environment (yes, our two children stayed at home!) is usually reserved only for elite athletes but it certainly has benefits for all levels of sportspeople. Parenting, personal relationships, career commitments and much more are often over-looked stresses that the recreational athlete must juggle along with their training load. This is why the champions, in my eyes at least, are all around us. Taking on the challenge of life while also pushing themselves to be better in every sense. It’s also the grounds on which I will be asking my good wife for a week in The Algarve every year here after!
On returning to Ireland, the week ahead will see a slight increase in training load (as well as external stress!). Next Saturday evening presents the final suitable opportunity to toe the start line ahead of the marathon and I’m looking forward to again taking part in the John Buckley Sports 10miler organised by St. Finbarr’s Athletic Club. Following another week of post race recovery work, we then begin the final stages of preparation. The midweek sessions begin to crank up a notch in terms of intensity and volume, the weekend long runs get another few quality miles thrown on for good measure and the rubber in the training shoes starts to wear thin. We're heading for boiling point.
You look forward to this work in anticipation and maybe sometimes a little uncertainty and then when the moment arrives, you realise….
We run, because we can - not because we have to.
I will run the 43rd edition of the Amsterdam Marathon on October 21st while raising funds for two very deserving charities. All donations will be very gratefully received by using the links below.
MERCY HOSPITAL (CORK)
NORTH LONDON HOSPICE (FINCHLEY)
