This year, Eugene will be taking on the Dublin City Marathon in aid of OvaCare, a fantastic charity that provides support, advocacy, education, and research for those affected by ovarian cancer in Ireland.
To support this wonderful cause, we’re hosting a Breakfast Charity
Morning at our home on 17th October. We’d love for you to drop in for a cup of
tea or coffee and some tasty treats. Call in after your run, or simply pop by
whenever suits.
If you’re unable to make it, we would greatly appreciate a donation to
this worthy charity, which is making a real difference in the lives of those
affected by ovarian cancer.
Thank you for your support. 
Well Worth Reading
A SOMEWHAT UNORTHODOX MARATHON APPROACH…
By John Walshe
There’s an old saying – probably considered politically incorrect nowadays – that goes “there’s more than one way to skin a cat” which the dictionary defines as a proverb used to convey that there are many ways to accomplish the same task.
Preparing for a marathon would probably come under that description, as the following story relates. It was prompted by the various discussions that now dominate the blogs and podcasts as the October Weekend draws near. Topics such as long runs, pace runs, tempo runs and tapering are all dissected and advice given.
This writer’s training block for the Dublin Marathon usually didn’t commence until the last Sunday in August. That left just seven or eight weeks to prepare, not counting the final week. But for the year in question here – 1987 - a 10-week period was used.
Over those 10 weeks the mileage averaged exactly 60 miles a week, the lowest week being 51 and the highest 66. This was achieved on six days a week, with one day off, usually Saturday. On two or three mornings a three-mile run was fitted in which helped to bump up the total.
The 10 weeks included five 20 mile runs, rather a lot as they were never really something to look forward to. Apart from these, the longest single run would have been 10/11 miles, all steady running with no emphasis on time.
But probably the most unusual element is that during those 10 weeks I ran a total of 22 races. These ranged in distance from two miles to a half-marathon and included four 10-milers, all around the 56/57 minute mark.
There was just one cross-country race, a rather significant one as I was pleased to be the first scorer (in seventh place) on the East Cork team who won the County Novice for the first time.
That 10-week period concluded the week before the marathon, which then took place on Bank Holiday Monday. Eight days before, two more races were added, an East Cork league race in the morning and the Rehab 10km in Cork city that afternoon. The rest of the week was a case of ticking over with three miles on Monday and just two miles each evening up to Friday with Saturday off.
As mentioned earlier, East Cork had already won the novice title and now hoped to add the County Intermediate C-C. This took place at Dunmanway on the day before the marathon. Although on this occasion we had to settle for second team, I was happy to finish ninth over a fairly tough 10km course.
After driving back to Cork, I got the evening train to Dublin where a friend had collected my race number. The following morning there was a little stiffness when starting off but in a way this was a good thing as it meant one didn’t get too carried away. I don’t recall too much of the race, only that I crossed the line in 2:41:37 for 80th position out of the 3,800 finishers.
The question that would invariably be asked is ‘would you have run faster if you didn’t have a race the day before?’ I don’t think so as the following year, with a no race on Sunday, I was only 57 seconds quicker when recording 2:40:40.
This is certainly not written in any self-congratulatory way or how things were done back in the day. But just to show, as stated at the outset, that there are ‘different strokes for different folks’.
"Each one of us is an experiment-of-one" was a famous quote associated with the
great American writer and philosopher, Dr George Sheehan. By all means, analyse
the advice freely available, think it through and take on board what suits you.
But also remember that ‘listening to the science’ may not always be the only option to consider.
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