Pavement Pounding

I love Running!

There I said it. I love running. The same way that some people love Grey’s Anatomy, or Tayto sandwiches, I love running. However, there are days that I want to break up with running, but they are few and far between.

My dad has run 6 marathons and is my inspiration. I wasn’t really into running as a child , but every year, I remember sitting in front of the TV on a Sunday morning in Spring watching the London City Marathon and loving the feeling of excitement and awe that I had watching the runners cry, laugh, shout and everything in between as they completed the 26.2 gruelling miles. I always wanted to be the person who was on BBC2 running up the Mall, by Buckingham Palace and finishing in the gorgeous sunshine. (I also really wanted to run by the Cutty Sark but the fire put paid to that!)

My pop ran London in 1984 and I remember mum, my little brother and I travelling over to support him.

I started running when I was about 24 and have slowly and carefully committed to a long term relationship with running and races. I mean you don’t want to rush into anything right?

When I was about 28 I started to think that I would like to maybe run a marathon by the time I was 30. In October 2008 I ran the Dublin Marathon in a time of 5 hours, 28 minutes and some change.

And I was hooked.

Since that, running and I broke up for a while. Then, I realised that my life was just not complete without it and we made a decision to spend the rest of our lives together.

I have run 2 other marathons bringing my grand total marathons to 3.

London Marathon – April 2010 – 5 hours, 27 minutes and change. I achieved my ambition of being that runner passing Buckingham Palace and running up the Mall to finish in the glorious London sunshine. And when the Cutty Sark is finished and restored, I might just have to go back and run by it!

Dublin Marathon – October 2010 – 4 hours, 50 minutes and 2 seconds.

In 2010 I ran a number of other races

Adidas Race Series 5 Mile – July 2010 – 46;31

Adidas Race Series 10 Mile - August 2010 – 1;42;20

Adidas Race Series Half Marathon – September 2010 -2;10;46

I may have said after the last one that I was done with running marathons, but realistically, I have challenged myself. I want to see what my best time is. I want to see whether I can beat my last best time each race.

Running is the best legal high I can get. It makes me forget about worries. It clears my head and makes my body feel strong.

There is nothing better than getting up on a Saturday morning – before the rest of the world – and heading out for a long run.

It can be really hard. There are times that I don’t want to get off the couch. There are times that putting on my runners is the last thing that I want to do. But once I come back from a few miles, I will never ever regret going out.

Plus, it makes my jeans fit! And that can’t be bad!