I’ve been back in Ireland for about 4 months and I’ve been trying to get fit and in shape for about 2 and a half of those. I’ve been playing ball and gyming it up as much as I can. On my week off I ran (12km) quite a few times too.

I read last week that Derek Featherstone (and his wife) has set himself the goal of competing in an Iron Man competition. Needless to say I was very impressed. I was also somewhat inspired and figured I too need a goal instead of simply “getting fit”. So I did a quick Google search on “dublin marathon” and was presented with the adidasdublinmarathon.ie site , hmm end of October – that’s a bit soon. However there was a 10 mile race this weekend as training for those attempting to do the main event. So I arrived up on Saturday morning in Phoenix park (after hiding away on Friday night) and did it.

My race number was 1967. My official time was 1 hour 16 minutes and 50 seconds. I was 487th overall (the winner’s time was 50 minutes and 35 seconds (wow!) and from what I can find out there was over 2000 runners). I am very pleased as it’s the longest run I have ever done and I was able to keep and beat my planned pace. One problem though was the whole nipple situation, I didn’t know that distances like that tear the bejaysus out of your nipples if you don’t take precautions – I didn’t and it’s painful. I’ll know for next time.

I won’t be doing the main marathon as two months is not enough time to train but maybe next year.