Well since a lot of people are doing it and blogging seems to be the new form of writing. i decided to put my experiences from running down on the Internet for anyone to read!!!

I ran for leevale a long time ago but gave up as everyone was so much better than me, i decided Golf was better and more interesting. I wasn't a bad runner, i just wasn't in the same league as the others , especially my brother who was one of the best in the country and made it look easy, while i was always finishing well down the leader board. For 5 mile races, James would be sub 25 minutes, while i would be 30 minutes plus. I never ran any distances higher. I was fit, did the same training as everyone else, enjoyed the crack, but when it came to races, i just wasn't in the same league. Especially on the track or cross country where it i failed miserably. Although one success I had was winning the 1500 metres, in my final year in CBC, Cork.
So i gave it up and played golf. then as the years went on, I always watched the Dublin marathon with a keen interest of doing it. Would start running again and then give up, because it required commitment and i wasn't giving.
I married Emer Bergin and have 3 boys, Declan, Colm and Brendan and a dog  named Daisy and that took up most of my time.
Cathal Daly started it all of and he got everyone else running and then he pestered me for a long while(and rightly so!) and eventually i gave in, and decided that i would like to run a marathon before i turned 40! which unfortuately didn't happen
It was my answer to the mid life crisis , as i don't have the money for a fancy sports car, however running seemed like the obviouse substitute. and i thought it would be cheaper.
So off i went bought an expensive pair of shoes and the correct clothes for running, and started off slowly and gradually built up my mileage and was feeling great. At the start it was tough but i stuck with it and ran my first race in Clonikilty in December 2011,  i did it in under 45 minutes and came 49th, not too bad for a first race. After that everything went south!

I built up my mileage to 10 miles fairly soon after and ran 10 miles  in 72 minutes and felt i could have gone on for another few miles. The following week i went for a 12 mile run and with a few miles to go, my calf muscle went. This was the start of the injuries and it was just one injury after another and became a long list of injuries and periods of rest from running. I struggled with the IT band on my left leg, and ran the cork half marathon in 2012 in 1:37, and this was with a couple of stops due to a pain in my leg. This resulted in me being out of running for a longer period of time. I went to a few physios and eventually one physio suggested i wear an IT ban around both legs which i though was daft, but i though well at least it will get me running again.

Thanks to Cathal Daly who did a marathon plan for me which i kept  as close as possible to. My mileage went up correctly and all my running seemed to be going in the right direction. However all the running seemed to done in cold, wet and windy conditions, so i had no opportunity of running in hot conditions for any lenght of time.
That's me until the the marathon!