The reason why I am in Banbridge

This is why I have come home at this time - On June 7th or thereabouts, my little girl will become blessed with the arrival of her own little girl. Maisie is due to enter the world around then, and what self-respecting abuelo couldn't be home for this.

As for my legs, they are feeling the run from last night, and the back is still sore. I slept through until 10 this morning, but since then I have done a few jobs around the place, depsite the rain, and even managed to get myself a new pair of runner - my Asics Gel Nimbus 13's, with blue laces as well, but with a 20% reduction in price - Thank you! My treat to my running self.

A week passes, I switch countries, and take in a race when knackered!

Yep - That headline about sums up things. As you know, I was heading home to welcome the new arrival to the Mycroft family, due very soon (don't worry, she will be posted!). Since the last post and chorus (prize for the first person to comment as to the meaning!), I ran an interval session (painful), laid a trail for the Hash, had a few dinners, did a bit of Frinking, and on Tuesday morning I set off for home for the imminent arrival.

The journey from BsAs to Madrid was relatively uneventful - chatted with an English/Indian doctor, who has been touring Argentina for three months, had a spare seat next to me (Thankfully, as the leg room was a little tight), watched a couple fo films, The dilema (comedy - 5/10- Ok on an airplane, and The Way back (much better))... Only managed an hour or so sleep, which was a pain, but we arrived in Madrid an hour ahead of schedule - so no hiccups. Onward flight to Gatwick on time and comfy - wish I'd had those seats on the long haul. Then the problems hit, with a three hour delay, but eventually we got back to Dublin, and BOY WAS IT CHILLY! I mean, it's meant to be heading to summer here, it was grey, damp, & I was so glad I decided to take my warmer jacket with me.

Finally reached the house at 5.30 p.m., and after dropping the bags off, I quickly got changed into my running gear (Yes, I am mad......), and despite my eyelids closing, I went and lined up for the start of the Bann 10K - the race I screwed up last year, taking 61:40, albeit on a hilly course - I had some revenge to extract.

I was tired, and I have to confess to a niggling pain in my lower right back - hopefully this was due to the poor seating on the long haul flight, and despite the light drizzle, I was determined to run the course and get my own back.

I have already written a lot here, and you can tell by my split times, where the uphill parts were, so here they are, they speak for themselves - 5:13, 5:08, 5:26, 5:55, 5:19 (Halfway in 27:01) - 5:20, 5:46, 5:41 (8km in 41:48 - see last race), 5:05 and 5:30, for a final time of 54:23.... Very satisfied with the time, if not the overall race. I struggled on the hills, mainly because training in BsAs, it is difficult to find hills to work on, but clearly an area that requires extra work. But clearly significantly better than last year (same course), and probably worth 90 seconds on a flat course.

I'll reflect tomorrow as to how I feel, and what I am really doing home at this time of the year - So, pop by (both of you) and see what I have to say -

The gauntlet is thrown down....

You will recall I wrote, a couple of weeks ago, about my son, Liam Og, and his first exploit into the world of running races, having trained. As I wrote, I told him some time ago that when he was calling me an "auld fella", that when he could beat me in a race, he could crow. Well, I am heading home for a couple of weeks next Tuesday, and I've checked the diary, and the BHAA in Dublin have a 5m Race up in Dunboyne on May 31st, and it looks like we will both be lining up in the race - This should be fun.

Yesterday Liam Og posted a Tweet saying he was off to the park to do a Fartlek session, and had managed to set up an Athletics Club at his work. My daughter, more about her in my next post, responded on Facebook to her brother by saying "You are turning into dad!" - I think it was meant in a good way.

So, will age win out over experience? How fit is the younger Liam at this moment, and how fit is the "Auld one"? May 31st will be the first, of hopefully many, chances to judge.

I'm slipping up on my posts

This past week has flown by. A combination of lessons to be taught, and classes to be taken in Spanish, along with a birthday, a business meeting, and another night out Frinking, all left me away from my computer. But I am glad to say, it didn't leave me away from running, and I have continued to run over the last week, recovering easily from the race, and hopefully building on the improvements.

I won't record each run in the past week, but yesterdays was a good example of the progress being made. I decided on a lunchtime run, which is not the best time of day to be running locally, as the schools all turf out around this time, and the planned route seems to go past every school in the area, but I trundled out anyway. The run was along the main road out to the parque at Villa Dominico, a lap around the parque and then back home. The run is 7.3Km, pretty flat all the way, and one I have done before at various times of the day.

Despite the kids on the street, and the traffic around, I had an easy run, didn't feel I was pushing anything, just getting my run in. I wasn't clock watching, nor did I put in a spurt at the end, just took it steady, and when I hit the button on the stop-watch, I was surprised to see that I had run 50 seconds faster than ever on this route, which equates to a 6/7 seconds per Km improvement. Obviously this isn't going to get my an Olympic Qualifying time, but it continues to show that things are getting better.

Amazed myself

The alarm, woke me at 6:30 on a Sunday morning, and my memories switched back to the days when I raced 20 or 30 times a year, but this is 2011, and I'm 53, and to be fair, in recent years, I haven't raced that often, or anywhere near it. But today was the day that I had set as my first race of the year, and I was up and alert and jumping in the shower, with the expectations that a little child has at Christmas - yep, I have the BUG back - At long last....

The weather was divine, a perfect autumn morning, blue sky, crisp, and perfect for running. Races here are not much different to anywhere else, people mill around, we get our chips sorted, we stretch, we warm up - we wait....

The race set off at 9.30, temperature around 15 degrees, me and some 1600 others. The one difference here is that they give out the tech shirts when you sign up, and everyone wears the shirt for the race - Now I remember the advice that you never wear a new shirt for a race, always wear something you are used to running in, but here, that goes out the window, and I followed suit, so it was with my Puma Tech tee, along with the rest that we set off.

I wanted to break 45 minutes, which meant an even pace of around 5:35 per kilometre, as I felt I was in, or around that shape. At best maybe a 44 minute run with a 5:30 average was on the cards. The first Km was the same as so many, dodging the masses as we settled down, and I hit the first split at 5:32 - hey!, even at slow paces I am still good at this! I felt great, and well within the range, and then I hit a problem - I reached the 2 Km mark at 10:01 - clearly something wrong here as I had not picked up the pace at all - and this was soon confirmed at the 3 Km mark, as this one took 6 minutes, but I was running evenly and feeling great, obviously the markers were mis-aligned - thankfully in this case.

The course was flat, although a little head wind along this part of the course was troublesome, I was feeling great, running smoothly and evenly, and I just kept it going. I was easily under target times, without trying hard, no pushing, no strain, and I hit the half way point at 21:15, crap! I actually thought this was way too fast, but I wasn't struggling at all - why was everything going right?

I just kept going, running along, maintaining the pace, easing into each Kilometre mark, 5K at 26:25, over half way and well inside my target time. These few Kms were around a boring part of the Puerto Madero area, but I just kept going, still not feeling any problems, and before I knew it I was at the 7Km mark. A quick look at the watch, and I was under 37 minutes, and I knew that I could stroll home from here and be under 43 - NO WAY!!!!!

I kept the pace level, and then we turned onto the home straight, with around 600m to go, well - I never can resist a race wherever I am in the field, and no way is anyone going to get past me at the end of a race, so I picked up the pace - yep, it hurt! - and I picked off one after another, and kept going, each stride took me further up - I really don't know, but I think I must have passed around 40 runners in that last 400m, and I kicked again as we headed to the line, and crossed it, clicking my watch at 41:22 (confirmed by my chip time), WAY better than I thought I was capable of at present.

I ended up 568th out of 1615 finishers, 32nd out of 85 in my age group, and a very happy runner indeed. The training, and the weight loss, must have been working, and I can look forward to a few more races with greater confidence and belief in myself. To top it all off, after the race, I went and ran another 9k with the Hash to give me a fantastic workout for the day, which was supplemented with a few pints to celebrate - I think I deserved them today!

Picture - pre race.....

Runing Time Contrasts between Countries

I've done it, I went and paid my entry fee, have the Puma Tech Tee, my number, and on Sunday morning I will be lining up for my first race of the year, the 8Km UCEMA Maraton (as they insist on calling virtually every race here). Today I ran a leisurely 4 Km on the dreadmill, at an even pace, and as I reported before I would love to run around 45 mins on Sunday - we'll see.

As I was leaving the gym, I picked up the May edition of Argentinas only running magazine, Atletismo Argentino. It's a monthly mag, obviously created by someone with a passion for running, and reminds me of something similar that was around in the North West of England back in the 80's, with race results and reports, a long way from the glossy Fashion Mag that Runners World (in all it's guises) has become.

This month's magazine has the Rankings for the country for last year, and I was surprised to see how shallow the depth of running is here. Now, I have never professed to be an elite athlete, but when I was younger and running seriously, I churned out a few decent times (see table to your right), and was a reasonable Club Runner, winning a few prizes over the years with my club.

Take for example the Marathon. The Number one ranked athlete, Miguel Barzola, has a very respectable time of 2:15:00 to his name last year. But, the 10th ranked Marathoner in the Country, Federico Braum, was there with a time of 2:42:42. Again, I never got near this, but I know a fair few members of my present club back in Athenry would find this time comfortable. Before anyone says that running is a low-participation sport, or that Argentina is a impoverished country, the local races regularly have 6 or 7 thousand taking part, and the country has a population ten times that of Ireland. One of my students is the Sales Manager for Argentina for Nike, and Argentina, and Buenos Aires in particular, is the fastest growing country in South America for running, and has overtaken Brazil (a much bigger population) as the Country deemed Number One for Athletic marketing - So why the lack of depth.

And it's not just in the Marathon. A look at the fastest on the track last year, sees a 100m best of 10.48, 200m of 21.43, and no athlete broke 48 seconds for the 400m at all. I am not 100% certain, and I will do some research now, but I don't believe that a single Argentine Athlete has broke the 4 minute mile barrier - ever!

What are the reasons? Maybe because Football is Religion here, there is no room for athletics to develop - but then again Rugby, Basketball, Volleyball etc., are all sports in which the Argentine national Team win medals, and Tennis has produced some wonderful players from my adopted country. Maybe it's a lack of government money being pumped into the sport, with resources going elsewhere, and kids not getting the opportunity.

Just to confirm the lack of depth, I looked at the results from a recent 10K Race here, one that had 7,000 participants. Taking my PR for the 10K, ran when I was 30, of 36:22, I would have finished 23rd overall, out of 7,000 - I know that is somewhat like comparing apples with oranges, but at that time I regularly ran under 38 minutes
so I don't think it's an unfair comparison - and I can assure everyone, that I have never finished that high up in a race with 6,977 behind me... And out of the 22 who would have been ahead of me, two of those were Kenyans, and three others part of the Fila Sponsored Brazilian team - Makes me wish I had come here 20 years to race :)

And now the running bit.....

My running report is short, I missed a few runs due to the contents of the last ramble, but I managed 4K this morning on 21:59 on the treadmill, and have entered an 8Km race this Sunday in Constanera Sur, The UCEMA 8K, and hope to run under 45 minutes. My last 8Km race here, back in November, when I was very unfit and a fair bit heavier than today, took me 47:23, and I hope, damn, I SHOULD, be a lot quicker this time.

But the great news this week isn't about my running, but about my son's running. Now, I have to confess, Liam Og ran cross country at school, but didn't like it much, and as an adult he has only tun a couple of charity type races in the past, never really showing an inkling for the sport. As a computer geek, he has a sedentary job, and he certainly has put on weight over the last couple of years since he left University. Well, unbeknown to me, he had started running, and last weekend he took part in the ARC Mini-Marathon 10K race in Dublin's Phoenix Park, his first really serious race, where he had trained. And I am pleased, and proud, to report that he ran 56:14, finishing 264th out of 361 who finished the run.

I remember some years ago when we both ran the Dublin Port Tunnel 10K, where he finished ahead of me in a fun run, I said, wait till you beat me in a competitive race, then you can gloat - Well, I am guessing that the time for that is fast approaching, and I look forward to seeing him develop as a runner, and enjoying the sport that has given me a lot of fun over the years, I hope it gives him as much. Here's a picture of him competing, the first of many....

What a busy week !

When i missed a few days in posting last week, I apologised. Little did I know how busy I would be this past week, and how I hardly had 5 minutes to spare to think about posting, and even on some days, to think about running. So, I have to confess that not a huge amount of running has been completed in the past week, but there were reasons, not simply me being idle, and as I am only running for myself, and for the enjoyment of the sport at the moment, I will not lose sleep over it.

What kept me busy? I hear you ask - Yes, you !! The three of you who read my ramblings (thank you by the way). Well, my teaching career is really keeping my busy as I mentioned before, two new students this week, which not only means more class time, but more preparation time too. Friday night saw the last night of Frinking at one of our favourite bars here in San Telmo, as the small, intimate Irish Bar, Breoghan's, was closing it's doors for the last time, before opening a larger venue a couple of blocks away (launches tonight as I write), and a good night was had by all as we raised glasses to the old, and the new venture.

Saturday saw Leinster winning their Heineken Cup semi, followed by a birthday party to attend, and here in Argentina, that means a Parilla, and a late night, playing Trucco (I have no idea, some card game with strange cards that I had no clue about), and as a special treat for me, (not that it was my birthday), a nice bottle of Irish Whiskey was uncovered, opened, and consummed. We got home at 5 am on Sunday morning, so any thoughts of running the 10K race taking place that morning had well faded, and instead I watched Liverpool win against Newcastle, before completing my day by heading to the wonderful Feria del Libro, the largest, by a mile, International book fair in the Spanish Language, and after talking to a writer friend, probably the largest in any language worldwide.

My invitation to the Feria came from my writer friend, Donigan Merritt, who was reading from his latest book, The Last Island, which is only available in the new format of e-books to download, available from Amazon, and a delightful read it is too (pluggng here for my friend), and only €2.99 as well - The whole place is amazing, a vast range of book stands, authors, entertainment, and naturally, books!

Mondays are exceptionally busy days for me, with classes from 7.30 am until 9 at night, with no time to train, so this will have to be a rest day. And so the days went on.... It's Wednesday afternoon as I type, and hardly a mention of running. I have done a little, but I'll make another post about that as there is something great to write about, but I'll save that for the next post...