2006 Revisted and 2007 To Come

Reflecting on 2006, it was a year of two halves, with early promise turning into late decline. Whilst I can make some reasonable excuses for some of what set me back in the fall, most of my troubles were down to laziness and a poor attitude. Whilst the spirit may have been willing at times, and I can talk a good race plan and training regime, I'm afraid I need to be more disciplined in 2007 if I am to reach my goals.

2006 What went Right
The year started well with the Raheny 5(miles) completed in 36 minutes in January, followed by a 75:50 10 miler in Ballycotton. Then came Connemara and the Marathon, ran on a cold, wet day, and completed in 4 hours and 20 minutes, the first leg of what I had hoped to be a grand slam of the Irish Marathons. Sadly that was stopped before any further progress when I had to drop out of the Belfast Marathon after 6 miles - Oh well - Maybe the sign of things to come. The Prague Marathon followed in May and a much improved 4:07:57 was recorded and things looked good for the summer.

2006 What went Wrong
Hard to pin down really. I came back from Prague feeling confident of getting under 4 hours in my next marathon, but somewhere along the line my dedication seemed to wane. Looking back at my diary, the training in June was infrequent, with only 37 miles for the whole month. July was little different, and a vacation to the US in August really was the nail in the coffin.

OK, when I came back from the US I had a new job offer, and so I was busy closing my old job, and then starting my new one. At the same time I went through a relationship breakdown, and then moved into a new apartment - Added to all that my mum took seriously ill and everything seemed to happen at the same time. My year ended with an extremely heavy cold, lethargy and xmas parties, and no running.

2007 - Here I Come
I'm over the colds, settled in the new job, love the new apartment, and am back in a relationship, so I have no more excuses. Mum is still in hospital, but I am able to deal with that, and so I am ready to give my running the priority it deserves if I am to achieve what I hope for.

My over-riding aim is to qualify for Boston for 2008. In order to achieve this I need to run 3:35:59 this year, so everything will be geared to that end. I'll start with the Raheny race at the end of this month again, then onto Ballycotton again in March, and the Connemara Marathon on April 1st. Next step will be the inaugral Cork Marathon on June 4th, and then I will build on these races with summer training with the aim for the Philadelphia Marathon in November as my attempt to run the qualifying time for Boston.

There will be highs and lows along the way I'm sure. Hopefully I can write more fluently on here and help myself keep my motivation. At the moment I am sitting at 195 lbs, and need to get below 180 to be running-fit, so a lot of work, but with help and support, I will be lining up in Hopkinton in April 2008, and hope to meet a lot of my fellow bloggers in New England next April.