The red car in front of us was so slow that you could be mistaken for thinking that it was about to pull over, but no such luck. For the last fifteen miles the driver had been driving like a little old lady, in fact he was a man in his thirties wearing sunglasses which he would raise now and then to get a better look at a hill or rock as he drove along like Mr Magoo. This would be frustrating at the best of times; unfortunately I was already running several hours late.
It is Sunday and I had woken up to the light of the sun coming through the shutters after a lovely night’s deep sleep, I reached for my watch and sat up in shock. 1130am! I was supposed to start running before 10am and I was only just awake. Quickly I dressed and got ready and Fi and I got out of the house into the car and on the road, I had planned my route the day before, I was going to run the Military road Marathon, 26.2 miles over the Wicklow Mountains from the village of Laragh to Rathfarnham in Dublin. Eventually the clown in the car in front pulled off the road and we speed on to Laragh.
On arriving at Laragh I leant over, kissed Fi and jumped out as she wished me good luck and bid me to take care. I powered up my wrist worn GPS, threw on my backpack and started away up the hill down which we had just driven, after a few minutes Fi drove past me and in to the distance, and then she was gone.
I quickly settled into the pace and ground on up the hill, to my left was a waterfall, as I passed the summit I picked up the pace. It had taken me almost an hour to do the six miles to the top of the first hill. People ask me ‘what time did you do your last marathon in?’ Running a fast time is not the point of why I’m running, running a 3:24 marathon is no use in Namibia where I have to
run 128 Km in 46 degrees of heat, I need to train to be on my feet for 24 hours continuously. When running I am working on my heart rate, keeping it between 135 and 144 BPM that’s between 75-80% of my cardiac capacity, around 135BPM my body is burning fat, with very low carbohydrates in my diet I am forcing my body to used my stored energy (fat) as fuel. This meant that this morning all I had to help fuel my run was one Jordan’s cereal bar and a banana. It was working though; this morning when I weighed myself I weighed 14.12 stone.
As I ran on over hill after hill towards Sally Gap I noticed the sky behind me begin to darken with thick dark grey clouds. It wasn’t long before the rain started, the wind gusting in from my left driving the cold rain cutting into the side of my face and making it difficult to run in a straight line. I took off my sunnies and kept running. As the miles past and I got to around mile 15 the sun slowly disappeared behind a mountain and darkness fell, pulling strange shapes from normal object in shadows long and irregular and the temperature rapidly dropped further.
I ran on and cars pass me, their occupants giving me either strange looks or friendly smiles and waves. A black BMW 3 series past me four times throughout the afternoon and on the final pass it stopped ahead of me beeped its horn and the occupants waved and cheered out of the rear window before it drove off. After a while a line of cars approached me slowly from behind, the lead car slows and the driver unwinds his window. The well spoken elderly man
leans out and asks ‘Would you like a lift?’ A look of real concern upon his face, I was touched and thank him but say I’m fine. He looked up at the freezing rain falling from the sky and asked if I was sure. When I reassured him he told me that I was ‘well seen’ and I thank him before he drives away. It had been a real concern that at night I would not be seen by a driver on the twisty turning roads and would be found in a ditch the next morning either dead from a fast moving car or hypothermia following an accident. With his assurance that I was ‘Well seen’ I carried on feeling slightly more confident. The light keeps fading into pitch blackness until all that I can see in the sky is the constellation the plough at the end of which the north star shining, pointing the way to home. On the ground I could just about make out the white line in the middle of the road next to me, I run close to it as I can’t see the edge of the road or in which direction it turned. Another reason is to alleviate the stress on my legs from running on a camber at the side of the road. When cars come I can see them from miles away when on top of the route, but as the road began to descend in to woods it is a little unnerving as cars approaching suddenly tear around the bends in front of me, sometimes with little warning. 
Running through the pitch black pine woods the wind rushes through the trees making them roar so loudly that it sounds like a waterfall or river in flood. It takes me back to the Dublin city marathon, towards the end of the route where people lined the roads cheering and shouting encouragement it feels as if the trees themselves are cheering me onwards, the wind on my back pushing me forwards with its gentle encouragement and I feel my spirits soar as my legs find a renewed strength.
The sound of my back pack as it slides over my running jacket is a gentle rhythmic rustling and I spend a couple of miles trying to work out if it sounds more like sand or salt in a container slipping from side to side. I think of all the times in all the countries where I have looked up at the plough and it feels like an old friend to me.
I have to get used to running at night on my own in remote areas as I will most likely be running on my own at night across the desert. I spent around three hours running across the mountains in the pitch dark, through the woods and twisting lanes back to Rathfarnham. It was good practise, I learnt that focusing on my breathing works well, and so does singing which I did for a while.
Some Do’s and Don’t when running through the night,
Do watch out for cars, Do watch out for pot holes, Do wear reflective clothing (a light would also be a good idea)
And now some Don’ts; when running through the woods at night do not think about every Werewolf movie you have ever seen; this is not a good time to do mental review of ‘Dog Soldiers’ in your head. Don’t let your imagination wonder if the echo of your foot fall is actually the footfall of a person running behind you. However, if you do you’ll find that your pace will be much faster for a couple of miles.
I really enjoyed my 26.2 miles; I finished it very cold but happy and feeling strong. It takes a lot out of you running on empty, when I weighed myself that night I weighed 14.8 stones but had lost 1% of my body fat, some of the weight will be water but not all. My progress continues.
It is Sunday and I had woken up to the light of the sun coming through the shutters after a lovely night’s deep sleep, I reached for my watch and sat up in shock. 1130am! I was supposed to start running before 10am and I was only just awake. Quickly I dressed and got ready and Fi and I got out of the house into the car and on the road, I had planned my route the day before, I was going to run the Military road Marathon, 26.2 miles over the Wicklow Mountains from the village of Laragh to Rathfarnham in Dublin. Eventually the clown in the car in front pulled off the road and we speed on to Laragh.
On arriving at Laragh I leant over, kissed Fi and jumped out as she wished me good luck and bid me to take care. I powered up my wrist worn GPS, threw on my backpack and started away up the hill down which we had just driven, after a few minutes Fi drove past me and in to the distance, and then she was gone.
I quickly settled into the pace and ground on up the hill, to my left was a waterfall, as I passed the summit I picked up the pace. It had taken me almost an hour to do the six miles to the top of the first hill. People ask me ‘what time did you do your last marathon in?’ Running a fast time is not the point of why I’m running, running a 3:24 marathon is no use in Namibia where I have to
run 128 Km in 46 degrees of heat, I need to train to be on my feet for 24 hours continuously. When running I am working on my heart rate, keeping it between 135 and 144 BPM that’s between 75-80% of my cardiac capacity, around 135BPM my body is burning fat, with very low carbohydrates in my diet I am forcing my body to used my stored energy (fat) as fuel. This meant that this morning all I had to help fuel my run was one Jordan’s cereal bar and a banana. It was working though; this morning when I weighed myself I weighed 14.12 stone.As I ran on over hill after hill towards Sally Gap I noticed the sky behind me begin to darken with thick dark grey clouds. It wasn’t long before the rain started, the wind gusting in from my left driving the cold rain cutting into the side of my face and making it difficult to run in a straight line. I took off my sunnies and kept running. As the miles past and I got to around mile 15 the sun slowly disappeared behind a mountain and darkness fell, pulling strange shapes from normal object in shadows long and irregular and the temperature rapidly dropped further.
I ran on and cars pass me, their occupants giving me either strange looks or friendly smiles and waves. A black BMW 3 series past me four times throughout the afternoon and on the final pass it stopped ahead of me beeped its horn and the occupants waved and cheered out of the rear window before it drove off. After a while a line of cars approached me slowly from behind, the lead car slows and the driver unwinds his window. The well spoken elderly man
leans out and asks ‘Would you like a lift?’ A look of real concern upon his face, I was touched and thank him but say I’m fine. He looked up at the freezing rain falling from the sky and asked if I was sure. When I reassured him he told me that I was ‘well seen’ and I thank him before he drives away. It had been a real concern that at night I would not be seen by a driver on the twisty turning roads and would be found in a ditch the next morning either dead from a fast moving car or hypothermia following an accident. With his assurance that I was ‘Well seen’ I carried on feeling slightly more confident. The light keeps fading into pitch blackness until all that I can see in the sky is the constellation the plough at the end of which the north star shining, pointing the way to home. On the ground I could just about make out the white line in the middle of the road next to me, I run close to it as I can’t see the edge of the road or in which direction it turned. Another reason is to alleviate the stress on my legs from running on a camber at the side of the road. When cars come I can see them from miles away when on top of the route, but as the road began to descend in to woods it is a little unnerving as cars approaching suddenly tear around the bends in front of me, sometimes with little warning. 
Running through the pitch black pine woods the wind rushes through the trees making them roar so loudly that it sounds like a waterfall or river in flood. It takes me back to the Dublin city marathon, towards the end of the route where people lined the roads cheering and shouting encouragement it feels as if the trees themselves are cheering me onwards, the wind on my back pushing me forwards with its gentle encouragement and I feel my spirits soar as my legs find a renewed strength.
The sound of my back pack as it slides over my running jacket is a gentle rhythmic rustling and I spend a couple of miles trying to work out if it sounds more like sand or salt in a container slipping from side to side. I think of all the times in all the countries where I have looked up at the plough and it feels like an old friend to me.
I have to get used to running at night on my own in remote areas as I will most likely be running on my own at night across the desert. I spent around three hours running across the mountains in the pitch dark, through the woods and twisting lanes back to Rathfarnham. It was good practise, I learnt that focusing on my breathing works well, and so does singing which I did for a while.
Some Do’s and Don’t when running through the night,
Do watch out for cars, Do watch out for pot holes, Do wear reflective clothing (a light would also be a good idea)
And now some Don’ts; when running through the woods at night do not think about every Werewolf movie you have ever seen; this is not a good time to do mental review of ‘Dog Soldiers’ in your head. Don’t let your imagination wonder if the echo of your foot fall is actually the footfall of a person running behind you. However, if you do you’ll find that your pace will be much faster for a couple of miles.
I really enjoyed my 26.2 miles; I finished it very cold but happy and feeling strong. It takes a lot out of you running on empty, when I weighed myself that night I weighed 14.8 stones but had lost 1% of my body fat, some of the weight will be water but not all. My progress continues.
