Since last blog i was lucky enought to take part in helping support my good friend Eamonn Sheehan doing his part for Autism.
212 in 2012 –
My good friend Eamonn Sheehan was doing a Autism Charity
event earlier on the 2nd weekend of September. This involved a 106
mile cycle then 106 mile run. I had intended to go up to support Eamonn on the
run part towards the end however when I found out when checking my facebook
just after midnight the Friday night that he was running straight from the bike
and not having any sleep and at one stage he was a bit low on support crew
during the night stage I decided to head up earlier than planned. That night I had
decided to head up was quite funny. When I look back now I at one stage was
settling into bed one moment, then a half hour later was knocking some coffee
in me and a banana sandwich and getting dressed into running gear with a plan
to do some serious pacing – something I have never done before. I knew that
Eamonn was an awesome runner but I thought my main job was to just to keep the
big lad from falling asleep whilst doing 4 back to back marathons in a row.
As for me, I knew I could prob do 10 miles ok, but I wasn’t sure
that I could run anymore. I was afraid of letting Eamonn down and leaving him
without a running partner by about 4 or 5am in the morning when I thought I would
get knackered. I decided on route to Dungannon to just see how I got on and do
what I could and that that would be better than nothing.
I arrived just after 1.00 am and by about 1.30 am I joined
Eamonn and Jon. Eamonn’s good friend of his Jon had already been running with him
for a long time. The guys had a small headtorch with them and I offered my
strong bike cateye torch which has a strong beam which we took turns running
with. We later joked about how the light was bouncing around like a disco as we
ran in the dark.
The banter was great and although I had never met Jon before
and only knew Eamonn from a few chats we had at recent triathlon events, the
three of us got on as if we knew each other for yrs. Jon has a good deal of
triathlon experience and has already achieved his ‘ironman’ status in Germany
and was able to give me some sound advice from what he has learned over the
years.
Every lap or so we went into the motor home (borrowed by
Deca Keith Clarke) fuelled up and ticked off the mileage on the scorechart
whilst trying not to let the midges eat us alive.
Poor Eamonn was later on finding it pretty tough especially
on the knees, yet he fought through the pain and kept going. Don’t know how he
did it. Amazing.
The hours past, the ducks and birds began to wake up and
bring a bit a noise to the eerie silence we were experiencing, then the beauty
of the sunrise came and a gentle warmth was a welcome after the long hours of
darkness. By this stage Eamonn was entering his final marathon run and it was
nice to start clicking off those final 26 miles.
I noticed Eamonn didn’t have any specific
nutrition/hydration plan or walk/run strategy set in a plan. Eamonn said he
just goes on how he feels. I hope the big lad didn’t get too upset at me
bullying him with the odd ‘Eamonn, you need to eat/drink something’ and ‘right,
we have rested too long, let’s go for a wee run’. At one stage I thought he
looked pretty tired so I got him to take a power nap for half hr which I thought
he needed after being up without sleep for so long.
I felt terrible for waking
him up but later when the Deca lads Keith & Bob turned up they said power
naps are useful so I didn’t feel so bad.
In the early morning Eamonn’s whole family turned up, it was
great. Each lap we came around you could see all the kids playing and laughing
and Eamonn’s wife dishing out the best chocolate cookies; yummy. His mum gave
regular updates on who was coming and going and helped a great deal in overseeing
the managing of fundraising to help Eamonn.
Mid-morning Jon had just completed over 50k and decided that
was enough for him. Well done for Jon as he had been there long before me. At this
stage Keith and Bob the Tri Limits lads had turned up to pace Eamonn until the
end. We slagged the lads off for not running with us as they were on bikes, but
to be honest we can’t really call them lazy after just completing 10 ironmans
in a row recently.
Towards the last 10 mile or so Eamonn started to get quicker
and quicker. He was also his usual happy self which is no feat after coming
through all he had already done. He still found time to chat and be friendly to
everyone. A real decent down to earth guy.
Eamonn continued his good pace and
finished just after 3pm. It was an emotional time for everyone and something
that I was privileged to be allowed to take part in my own little way.
Shortly after
finishing I had to make a quick departure as I had to be back to look after the
wee rascal Aimee as Caroline (my beautiful wife) was heading out with her
friends at 5pm. But from last I heard from Eamonn after he finished he was
heading out into Dungannon town to do some bucket collections; what a top
fella!
You can find out more about the event at - https://www.facebook.com/212in2012
As for other stuff I have been up to I have increased my
frequency of running but only doing about 4 or 6 mile at a time with the weekly
10 miler if I can.
I would have liked to be out on the bike a bit more but I haven’t been
out that much. My last bike ride was fun getting kinda lost in the castlereagh
/ drumbo hills. I was using a new iphone app ‘Strava’ which is similar to
mapmyfitness however it is more bike specific giving more technical specific
details (http://itunes.apple.com/app/strava-cycling/id426826309?mt=8). Came across what I thought to be my steepest hill to date on the bike
and thankfully I was going downhill ‘pinehill descent’ 0.7 miles of 6.6%
gradient. Very steep and a bit scary trying not to press too hard on the brakes
going down. Later found out I did a 3min.21sec time for it and the fastest
person on the Strava chart did it in 1.24 time. Holy moses, how did they not
fall ! I was ranked 18th out of 18 people on the ride chart. I have
to try going back to that hill and I wouldn’t mind trying it uphill however I think
that I would not be able to stay clipped on the bike without having to walk
someway up the hill.
As for planned future events I have only made plans so far,
next year I have signed up for some event in Bolton at the start of August
2013. Can you guess what it is? giv u a clue – IMUK J
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