Aisling's Blog Page

What's been happening.....

2008-10-10T20:25:00.005Z

Lots has happened since I wrote that last post. Lots and lots.

I did the ironman. I loved every minute. It proved to me I was born to run (and not necessarily swim or cycle!!). Just kiddin' really..... I enjoyed the swim but wasn't too happy on the bike. But the run...wow....loved every bloody minute. I'm delighted at being able to run a 3:30 (apparently hilly) marathon at the end of an ironman. I'll be forever proud of that alone....I blogged about it over at Team Geared Up so I won't go into it here.

Trouble was, tend days later I felt unwell. Two days after that, when the pain became severe, I saw my doctor. Three days after that I collpased in A&E and was hospitalised. They initially thought it was meninigitis so lots of alarm bells ringing then but they kept saying there was other symptoms not matching the meningitis diagnosis. Anyway things got worse in hospital. They did a lumbar puncture and said I had meningitis, so I was isolated and people wore masks etc. if they came into my room. After a LOT more tests they said I had contracted leptospirosis from the ironman swim and that I also had pneumonia too. They did one of those camera-down-the-throat tests which I was more scared of than the lumbar puncture!! Anyway 2 weeks and 3 life threatening illnesses later, I was eventually allowed go home (that was a week ago). Happy days, hospital was killing me....I have no energy and can't quite run yet but it gets better by the day.
The whole thing has shaken me a bit. You don't imagine something is going to happen in any given day that will stop you in your tracks. What started as a bad headache and developed into the worst pain I've ever felt, could've ended differently. :-)

I started a new job today, well it was a training day. It's in retail and the store opens for real on Monday. It's a whole new direction for me.....I've only ever worked in Architectural/ Construction jobs so all is new (and considerably less well paid)!! But it's a new start and I'm really positive about the whole experience. I'm learning lots of new stuff....

Mountain Running....

2008-06-25T08:38:00.004Z

I'm off to Switzerland tomorrow for the European Masters Mountain Running Champs. I have 4 million things to do today which include a 2 hour spin on the bike (did an hour and half swimming already today!!) so I better get going. I'm almost afraid to go out on the bike today, it's so windy....

In two weeks it'll be the same again as I'm off to Germany for the European Mountain Running Champs. At least it's not Switzerland again....less temptation to buy chocolate....I reckon....

Getting Through It

2008-06-13T13:31:00.004Z

Well I got through the Aquathon. It was far from pretty and it was far from fast. It was quite stressful and before the start I just wanted to run away with fear and cry. I wrote an account over at Team Geared Up. If I didn't have a coach I'd have pulled out of this Ironman thing by now! It's so scary and hard.

Meanwhile Tony is in China doing the Gobi march. He's on Day 6 now which is a rest day after a gruelling 80 kilometre stage yesterday. Tomorrow is just a final dash of 10k and hopefully he'll be able to ring me as soon as he's finished. Although we've been able to email competitors they obviously can't communicate with us. The team has an excellent blog here.

Tony's doing fine and I'm just hoping he's enjoying it. It would be like him to enjoy it the tougher it got. Tony wouldn't feel like he'd participated in anything serious unless it was savage hard!

Aquathon

2008-06-10T18:39:00.004Z

The swimming continues. For my endurance swims I'm up to 750m. So I had my first sea swim today and was surprised at how it went. I didn't seem to mind the cold, though today wasn't particularly cold so that probably explains that. Swallowing sea water was a pain in the arse though. What was going wrong was the fact that I kept panicing, for reasons unknown to me, and stopping and standing up. I have no idea why. I couldn't swim further than a few metres without stopping. Other annoying things include my goggles letting in water the whole time. God only knows what's gonna happen at tomorrow night's Aquathon I've entered but I'm hoping that in a situation where I HAVE to swim that I'll just get on with it. Here's hoping I can complete the 750m. Otherwise I'll be gutted.
On the positive side apparently I was swimming in a straight line and that's good.

Training goes on and on and on....

2008-05-30T16:44:00.005Z

Well I achieved my first goal of swimming 400 metres in a month last Friday. All thanks to Peter from PB Coaching. Swimming every day has been tiring, mostly because it involves getting up at 6am but I can always go to bed early to make up for it, which is exactly what I've been doing since acquiring a cold. :-(
The only reason I'm able to train for this ironman is simply because I've given up work. I don't know how someone could train this hard and hold down a job. I know fostering kids is a job too, and a stressful one recently at that, but I still have time now that they're at school to get training done. My day is usually like this; swim at 6am, return home by 8am, kids to school at 9am and then either cycling or running till they get home. Blogging, shopping, cooking, racing and everything else gets fitted in around all that!
Tony heads off to China next week for his big run across the desert so hopefully I'll be able to fit all my training in with him gone.
The foster kids will be with us a year in July and we're trying to think of a good way to mark that milestone. Any ideas?

Training continues.

2008-05-09T13:00:00.006Z

Well I'm continuing with the swimming. The kids being off this week has meant getting up at 6am to swim before Tony goes to work. This has left me knackered because I'm not going to bed early to make up for it.

I have improved but I'm unsure if I'm on track with the deadlines I've set: 400 metres in 4 weeks. I've enlisted the help of a triathlon/ swim coach and I'm meeting him for the second time on Tuesday. He's going to make me up a training programme for the ironman suited to my strengths and weaknesses i.e. lots of swimming and probably winging the other stuff for the time being!! Like he said, it won't be pretty, I'm not looking to break any records, just to complete it. I've already agreed if he thinks it's not do-able I will scrap the idea and continue training, but for one next year.
I won't be wallowing in disappointement; if it doesn't happen I'll pick an Autumn marathon or maybe even an adventure race and try learn new skills.

Until the decision is made though it's all swimming, swimming, swimming....

Ironman Attempt

2008-04-25T19:47:00.015Z

I met a swim coach early on Wednesday morning so that he could assess how my swimming is. Last January I secretly (!) entered for an ironman but always knew my swimming would be completely starting from scratch. Before the marathon I kept up basic swim lessons just to learn to swim the strokes properly. I always knew it would be after the marathon that I would decide fully if I was gonna go ahead with the training. So I met the coach and after a few minutes he said he was 70 per cent sure I could attempt the ironman in 4 months. They sounded like good odds to me. After the hour he reckoned if I could swim 400 metres in 4 weeks I would be capable of continuing with the ironman training. That sounds like a plan to me. So I will give that a shot. My technique aopparently isn't too bad but my biggest problem is the breathing. I can't get it right. I swallow tonnes of water. I panic and keep my head up or if anything upsets me in the water I stop. I can just about make a 25 meter length without stopping. But one length is it...... It doesn't sound good does it? But I'll give the 4 weeks a shot. I'll try and swim almost every single day and see if I can do it. Hopefully I can keep up a little cycling and running too. ;-)
If it doesn't work out I will go for it again next year.

Rotterdam Marathon

2008-04-16T14:45:00.004Z

The Rotterdam marathon is over and all the training is long since forgotten. I'm on my post-marathon meltdown now which means I'm tired, grumpy and permamently hungry. But I'm jumping too far ahead now. I did a race report over at Team Geared Up which you can read over there or else here it is:

Marathons are scary events. Only a couple of people in the race are out to win and the thousands of others just want to do their best, whether that means just finishing or getting a Personal Best. Failure is so scary.

To say I was nervous would be an understatement but I’ve been worse, standing on marathon start lines. I got a Race number that allowed me almost right up at the start banner, so I waited till less than ten minutes before start time to get into my place. Looking around me was scary.

Once we were off I felt like I was moving quite fast. I hadn’t a clue how fast though because my heart rate went through the roof and I missed the first few kilometre markers so I just hoped it wasn’t slow!! I tried to relax and get my heart rate to settle but it wouldn’t so I chose to ignore the readings of between 185 and 190. When my foot hit the mat at 10k in 40 minutes I realised I was well inside the 3 hour mark (shock!) and decided at that exact moment that I wasn’t gonna let that go without a huge fight. I was thinking I was moving at too fast a pass to sustain for too long, but what the hell, let’s just go for it and hang on and I thought if I let it slip a little later on I could still break 3. And so I continued, despite hitting low points at 16k (feeling sick for a minute) I just pushed and pushed. It was killing me to be moving that fast while thinking I still had a long way to go. So I took a gel and as JackieO said to me “put your head down and dig in”.

I hit the half way mark at 1:27:42 so was still moving quickly enough. Finding things to focus my brain on was difficult. At 27k we came right back into the city but by 30k we were back out into a really quiet park which felt like a real lull after the buzz of the city. It was hard to push on at this stage. But I actually caught a glimpse of the leaders on the opposite side of the road who were at the 40k mark and thought, what a lift, to see them racing this close!

At 35k I was over a minute inside the 3 hour pace but the pain in my calves was increasing. I had worn super flat racing shoes and I suppose this was the price I paid for wearing light trainers. So from this point on it was head down, push hard through the ever increasing pain. But I knew the pain of being just outside 3 hours would be a pain I might have forever if I didn’t go for it! I can’t even describe what happened in the finishing straight. I couldn’t see the clock properly, but I could see metre markers counting down the last couple of hundred metres. I could hear the crowd do the countdown till the clock hit 3 and just as my foot landed on the mat the clock hit 3 hours exactly (and my heart rate hit 199). I couldn’t believe it. It took a couple of hours to get my chip time of 2:59:58, giving me a placing of 28th woman and 341 overall. Running buddy Bronagh had a PB of 3:20 and new friend Anthony ran his first marathon in 4:25.

During my marathon preparation Nige had said I could go sub 3. I didn’t believe it really, I imagined even as I stood on the line I would finish at about 3:03. I wrote before about how Nige was helping me but I didn’t imagine the help would ever get me this far. Training under pressure (with the heart monitor) made racing under pressure much easier, he said I would suffer so suffering during the race became normal, not something I should be scared of. (Normally you slow down when you’re suffering). His two words Push Hard became a mantra during the whole race and I couldn’t let it go. To run well I believe you also need a good club and a good coach. You need people to push you, to believe in you and they act like a support group. I sound like I’m doing an Oscars speech but I really have to thank my coach and brother Eugene for support and encouragement and his wife Gina who looked after my legs!

End of TGU post.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I really didn't think I would do it. A sub 3 hour marathon is one of those elusive things I thought I might spend the next few years chasing and never achieve. My previous best was 3:13 in Chicago. If it hadn't been for TGU and the help of Nige I think it would be an entirely different marathon story I'd be telling right now and it wouldn't have a "2" in it.

Lessons from Nature

2008-03-29T10:58:00.004Z

Every day this week has been a day of two halves; gorgeous weather in the morning (when I'm running!) and miserable, cold, wet weather in the afternoon and evening. It's natures way of telling us to get up early....

Taper madness..

2008-03-28T17:11:00.001Z

Last long run done for Rotterdam. Woohooo! Bring on the taper!! (You'd swear I didn't love runnning.......) ;-)

Cute chicks

2008-03-25T23:42:00.001Z

Pressure...

2008-03-20T21:54:00.004Z

In the spirit of trying to kill time with the kids off school, we've been baking cakes (simnel cake, apparently a traditional Easter cake), shopping for Easter clothes and been to see Horton Hears a Who. Loved it! That Dr. Seuss rhyming stuff is just so clever!

Thanks God they have Easter Camp at their school next week or I'd be driven mental. The days are way too long otherwise.

Three weeks to go till the Rotterdam marathon. At this stage I want it over and done with, it can't happen quick enough. I've done more long runs and trained harder than ever before. I've done lots of marathons but this is meant to be my fast one, so for the first time ever I'll be trying to put myself under some pressure. I'm probably putting myself under pressure just writing this down.....

Training....

2008-03-16T22:48:00.007Z

I had a look on paper at what I'd been doing lately, training wise, and it looks like a lot when written down. I've probably not taken enough complete rest days recently. I think checking back over my training diary it has only been the last couple of weeks that were too much. Like instead of rest days I would swim or go to the gym or cycle, thinking they don't count as much because I'm not running. I suppose people who know me would say I never miss out on a training session, but for a few months I've been adding in other elements like the gym and not easing up on the running at all. It hasn't showed much in my long runs but when I run with other people or race I've noticed I'm not running as well.

This is all of my own doing. It's not part of any training plan by anybody but me. But really I think I just need a few "easy" days. With the kids being off school this week it'll probably mean an enforced easy week anyway.

I'm probably making much more of this than it actually is. I think that's because you always end up on a bit of a downer when running's not going as well as usual. I'll probably wake up tomorrow and wonder what I was on about...

Friday....

2008-03-14T15:08:00.004Z

It's been a little crazy, lots happening with the kids; stressful things that take up lots of your thoughts. At least running gets me out on my own and clears the head. Training's going fine, doing tonnes of running/ swimming/ lifting weights but feeling tired mostly. I think I'm at the stage I always reach in every marathon training where I just wanna get the damn thing over with. I've done the training already, let's "bring it on". But of course I have another month to go. I always, at this stage, say things like "I want this training/ marathon over with and I want my life back" and then as soon as it is actually over, I go and enter the next one.

We had our annual family weekend away last week in Ballinasloe (by family I mean my siblings, I'm the youngest of 12). In order to get my long run out of the way I got Tony to turf me outta the car 20 miles from Ballinasloe (before Athlone) and I ran the rest of the way. It meant the weekend could be more enjoyable. It also meant I had 20 miles facing into a headwind (and sleet and snow and hail showers but that's the west for ya!)

Since I blogged last I've been to the blog awards, great fun! Met loads of people. Really enjoyed it! All I wanted was a photo in the TGU t-shirt and here it is.

Kids are now off for two weeks which will drive me mental cos I won't have the freedom to zip off to the gym each morning so there'll have to be a couple of days when I get up at 6am and go then. Just to keep me sane. My training plans for the year are possibly changing but more about that later.....

Happy Friday and St. Patrick's Weekend

Training and blogging...

2008-02-18T21:25:00.005Z

I haven't felt much like blogging here lately. I don't want to write about the kids because this blog's not anonymous and because the kids are fostered there are other privacy issues I suppose.
I'm still training extra hard to build muscle, that's what I was told to do after the physiological tests. I average 3 to 4 days per week in the gym and that's including a little bit of swimming (plus all the running!). If I didn't have to breath the swimming would be going eh....well swimmingly. I'm trying to keep injury at bay by getting regular massage which is painful but I keep telling myself it has to be good for me!

Met some more of the 4nine£ gang last Saturday in Jo's house. Great night, I haven't laughed so much in ages. Great to put some faces to the names especially Jo's little girl!

This weekend I'm doing the Women's Cycling Event in Blessington. Never having even sat on a road bike I hope I don't get left behind....

Blog stuff

2008-01-30T10:38:00.000Z

I'm taking it easy today. It's one of those days when I'm not able to run, go to the gym and none of my friends are available for coffee. So I have a morning at home, blogging (over at TGU and 4nines).

I've signed up to be a judge at the blog awards, thanks to Damien, Midget Wrangler and Someone Living for the prompt. I know I don't blog that much myself but I read lots of 'em and thought it would be fun to get involved.

Training is underway for Rotterdam Marathon. Well one long run down anyway. The reason I can't excercise today is because I'm having some physiological tests done in Trinity tomorrow and you're supposed to be rested for those. I've heard words like "you run till you drop" so I'm suitably worried. There's needles and blood tests involved too apparently. I'm told that what I'll get from the tests will be that "the heart monitor will become my best friend". I've never been a runner who used a heart monitor. When I race I just run as hard as I can and when I train I just jog. So it will be interesting to see if the heart monitor changes any of that. If I improve then that will be a bonus.

2008-01-15T15:56:00.000Z

Since I last posted, in our household, there has been 4 birthdays, a Christmas, a New Year and a trip to Disneyland Paris. All has gone well so can't complain. Well aside from the stomach bugs and colds.....and that was just me.
So the focus now is on the Rotterdam marathon in April. I have to knuckle down now to some serious training and stop eating so much rubbish (which is compulsory at Christmas). Im back in the Gym regularly and took my first swimming lesson today. I swim like a person who's panicking. Panicking or drowning. Each time I put my head in the water I flail around like a complete lunatic. I thought swimming was a graceful sport, all muscles and smooth moves. Not in my case obviously.
I'll miss my second lesson as I'm off to France on Friday for our annual trip to the Snow Race. I'll be blogging next week about waste deep snow during the race and my success on the piste (my skiing is comparable to my swimming so that was a joke.....

Plans for next year...

2007-12-12T20:56:00.000Z

For me this is post number 117 and a year and a month since I started this blog. I started really because I was getting old (in running terms) and felt I wanted to record the running events I was doing. Of course then it became more of a personal blog but you can't help that really. It's not a traditional running blog anyway because I don't really record how much I run (too much probably!)
Anyway I haven't been racing and that's because things have been busy and once you get out of the habit of racing it's hard to get back into it. I ran in the Dublin Senior Cross Country and the Gerry Franham and after that it was just the Duathlon. I've gone and entered for the Rotterdam marathon next April (and the snow race in France in January). My plan was to give the ultras a break for a while and try and do a fast marathon. I know I'm yet to do the marathon I'm capable of. I feel I can get close to 3 hours and now is the time to try. After that I'll go back to the ultras as I already miss them! I won't be running Connemara next year (my favourite ultra) and I'll probably not be on the mountains afetr my experiences this year. One of my ambitions has always been to try an ironman. Just because I've never done a triathlon doesn't seem to bother me (maybe it should). The day I decided to start running I wanted to do a marathon and that worked out ok so I'm hoping that it will be the same for an ironman. I'm in the gym swimming most days but I'm so bad I'm gonna get some proper lessons. I feel that with the kids at school I have the capacity to at least train for it. The UK ironman is in September and that gives me a number of months after Rotterdam. Friends have been encouraging me towards the glamorous ones in France, Austria etc., but they are all in the Summer and I feel that's too close to Rotterdam in April.
Anyway this isn't a post looking for pats on the back, it's more about wanting to get things out of my head.
This year was mad in terms of goals. I ran two ultras early in the year and trained for the Wicklow Round. Then ended up in the European and World Mountain Running Champs, not the most pleasant experiences and not ones I'm likely to get a chnace to run in again but they were totally unexpected so new expereinces are always worth a try. Jungfrau Marathon was probably the highlight but still felt I should have gone faster.

Anyway on the personal front the family has grown from 3 to 5 and that has been crazy, good crazy. Christmas will be completely different with a 5 year old lunatic in the house. He gets excited about having dinner every day so you can imagine how wired he is about Christmas! The house is lit up like the Griswalds and presents are wrapped and ready under the tree.

I've made new friends on other blogs: Team Geared Up and For Nine Pounds and of course our running group Wednesday Night Runners and of course the bloggers who comment here. Thanks for all your encouragement, it's been great to log on and realise someone has dropped by and said something, it's been a real lift.

Team Geared Up has allowed me to write lots about adventure kinda stuff. Things I wouldn't have written about here. I've loved every minute of it and the hard work put in by Robin over there has meant the blog seems to have changed recently and become even more vibrant. He's worked so hard at constantly thinking about what's needed to develop the blog and move it forward.

For Nine Pounds was something I came across via the lovely Midget Wrangler. I first commented over at MW's blog when she wrote a post about her new Party of 5. I loved the fact that she was the most un-traditional-Mummy type I'd ever read. It was hilarious and serious at the same time! She eventually dragged me into the For Nine Pounds cult and I haven't looked back. I don't write as much over there as I'm afraid I'm not as funny or witty or interesting as the rest of them! Anyway we all eventually had a meet up and a great night was had by all!!

WNR is our running group and we've become a very close bunch. You don't go through tough stuff without realising who you can count on and they're a great bunch. We're getting hoodies made up with our newly designed logo and we had a great run and lunch last week, even exchanging kris kindles!

Wow this turned into an epic post! I doubt anyone will read this far!!! Happy Christmas!

Happy Birthday Grace!

2007-12-08T15:02:00.000Z

Grace is 16 today! Happy Brithday Grace!

Magic 4

2007-12-04T22:03:00.000Z

I got tagged by toniimarie at Next to Last chapter. And since I'm so bad at blogging these days I thought I'd give it a shot.

What 4 jobs have I had?

1. Worked in a bar at the age of 16. Really liked it but so badly paid and not a good job if you're trying to get up for school in the morning.
2. Typesetter.
3. Architectural office: what I trained for.
4. Construction site work; best job ever. :-)

4 places I've lived.
1. Dublin
2. Dublin
3. Dublin
4. Dublin

4 places I've been on holiday:
1. Jamaica for the all you can eat holiday
2. Virginia/ Washington: the museums, war memeorials, what a place!
3. Italy for everything, food, history, sun, breathtaking scenery.
4. Paris, as a poor student with no money and the sheer romance of it all....

4 favourite foods:
1. Pizza
2. Shepherds Pie
3. Milka Chocolate
4. Duck

4 places I'd rather be:
1. Virginia, or somewhere in America with mountains and sun.
2. The Alps, with nothing but a bag on my back and nothing planned.
3. On the orient express.
4. Disneyland Florida on Thunder Mountain.

Can I tag Midget Wrangler? Cheers Tonii!

What I'm Up to......

2007-11-23T20:45:00.000Z

I ran in Marlay park this morning and it was the most gorgeous morning ever. Stunningly beautiful. (A lot like that image above, that's not mine!) I had a few of those "great to be alive" moments! Although I'm still running in a little pain but I seem to be ok when I race and in pain when I train. The last thing I did was a duathlon.

Also had a sparkly dress occasion last week for the Athletics Awards of Ireland! Makes a change from mucky runners and tracksuits!

Tomorrow me and the girls head off on a little adventure on the ferry to the UK shopping outlets. Christmas shopping here we come!! Woohoo! I love buying presents!
Ugly Betty is on in a minute.....

Dublin Marathon 2007

2007-11-04T20:10:00.000Z

I was heavily involved in all things "marathon" last weekend. I've been blogging about it over at TGU and Wednesday Night Runners also.
Firstly there was the expo, then the international breakfast run, then the Kenyan athletes Ugale party in my brother's house, photos here, then the marathon itself. Baggage area photos here.
It's a great event, really professional and so many people give so much of their personal time and effort to make it that way. Tony ran a PB of 3:44, Rob ran his first in 3:42, Niall ran 2:43. I have to do it next year! Fatmammycat has a brilliant account of her first marathon here. Congrats to her!

Today was spent at the kids Dublin cross country and Dublin Senior Cross Country. I think I ran ok, second scorer for Clonliffe, which was a suprise so I'm happy enough. Photos here.

Busy Weekend of Racing!

2007-10-22T08:32:00.000Z

I swore I was gonna take it easy till about December but I couldn't resist! I did an adventure race on Saturday as a team of 4. A standard adventure race involves mountain biking, mountain running and canoeing (there are variations), all with navigation., You're given co-ordinates and you have to go find controls at them, like a treasure hunt.
Basically I'm no good at navigation, rubbish at canoeing and a complete wuss on the mountain bike and unfortunately for my team mates there was very little running but I really enjoyed it anyway. It's a team thing and you have to look out for each other and work together. We had some problems but that's all in the nature of adventure racing. I was blogging about it over at Team Geared Up and at Wednesday Night Runners.
I then did a cross country in Phoenix Park, well we had to go out there anyway as one of the kids was running a race so I thought "what the hell" I might as well give it a go.
So it was a hectic weekend despite my plans to take it easy.

Good things on telly tonight and tomorrow night about Adventure! Looks like they are well worth watching

stack overflow at line 0

2007-10-11T09:51:00.000Z

I was organising some photos in flickr (and it got real slow) and it said something like:

"stack overflow at line 0" or whatever.

I thought that sounded very Simpsons.......

Update!

2007-10-08T11:32:00.000Z

Haven't posted in a while. Things have been busy.
I'm running slowly and painfully these days which doesn't matter much as I'm not training for anything. Be nice to be running better for the cross country season but I know I didn't rest up enough after my last big running events and I'm feeling the effects of it now. It's hard not to run at all, but that's probably what I should do for a week or two. Can't bring myself to do that though.

I'm doing Pilates on Monday mornings. Not finding that much use, but it's getting better.

The kids are getting on great at school, well the little boy is getting into litle bits of trouble but I think he'll settle down soon. He's not used to so much structure, sitting down all day etc. Grace is at Traffic school today! Not sure if that's what it's called but basically she's getting a driving lesson even though she's a year away from even getting a licence. The young girl is running in lots of cross countries and reall enjoying it.

Had a great time at the For Nine Pounds party! You can read all about it over there. It was my first time meeting the gang of bloggers and it was so much fun, I really need to get out more, I actually enjoyed myself.

Still having trouble with noisy neighbours in the holiday home in Wexford so will be avoiding that for a while.

The two girls and I are going on a shopping trip to Cheshire Oaks at the end of November. It'll involve an overnight stay in a hotel and the boat trip so should be good for bonding!

High School Musical Party

2007-09-27T10:45:00.000Z

Tomorrow night we're throwing a High School Musical party for the 11 year old (girl). Hopefully the new friends she has made in school will come and then they will know where we live and then maybe they'll call round and be lifelong friends. Easy.

We're busy making GO WILDCATS pennants and microphones and trying to theme things. The movie is apparently about basketball so we've bought little hoops to decorate the room and are making t-shirts and little party bags containing lip gloss and the like! I'm heading to the Square to try and get some red and white table cloths (Wildcats colours) and red and white streamers or ribbons but with all the shops taken over with Halloween stuff it's getting hard to find these items.

Any other ideas would be most welcome! (I haven't even watched the movie yet, that would probably help me with the theming.......)

World Mountain Running Champs 2007

2007-09-19T14:08:00.000Z

Just back from my second trip to Switzerland in 2 weeks! I'm glad to be home and get on with normality for a while as it's been hectic lately. The race itself went ok for me, would love to have done better but at the same time I had something to prove. I had debated pulling out of Jungfrau marathon in order to be fresh for the World Mountain Running Champs the week after. But I had trained for a few months for Jungfrau and was looking forward to it and really didn't want to not run. It's probably odd to some that I thought much more seriously about pulling out of the World Champs and allowing someone else run. But that was how I felt. I was looking forward to Jungfrau and dreading the other!

So I decided to do both.
So I had something to prove.
Because I was second in the Irish trials I wanted to be second Irish home.
And I was, so that initially made me happy and relieved.

But coming 69th in a race of 86 women wasn't going to make me happy for long, but maybe next year I would train properly for the trials and do better on the hills (and not run a mountain marathon the week before, if I did qualify!)

Anyway back at home all is good. Grace is gone to an adventure centre in Fermanagh. I miss her already. Grace is much more like an adult now and I can talk to her about the kids and what she thinks of certain things to do with school or whatever. When she comes home from school it's like another adult in the house, not a kid, and that's kinda reassuring.

The above photo is of me with Jonathan Wyatt, 3 times world mountain running champ, and winner of the Jungfrau marathon the week before. I must put it next to my Paula photo!

Off AGAIN!

2007-09-12T18:50:00.001Z

Off to Switzerland AGAIN! for the World Mountain Running Championships! Woohoo! Back next week!

Junior Cert Results

2007-09-12T13:26:00.000Z

Grace is getting her Junior Cert results today. Rather than giving them their results at 9am like every other school, her school have decided in their wisdom to make them sit through classes as usual all day today and give them their results at 3pm. I think it's a bit cruel. And unnecessary. The excuses given by schools for doing this is usually that they don't want the kids to be ceelbrating all day. Well for a start these kids are 15/ 16 and it's up to responsible parents to ensure they are not celebrating at all!

Jungfrau Marathon - the result!

2007-09-10T08:14:00.000Z

Firstly I am raging I have no photos because the scenery at the Jungfrau marathon was absolutley breathtakingly beautiful. I took some on my phone the day we left, just views from my room but they don't do it any justice.

Anyway the race went well. I was very nervous before hand but that's normal for me; I get quiet and withdrawn the day before, can hardly hold a conversation and am forcing myself to eat. My stomach is usually churning badly the day before but I managed to force myslef to eat a little pasta at lunch and dinner. My phone hadn't been working in Interlaken but Tony phoned me on a friend's phone to let me know that he had to bring the 5 year old to hospital in the middle of the night because he couldn't breathe. Scary stuff, the other kids got a bit freaked out too so fair play to Tony for handling everything. Anyway all is good now and I tried not to think about it too much while I was there.

Race morning is always so nerve wracking, forcing breakfast down you at 6am when all you want to do is wretch! I get so nervous, I don't know why I do it!

Anyway we got to the start and dropped our bags off a few minutes before the off. I just walked virtually right behind the start line which is good because I hate being trapped in the crowds. The atmosphere was really good and like all races people just want to get underway. It wasn't too long before we were off! The race does a lap of the town first, taking up the first 4 or 5k. I think at this stage some people were feeling the heat. The race gradually continues on on roads with the odd hill at 10 or 15k, all the time you're waiting on the "big" climb which you know is ahead. I remember not feeling great at this early stage, still had a jittery feeling and legs were sore. I know that that happens from the sun though, your muscles dehydrate much faster and get crampy, no matter how much water you drink. There was a big town at about half way (21k)that I remember feeling I was tired but that didn't last, because I had some of my fastest kilometres after that.

It's always at this point in a marathon that I start to feel good and this one was no different. I really wanted to get on with it and eat up those kilometres so at this stage I knuckled down to ploughing through these flat sections, dying to get ahead and start the job of the big first climb. It wasn't long coming!

As we headed into the climb I noticed that I was running while those around me walked so that gave me a boost to keep going. It wasn't long before the hill was unrunnable as it got too steep and the turns were sharp as we ascended. It went on for a couple of kilkometres maybe until it eventually turned into gradual hills that were runnable.

I really started to sort of enjoy myself than, the views were incredible and the hills were runnable for the most part if I put my head down and just knuckled down. They start to mark the course in quarter of kilometres at this stage which I though was great because each kilometre was broken down into four maangeable distances and before I knew it I fell like I was heading for home. I can rememeber a feeling at about 35k that it was time to start racing, to take down a few more people ahead of me, to get past all the walking competitors that were now blocking my way. At the 35 to 39 k mark I remember that it was only myself and 2 other women, from those around us, who were actually still running. This is always a good mental boost and as the trail turned into a single rocky track I was skipping around all the walkers to get past! Great feeling! As it gets closer to 40k the track gets very steep and walking is inevitable but I knew I wasn't far from home. The steepness continues till 41 when suddenly you're on a downhill kilometre to the finish. I was flying at this stage and feeling great! I crossed the line in 4.19 with a big smile on my face and was so happy to just have enjoyed the whole experience. I really felt that for me I was only warming up and starting to enjoy myself and suddenly it was all over! Awww!

The finish area had hot showers, hairdryers, massage and was a bit crazy with people so I didn't hang about, the train down to where I had just ran from took two hours! So I only took twice as long to run uphill than the train took to go down! Ha ha!

I never bumped into Mick but I was thinking about his brother Tony along the way. When you're in the middle of something like this and you get those "good to be alive" feelings you realise how lucky you are not only to run but to experience something as incredible as this event. The views and the toughness make it unique, it really is one to do if you run!

After a marathon I usually try and pick out a "marathon moment" but it takes a couple of weeks for certain memories to stand out as the most unique so I will think about it for a while. Thanks to all the commenters who left support, it was great. I had been saying ovber at For Nine Pounds that I had a sore foot that was worrying me, well you know for those 4 hours and 19 minutes there wasn't a bother on my foot, so the sleepless night was for nothing, as they usually are!!

I felt fine afterwards and have had very little stiffness or soreness. I'm gonna make sure not to run too much this week because (and you won't belive this because I hardly can) I'm back in Switzerland on Thursday to run on Saturday in the World Mountain Running Championships so the green knickers get an outing again! I often get a bit low two days afetr a marathon, it's just coming down from the buzz afterwards I think does it, but I'm not feeling that today so all is good!
Interlaken wasn't a great town for shopping but of course, being Switzerland my biscuit box now looks like this:

Away again?

2007-09-05T18:16:00.000Z

I'm about to find out which is harder: looking after 3 kids or running 26 miles uphill.

I'm off here.

His first day!

2007-08-30T08:08:00.001Z

We're waiting outside! (I moblogged this but it kept saying COULD NOT PUBLISH). Then I get home and find that it has.....Anyway the two of them went off fine and all is good. I was so proud of the two of them, as if they were my own. I now have an hour and a half free that I don't know what to do with. I'm not running today so besides cleaning the oven or the rest of the house, I'm at a loss. This "stay-at-home-mommy" thing hasn't quite kicked in yet! Just kidding, I'm lovin' it!

We are here!

2007-08-25T13:18:00.001Z

Ultra Trail Tour du Mont Blanc 2007

2007-08-25T07:15:00.000Z

Tony is, at this very moment, doing the Ultra Trial Tour du Mont Blanc. I'm getting SMS alerts sent to my phone as he passes through the various stages. But you can also follow the runners on line. Last year myself and Tony finished together in 43 hours.

Basically it's 160km through the Alps, through countries, around Mont Blanc. It's billed as the toughest foot race in Europe and it really is hard. The mental torture involved in just keeping going is incredible, never mind the state of your legs. Anyway he's doing great so far and I've been updating our Ultrarunners blog too as well as Team Geared Up.

I wish I was there.

Worrying about someone doing it is worse than doing it!! Well not quite but you know what I mean. Our account of the event last year is here.

What We're At...

2007-08-24T09:07:00.000Z

We've been coming and going from Wexford/ Dublin for the last few weeks. I must be brown, people keep asking where I was on holidays (strangers in parks ad petrol stations) and when I say Wexford they're shocked. We've had good enough weather to warrant lots of beach trips. We're right down on the South Coast as opposed to the East and I think we got it slightly better down there than the rest.
We've had trouble there all Summer with noisy neighbours, who have made the weekends miserable with all night partying and sometimes well into the next day and afternoon, beer bottles and cans all over the street and about twenty cars permanently parked in a street of only 5 houses. Makes it difficult for the kids to play with all this going on. The noisy neighbours are renting and we've complained enough to the two landlords (there's two houses involved, they're all mates), so we're hoping their leases will not be renewed when they come up in the Autumn. If they are, we've made a decision to sell the holiday home. Life's too short for that crap. And it's meant to be somewhere to go and relax etc. Not to be avoided. The trouble with all this is that the trouble makers appear to be making it into an anti-Dublin thing. I've noticed this with parts of Wexford now, and we're in a very small village, that there is this feeling of resentment towards the Dubs. They want your business, they want you drinking in their pubs and spending money in their shops and tourist attractions and even want you in their mobile home parks. But if you have a house it's reason enough for resentment and we've been sensing this for a while now.

Anyway while there we've done all the touristy stuff with the kids and they've loved it. Fota, Splashworld, JFK Arboretum etc. etc. Back in Dublin last Tuesday we went to Dun Laoighaire and the sun was shining and there was music in the park and it was just gorgeous! We might head there today and tomorrow for the start of the Festival of World Cultures. Lots to do!

The foster kids are settling in great! Having fun and enjoying themselves. Let's hope the fun doesn't end next week when they're back at school. I've been enjoying getting kids ready for school, doing Mammmy stuff! Me and the 11 year old girl have been getting along terrifically, spending lots of time baking together and doing nails and preparing meals; she loves to cook and bake and she also loves to run!! Hopefully she'll make new friends in the area at school, she could do with having people to call into. The 5 year old boy is still just mad as a brush and loving life (can see him on a serious mountain bike very soon)!

Happy Holidays

2007-07-24T13:53:00.000Z

I'm away now to the sunny south east for a couple of weeks. Happy holidays!

Good Service

2007-07-23T22:14:00.000Z

A post by Bock just reminded me about this: we were all sitting eating lunch in our kitchen on Saturday. In my house every door and window is permanently open for kids to wander in and out etc. etc. Anyway next of all a DOG arrives into our kitchen and Tony nearly jumped out of his skin roaring and shouting and the dog bolted and headed for the front door which he had just come in. But instead of the door space which was wide open he went straight through the glass panel next to it smashing it into a gzillion pieces. Jeez he must have hit it some bang. Although it's probably not toughened glass as it's quite old it would still be tough enough to have taken many previous bangs from footballs, basketballs and the like.
Anyway we rang a glazier this evening at about 5pm. He called to the house at 6pm. He returned with glass at 9 and had the job done and dusted in about half an hour. No bother at all. Poor dog is alright but he has his paws bandaged. And no he didn't make a dog shaped hole in the glass either...

Great Quads Exercise

2007-07-23T21:38:00.000Z

Get on a see saw with someone a third of your weight (a kid will do) and proceed to try and make their feet hit the ground each time until your quads ache. Never fails....

2007-07-20T08:47:00.000Z

I'm back in Dublin for a couple of days and it's so miserable and wet here. I took the covers off the deck furniture yesterday and it has rained and rained (except for about 2 hours yesterday evening).

The kids are settling in great. We've done lots, been to the beach lots, been to forest parks, been fishing, been cycling, playing Buzz, all fun stuff! They had a traumatic day yesterday seeing their mum for the first time in months and the 11 year old girl was upset. We were going out last night to celebrate the Wicklow Round success so I was a bit worried leaving them. It worked out really well though cos I got my niece over who managed to give them a great evening making their own pizzas and playing games and they had much more fun than if I had stayed at home. It was great to come home and see a big smile on the girl's face. The 5 year old boy was fast asleep, happy as Larry.

Like I said we went out for a meal to celebrate Tony and Gary's run and thank the helpers and all involved. Photos here.
We're back in Dublin because Grace is heading to Killary adventure centre on Sunday for a week.
It's mad being at home all the time. I still haven't got used to not being employed. I think it still feels like I'm on my holidays. I'm sure that in September when they've gone to school I'll feel differently! It has been challenging already. The kids are brilliant, they are so good and happy and no trouble at all. It's just that the things that upset them are bigger than anything kids should have to worry about. I know the 11 year old worries about her mother all the time. We are constantly reassuring her that she has nobody to worry about any more, that her mum is getting help and all the siblings are being looked after. I think she is getting a little happier about this by the day.
If only the rain would stop and we could get out and od more stuff!!!!! Being indoors baking cakes is no fun for the 5 year old, he just wants to cycle all day long and play on his big tractor! It's mad having a boy!

Blogging Away

2007-07-13T10:30:00.000Z

I'm off to a land far, far away where blogs and broadband don't exist. I tried to catch up this morning on them all and this is the last blogpost I'm writing.

So far today in case you're interested:

Team Geared Up
Ultrarunners
For Nine Pounds

And I squished all the photos out of the camera and phone (except the ones of the kids) onto my flickr page. Job done. I'm off to Wexford in the rain. Back Wednesday.

Back to Blog

2007-07-11T13:16:00.000Z

Thanks for all your comments about the trip to France. I was disappointed with my run but glad of the opportunity to be there. It was a great bunch to be with and we enjoyed it. I had been unwell last week and maybe that took it's toll a little but who knows. If you're legs don't move fast enough that's all there is to it, no excuses.

That's me, no. 132 with Fiona, Trish and Alwynne. they're clouds below us, the photo was taken at the finish after the race (God I look grumpy!)

Myself and Tony had a great day together, just the two of us, on Monday. Half the day in bed half the day eating out in a quiet pub reading the paper, what could be better? ;-)

While I was away Tony and good friend Gary were making histoy by being the first people ever to complete the Wicklow Round; a journey of 27 peaks through Wicklow taking them 33 hours and 56 minutes. Our previous attempt had not been successful and I was sad to miss out on this one but so unbelievably delighted for them. I know how hard it was. More blogging about that here.
I haven't heard how the wedding cake went down but hopefully all went well for Audreys big day! It was great the L* (the 11 year old) was able to help me with it and she was there when Audrey came to pick it up so she saw how happy Audrey was with it.
The big moving in day for the fosterinos is tomorrow. I actually think it will go well with very few tears because the move has been slowly staged and well managed. I think the biggest tears will be from the other foster mother!

I'm just catching up with all the blogs now. Loving reading them all, getting round to writing stuff yourself is the time consuming bit isn't it?

Trip to France!

2007-07-05T18:24:00.000Z

I'm off to France tomorrow for the European Mountain Running Championships and I haven't even packed yet! The wedding cake is made and iced and gone so I can at least relax about that. The kids have been milling around all week! Despite the rain we got to do some stuff including a visit to Dun Laoighaire pier last night which they loved, followed by ice creams from Teddy's.
I have to be at the airport for 5am so it's an early start for me. Better get started on the packing!

Catching Up with Myself

2007-07-02T22:37:00.000Z

Audreys hen night was Friday. Photos to follow when flickr or my phone company get their act together. At least I got to go to the hen night. (Was blogging before about missing the wedding, small matter of a race in France).

We drove down to Cork on Saturday to see They Never Froze Walt Disney as part of the Cork Midsummer Festival. It was a two person play and the man in it had one of thos faces that could portray emotion with the slightest movement. He was incredible, you could watch him all day. He also had one of those voices that you could hear a mile away even when he whispered. We both loved it.

We headed to Cork City Sports then, I haven't been able to post photos to flickr from my phone yet. Don't know what's up there but I'd say it's flickrs' fault as it's never happened before. Anyway Saturday night we had a Chinese in Wexford and spent the night there. Oh to be kiddy free and spend the weekend in white jeans.

All is moving along really well with the "fosterinos" as Midget Wrangler has christened them. they had their first overnight last Thursday and that was fine. We fully expected a few strops from the 5 year old. You know the kind of strops that two year olds have just to see what they can get away with and we seemed to survive them so the visits since have been easier. They stay for two nights later this week so it's getting closer to full moving in day, July 12th. They seem happy in general. The 11 year old loves doing things that are crafty and project based which I think is brilliant. It's great that not all kids are obsessed with MTV and computer games!

And today involved getting wet and mucky in Marlay Park as we tried to play in the playground for the 25 seconds between each torrential shower. They also met Tony's Mum and Dad who are lovely and the kids thought they were great so all is good so far.

Not gonna blog about running this time....

False start by gillick!

2007-06-30T14:44:00.001Z

He's out!

We are here!

2007-06-30T14:42:00.001Z

Moblogging in Cork!

2007-06-30T11:48:00.001Z

Today.....

2007-06-28T08:14:00.000Z

1. Last day at work.

2. New kit for Europeans.

3. Kids spending first night in our house.

4. It's stopped raining. Momentarily.

5. Grace is going to Spain with her friend's family on Saturday.

5. We will be childless all weekend so we're going to Cork to see this.

Are you a List-Maker?

2007-06-27T09:31:00.000Z

I make lists.

That's what I do. If I have something to do I will break it down into smaller pieces and write it all down until it gets done.

This is my second last day of my job and I've only just today realised that that's what I do for a living. If a job has to be done on site, I develop a list of sequentail checks in order that that item of work gets done correctly and then I go out to the site and tick it off.

In real life I do it cos I'm so forgetful. Take for instance this evening I am race director for the mountain race in Tibradden. There are lots of duties for a race director and the organisation involved has the duties on their webiste. But there are always other things to remember in a practical sense so I've been busy making lists this morning of all I have to remember. They're not always neat and tidy lists, I quite like it when they look a bit scruffy.
The busier I am the more I need the lists. I'm useless at remembering things like what day Grace has home economics at school or when Tony will be away. But there are other things I never forget such as numbers. My husband calls me "Rain Man" as I never forget numbers; credit card numbers, RSI numbers, hotel booking references etc. If I say a number once it never leaves my head. Kinda useless in this day and age where we can store everything in our phones but Tony finds it amusing....

Zoo Day

2007-06-25T07:59:00.001Z

Day 3,456,674 of miserable, wet weather. The greyness continues. But we got a semi-good day Saturday so we spent it at the zoo with the kids. It was brilliant! All went well and by the end of the day the shyness of the 11 year old had begun to dissipate a little bit. It's lucky I run around so much cos it was my job to stick like glue to the 5 year old who just flitted around everything like a giant blond butterfly! We had a picnic , which was the only time it rained but it was actually ok under a tree! Really! You have to be thankful for the small stuff!
We got home and printed out all the photos we had taken and made a scrap book for them, the 11 year old loved this.
The 5 year was buzzing around the house like a tornado! He loves his room! Thursday night will be their first sleepover which should be fun. They have no school so we will plan something. All suggestions welcome, bearing in mind the little boy won't sit still so a movie is out.

This is my last Monday morning at work. I have some stuff to do but can't get motivated cos I know I'm leaving. I better go do something besides blogging!

Funny things the 5 year old has said so far: "Where did you buy your hair?" He said this to Grace whose hair is so beautiful people think it's extensions, I guess he does too.

I'm 2 afraid 2 look!

2007-06-23T05:30:00.001Z

Going 4 a run now!

Friday fluff! Woohooo!

2007-06-22T08:41:00.000Z

Thanks to Midget Wrangler I've decided to become part of the group blog For Nine Pounds! Go and have a read, it's a great laugh. I haven't written anything yet! What to write..what to write....?

Only a few more days of work for me....ever....oooh that's scary! This is my last ever Friday as a builder!

We had our second meeting with the 2 new arrivals yesterday and again it went very well. They came to our house and saw their two new rooms. The little boy was thrilled, kept asking, is this mine? is that mine? Like all 5 year olds there was questions every ten seconds being fired at us! He's so funny. He has this permanent cheeky grin on his face, never stops smiling! He got very excited by his school uniform that I had gotten for him, he even brought it home to show his other foster family. I had completely forgotten the simple things that excite 5 year olds, like seeing a train; he nearly leapt out of his car seat, or even an airplane, we passed the airport a couple of times.

The 11 year old was much quieter, but seemed very happy with her room. It's all girly and pink with lots of places for possessions and photos and things, so she spent lots of time there fixing the things she had brought over to our house, the stuff she was planning on leaving there. Circumstances have probably affected her much more than him and she has spent years raising him so it's now her time to just look after herself and eevn act like a child herself for a while. It was a very tough day for her as it was her last day at her old school and she loves her teacher, so she was quite sad about that.

Next visit with them is Saturday for a whole day. We had planned on going to the zoo but the weather is craptacular (thanks Jothemama) so I'm not sure. Big moving in day is getting closer: July 12th.

On a completely different topic: this time 17 years ago I finished my Leaving Cert and headed to Glastonbury! And the world cup was on and life was completely different and I had a brill time and saw things I'd never seen before and never have since and it was brilliant. I don't know what Glastonbury is like now but back then anybody of any age could happily walk round the dozens of tents with all different types of music. There was food from every corner of the world not just overpriced burger bars. There was even lots of kids there. Now I wasn't exactly roughing it because I was working in a beer tent (yes we got free beer and cider) and we had proper showers but my Glastonbury experience is still one of those memorable times I think of and smile :-) . Not like my experience soon after of Irish festivals which seemed to consist almost entirely of very drunk 14 year olds in comas on the side of the street.

Have a great weekend!

We+just+overtook+this+on+the+M50

2007-06-21T14:19:00.001Z

Opposite+where+i+work!

2007-06-21T11:04:00.001Z

Dumb and Even Dumber

2007-06-21T09:08:00.000Z

It's incredible that some complete toolbox thought they could get away with this.

Be Careful What You Wish For.....

2007-06-19T09:52:00.000Z

If it wasn't for blogging I don't know how I'd sort out all the mush that goes on in my head. I have so much going on at the moment that at least when I sit and write some of it down it kinda straightens out a few of the issues.
I ran last Sunday in a trial race for the Irish team for the European Mountain running championships and managed to gain a place. Luckily for me it wasn't downhill (just 3 miles uphill) or I'd never have managed it but uphills suit me. Anyway gaining this place has left me a slight feeling of sadness of what I will be missing out on by accepting this place (which I have accepted BTW). First let me say that an opportunity to run in an Irish vest is a HUGE honour and I am very pleased and grateful to be able to run and will be very proud on the day itself. But this is a personal blog not a running blog so here are some of the issues: I will miss out on my best friend's wedding.

We've been friends since school, she's one of those people I admire most in the world, she's getting married in her own unique and special way and I am going to miss it. I phoned her yesterday, than called up and broke the news. She was very understanding, as all good best friends are, but I am so disappointed. So disappointed was I, that I have offered to make and ice her wedding cake. Never having done anything like this before, you could think this was a huge pressure but I'm actually looking forward to it. As long as the cake is unique to her and doesn't poison anyone I actually know she will be happy. So all is good, but if you have any helpful suggestions post them here. She just wants a sponge cake (I know I know it means it has to be cooked right before the wedding and not weeks beforehand but I'm off work) and (rough) butter icing, 3 layers. This gives me something to think about other than the lifelong happiness of 2 new children and a race in France in which I will likely be last!

The second thing I'm missing out is running related. The next attempt on the Wicklow Round is planned for 30th June. So I miss out on being in the first group of people to complete it. And Tony will have to be without me.

The third thing I will miss out on is the next few Wednesday night races on the mountains which I was growing to love but I need fresh legs for France so will have to ease up and I was doing quite well and the competition was heating up!

Anyway the cake is the issue now. I better get googling......

Running+home+from+work+2day!

2007-06-18T14:43:00.001Z

Bye!

VW+vans+in+thomastown!

2007-06-16T13:21:00.001Z

On+our+way+home.

We're+on+the+ferry

2007-06-16T12:01:00.001Z

Going+2+waterford!

Here+comes+the+ferry!

2007-06-16T11:53:00.001Z

We're+in+ballyhack

Duncannon+beach

2007-06-16T11:44:00.001Z

Is+this+boat+run+aground?

Happy Days

2007-06-14T19:19:00.000Z

Just back from meeting the two kids we're going to tbe fostering. I wasn't half as nervous as I thought for some reason, don't know why cos I spend half my week being nervous before every single race but today I wasn't too bad. Myself and Grace drove down and Tony followed on.
We walked into the house and met the little boy first. He was so cute with beautiful blond hair and cute smile! He looked healthy and happy (they're with a foster family with other children) and initially he was shy and quiet. The little girl arrived home from school then with some of the rest of the family and the house was full! The two of them are gorgeous and appear to have settled into their short term foster family well. The plan is for them to be with us long term.
The little boy soon loosened up and was the centre of attention quite quickly! He was showing us his photo album and was quite chatty and asking us questions. The little girl was much more reserved, I tried asking her lots of questions and telling her about us and what we're like. It's hard for the five year old to understand what's going on. He took a real shine to Tony so that's a great start. I can see Grace and the girl getting on great, I'd say they will have music and clothes in common so that's a good start!

The other foster parents were lovely and gave us lots of advice and direction. They've been fostering for about 6 years and have done a great job, they have a lovely family; some their own kids, some fostered.
I hope it'll work out just as well for us, there's a lot at stake and I don't mean for us. These kids have had a hard life and they deserve to be spoilt rotten, but we can't do that either. I'd love if they were with us for a long time and were just like as if they were our own. Maybe that's selfish of me but I just want them to reach adulthood with happy childhood memories of raucous games of Monopoly and picnics in forest parks and summers in our holiday home and Christmases with hundreds of family members around them. Simple stuff....I feel happy now so I hope it continues. Another meeting next week in our house and a sleepover the week after. The moving in day is July 12th.

Another Week Off

2007-06-11T21:18:00.000Z

Cracking weather we're having and I still have a week off work! Woohoo! Because of the sun I'm spending more time flat on my back soaking it up in the garden than doing all the work I should be doing round the house but hey, you have to make the most of the rays when you can eh? (As soon as the exams are over it'll start lashing right?)

I have done some work though: I've been trying to sort out school places for the new arrivals. We'll meet them for the first time on Thursday. Pretty nerve wracking! Have to get some gifts for them and for the foster family they are currently with.

I was blogging here and here about our all female Clonliffe team of super mountain runners. The Wicklow Way relay (120k over 8 legs) is a great event, nothing like it on the running calender. Some photos here.

Just back now from a visit to see my Dad in his nursing home. One can go from crying to laughing in seconds on one of these visits. They sometimes keep him in a chair when his level of aggression is up. It's dreadful to see him in it and also this aggression is something that was never there his entire life and is only there now because of frontal lobe damage so it's not nice. There are some funny moments too, usually involving the other residents. One of the younger ones was asking my Dad if he ever smoked a spliff, if he was a dancer, if he knew the words to "Young hearts, run free..." Luckily for us this place is a million miles from Leas Cross and is really nice actually.

Next race for me is the trial for the European Champs, which I have little chance of making but it's also a Club Championship so will give it a go. It's uphill only which suits me down to the ground because I'm not one for the downhills!

I'm just watching Bear Grylls on Discovery Channel scree running down a hill and eating a zebra which looks like it could still have a pulse. I love his programmes, he's just amazing! Right now he's getting a warning from a hippo!

Oh and the wedding was great last week. Tony's sister got married last Thursday and it was a brilliant day. I had to run out an hour and a half before the wedding and buy a new dress but at least I got one I was comfortable in.

Me and Grace and the beautiful bride.

Grace's exams are going well, thanks to everyone who sent good wishes! She'll be finished Friday!

Finished

2007-06-09T15:43:00.001Z

Krissy+is+flying+on+leg+6

2007-06-09T13:08:00.001Z

We+are+at+glendalough

2007-06-09T10:06:00.001Z

2007-06-09T08:47:00.001Z

The+start

2007-06-09T06:04:00.001Z

I'm still off work and the weather is good......

2007-06-06T11:41:00.000Z

Grace started her Junior Cert this morning and so far she's happy. She doesn't like English so at least she has that out of the way first. (Second paper this afternoon).
Thankfully she'll still be going to the wedding tomorrow after her exams, as she only has CSPE on Friday morning (that's Civics to you and me).

And I got my nails back this morning, thanks to the wonders of gel technology. Oh I feel so girly again, short nails just aren't me, I can now type again!

I was blogging over at Team Geared Up about the fact that's it's the perfect time to start training for this years Dublin Marathon. The beginning of June is roughly twenty weeks from marathon Monday so if you're thinking about it there's training plans in this months edition of the Irish Runner magazine.
It's 4 years since I did my first.

Happy Wednesday!

We're+in+dun+laoighre

2007-06-04T14:06:00.001Z

Now!

Bee's/ Wasps nest in our Shed

2007-06-04T10:00:00.000Z

Found this funny looking item in our shed today. There was life in it (bee or wasp)!

Moving On

2007-05-31T07:33:00.001Z

I'm trying to get back into a positive frame of mind again after our disappointment with our Round Attempt. I tried to exorcise some of the demons by running the Wednesday night mountain race last night and it went well considering I had almost 20 hours of running in my legs from last Saturday so "all is good" as Grace likes to say.

I bought this dress on line (the one pictured above) for a wedding Thursday week. My first clothing purchase on line I think. I can just about squeeze into it and considering I'm tiny I was a bit surprised! Now all I need are accessories. I'm considering green shoes. I also have gold sandals which look beautiful with the colour but cos I have muscly legs I can look like I have pole dancer legs in very high heels (you know when people who wear heels all the time develop muscly calves?). Anyway enough of that.....

Speaking of on-line purchases I made my first e-bay purchase too. I bought 45 metres of this sisal rope stuff for our newly built deck. The intention is for it to look like this:

I have two weeks off now from work after tomorrow so intend making the most of the time and trying to sort out the garden.

The kids we're going to be fostering are meeting with their social worker today and she should be showing them pictures of us and our house and the rooms we've done up for them. We should be meeting them for the first time in the next few weeks with them moving in early July. I've handed in my notice to work, which was easier than I thought, so finishing up at the end of June.

Anyway no racing for me this weekend, I'd love to be heading off to run Carrantouhil but with Grace's exams starting on Wednesday I need to be at home this weekend and not heading to Kerry. Good luck to anyone doing the Women's Mini Marathon!

Tuesday Stuff

2007-05-29T08:41:00.001Z

Reading Omani's blogpost about liver got me thinking about the cost of certain food/ grocery items; something Grace mentioned yesterday.
Why is it that the 1 litre bottles of Volvic usually cost more than the two litre. I know there is the convenience of 1 litre, you can't carry two litres in a normal size bag (unless it's cider in which case it'll fit neatly under your hoodie). I love those 1 litre bottles cos I drink tonnes of water and they're real handy...anyway. Also if you buy a whole chicken it's always cheaper than just buying a couple of chicken breasts, it doesn't make sense to me.

On a seperate topic I was reading Midget Wranglers account of a nice Sunday morning in Dundrum Town Centre and I thought it was great to see a nice post about Dundrum. Why do people normally slag it off so much? As I said in the comments you'd swear Dudrum was the centre of all evil the way people go on. Now I'm not a Drummy Mummy or a Lady who Lunches but I just thought the need to defend Dundrum a little bit. Probably because I spent a couple of the most stressful years of my life on the construction of it that I feel sensitive. I also have one of those 15 year olds who likes to hang around Starbucks or BT2 or whatever but so what? Grafton Street doesn't put up with half the slagging....

And while I'm pointing to other bloggers; head over to Bock's and encourage him to produce another fairytale, the last one was classic. You'll really enjoy it.

Wicklow Round

2007-05-27T07:37:00.000Z

Unfortunately the round attempt had to abandoned due to sever weather. We were unlucky. I'm gutted and the tears are coming fast and furious but I know tomorrow I'll have gotten over it. And considering we spend 20 hours on open mountain my legs are surprisingly ok today. My feet I think have "trench foot" cos of the rain; lovely image that isn't it? Bet you're glad I didn't post a photo! I plan on posting properly about the attempt tomorrow.

BIG HUGE GIANT thanks for all the comments/ support and good wishes on all the various blogs.

Duvet Day

2007-05-25T13:02:00.000Z

I'm spending the day in bed in preparation for our Wicklow Round attempt. I will move only to eat and blog! You can follow our progress here. Kick off is at 2am.

I Heart Blogger

2007-05-22T12:35:00.001Z

I was explaining over at Wednesday Night Runners the problems I was having with flickr, wordpress and three and my mobile blogging. It seems mad that you can't mobile blog direct to wordpress without going through flickr? I had so many problems with various things, not all about wordpress or flickr or three but a combination of all of them.

So I'm sticking with blogger. All I did was take a photo on my phone, send it to blogger and they set up the blog and the whole lot. Completely painless. I'm about a week trying to sort it out elsewhere. There's also no issue with titles and the text of the post with blogger whereas flickr just seemd to disregard all the text that I sent with the photo.

So here's the new website for our Wicklow Round attempt.
Lots of test photos will follow until our attempt on Friday night begins. Then I will hopefully be sending photos live from the wicklow hills and friends and family can track our progress!

A Complete Wuss!

2007-05-21T09:25:00.000Z

Well I gave the rock climbing a shot but I was a complete wuss. The fear as I got higher just got hold of me and I kept thinking "if I go higher I'll freeze so I should just come down now"! I'm really glad I gave it a go. I might even have a go on an indoor climbing wall. When I can trust the ropes a bit more I might feel better.

Photos of the group here.

And I got my new phone which means I'll be moblogging all over the shop. Well not really but I'll be testing the principle over the week over at Wednesday Night Runners with the intention of moblogging our Wicklow Round attempt over at Team Geared Up starting this coming Friday night/ Saturday morning.

Worried Sick

2007-05-18T09:31:00.000Z

Sunday: Rock climbing.

To do: Cut my nails.

Me: crapping myself (not just about the nails, it's more to do with the-hanging-off-a-rock-face-by-a-rope-and-being-afraid-of-heights kinda thing)

Party of 5

2007-05-16T09:42:00.000Z

We have a meeting with our social worker again tomorrow morning about the fostering. With her will be the children's social worker as we move one step closer to being a 'party of 5'. The whole process has been going on for almost a year now and it looks like we will have progressive meetings with the two children through the next 6 weeks or so and them finally moving in with us at the end of June early July. We're lucky in the way it's all happening as it's not been an emergency situation where children are pulled from an unsafe environment and just landed with us. They've been in short term care, so now the long term care (i.e. us) can be planned properly.
The social worker had a look at the 2 new rooms we have done up for the kids. They'll have 1 each, which will be a big bonus for them as they have been sharing. It must be incredibly scary for these kids. Being landed with complete strangers. The good thing for them will also be that they will be closer to their other relatives when they come to us, right now they're a bit away and don't get to see them much.
So in the immediate future I have to hand in my notice to work, which is hard. I've worked in construction for years and absolutely love it but I want to do the fostering thing much more. I will so miss all the lads and their filthy sexist jokes, really, They're a great bunch. I find their sexism quite sweet! Construction is such a tough, honest days work, I have so much respect for those on the ground. I worked in a drawing office for years and that was so full of shite. Drawings mean absolutely nothing compared to what actually happens when concrete, timber, blood, sweat and tears come together on a site.
Anyway better get back to work....

Bright Ideas

2007-05-15T12:48:00.000Z

I didn't really see the point of twitter when I first heard of it but then a light bulb went off over my head! What a great idea for my Wicklow Round. I could text in where I am and on what summits throughout the 24 hours. I'm going to also try sending photos (as suggested by Robin over at Team Geared Up) so I may just go shopping for a new phone ;-)

On second thoughts maybe I'll just stick to the photos. I'll probably have enough to be thinking about already!

A Long Weekend of Mountain Running

2007-05-14T11:25:00.000Z

Look at those sexy pins! How could anyone resist? And as for the footwear...aren't gaitors just the sexiest things since support tights? The photo was taken during our last serious training session before we attempt the Wicklow Round. I was blogging about our entries being finally in over at Team Geared Up. Flickr photos from our training session here.
They're not hairs on my legs by the way. I believe I'm tough but I'm not male. They're multiple scratches from trying to bushwhack my way through burnt gorse and being stupid enough to wear shorts. I also fell down a bog hole, well one leg fell down it and the other hit the side so pain, pain, pain (for about 2 minutes).
Well we're entered now and it looks like we'll be the first to give it a go. Fingers crossed firstly that we complete it, all being safe and well. And secondly that it takes no longer than 24 hours. The big day begins in the early hours of Saturday 26th May.
Yesterday was spent runing legs 3 and 4 of the Wicklow Way relay. Again more blogging about that over at Wednesday Night Runners.

There's so little time for anything these days with all that's going on. Since the start of the year we had the Snow Race, the Connemara Ultra, the Adventure Race and coming up we have the Round and the Relay. I'm taking two weeks off work while Grace is doing her exams. Luckily for us she is studying while we're doing all this running so she doesn't mind that we're not around.

Banana- Oat-Walnut Muffins

2007-05-12T18:23:00.000Z

This recipe is especially for Eric from Journey to a Centum who is just over 6 weeks away from doing something incredible.

Aisling's Banana-Oat-Walnut Muffins

2 bananas mashed up
40g of shelled/ chopped walnuts
1 cup of oat flakes
2 and a half tea spoons of baking powder
350g flour (plain or self raising)
100g of castor sugar (ordinary sugar will do also)
115g butter
2 eggs
250ml of milk
a little pinch of cinnamon and salt

1. Heat the oven to 200 deg celcius, 400 far., Gas Mark 6
2. Sift the flour and baking powder together into mixing bowl and add sugar, cinnamon and salt.
3. Melt the butter gently in a sauce pan (pot).
4. Remove from heat and whisk in the eggs and the milk.
5. When it's all mixed, fold in the flower with the mashed bananas, oats and walnut pieces.

6. Spoon the muffin mixture into greased muffin tins or else cake cases for bun size.

7. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden.
8. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes (if using cases, put cases on wire rack to cool).

This will make about 12 muffin size or 24 bun size. Enjoy!

and yet more running......

2007-05-11T07:27:00.000Z

Lots more running this weekend; should be the last weekend of serious running before our attempt on the Wicklow Round. We reckon it's at least 120k and it will probably take the gang of 5 of us about 24 hours. We plan on starting at about 2am so finishing hopefully the following midnight. It's probably the best time of year to attempt it as the weather is good, days are long, heather is short etc. etc. Lots of people have offered logistical support along the way which is great and we will really need it and appreciate it.
So early tomorrow morning we will head off for about another 8 hours on the hills. Forecast isn't great so will be carrying jackets, spare gear etc. and need lots of water for 8 hours.
Sunday then will be back on the hills with a gang to run legs 3 and 4 of the Wicklow Way relay. This should take about 2 hours and finish in Glendalough. I love all runs that finish in Glendalough. I love lashing in at the end, barging through all the tourists who get in your way on the tracks!!
Wednesday night's mountain race went well for me so was in good form for my day off work yesterday. Carpet delivered and done by 8am, shopping in the morning, 10 mile run in the evening and baked apple crumble for after dinner last night and it was yum. When I give up work I can see myself eating all day which won't be good for my running at all!

oooh i've been tagged.....

2007-05-09T14:07:00.000Z

I've never been tagged before so this is a blogging first for me. Spoon from It's No Picknick is the person responsible.

Alphabet Scoop Meme

Available or single: Very married.

Best friend: Audrey, from school, although I don’t see her that much!

Cake or pie: Oh the choice would kill me, I would have to have both.

Drink of choice: H2O

Essential item: Trainers

Favourite colour: Pink

Gummi Bears or Worms: Worms, they make me smile when I think of Phil and Lil liking worms in the Rugrats.

Hometown: Dublin, never lived anywhere else.

Indulgence: Eddie Rockets Kit Kat Ice Cream dessert. The yardstick by which all desserts are judged.

January or February: January, February, like me, is too short.

Kids: Yes, one daughter.

Life is incomplete without: Goals

Marriage date: September 9th 2001, 2 days before 911.

Number of siblings: Eleven, yes 11. Very Irish Family. And I'm the youngest.
Oranges or apples: Oranges, even the tinned ones are good.

Phobias/fears: Heights. Which explains why I’m going rock climbing Sunday week, thanks to Karen. Scary stuff......

Quote, favorite: Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them. Albert Einstein

Reasons to smile: getting what you want ;-)

Season: Summer, I love to tan even though I know I shouldn’t!

Tag three: I doubt I have that many readers, but if you read this consider yourself tagged, please.

Unknown fact about me: At the moment I only have 6 toe nails.

Vegetarian or oppressor of animals: bacon and cabbage, yum yum

Worst habit: I have no patience.

X-rays or ultrasounds: Ultrasound sounds serious, I’ll go with ultrasound.

Your favorite foods: Banana-walnut-oat muffins(my own home made recipe!), fish and chips, superquinn sausages on fresh superquinn bread rolls and my all time favourite Fruit Pastilles – I’ve had 8 packs in the last 3 days.

Zodiac: Sagitarius

24 hours of flickr

2007-05-08T08:12:00.000Z

I decided to take part in the 24 hours of flickr (May 5th) and document my day on Saturday from getting up, driving to Wicklow, running up lots of mountains for 8 and a half hours, car getting broken into, dinner at the mother in laws and home to Grace. That just about sums it all up.

The 8 and a half hours running was the best bit! Bits of walking/ navigating/ stopping in the pub in Drumgoff for a lucozade (trying not to stand too close to ordinary folk as I was pretty stinky at that stage).

Anyway I took tonnes of photos. The mountain ones will all look the same to most people but the idea was to document for ourselves the various summits we had to reach so that when we apply to do the Wicklow Round attempt we have an idea of the splits (times between each summit).
The rest of the weekend was spent decorating, oh how unbelieveably shite that was. I am so sick of painting. It looks like our 'new arrivals' will be coming at the end of June (not January, as typed earlier!). (Here and here is what that's all about). At least now the house is finally coming together, with the major rooms all ready for occupation! Now all I have to do is give up work.....

Meeting Strangers on the Beach!?!

2007-05-03T14:14:00.000Z

I was blogging recently about answering a 'call' from Claire of Gingerpixel blog to pose for some photos on Killiney beach. And here are the results of our session and here is the set of all the portraits. Claire is so talented, the photos are all just incredible.
Myself and Tony found it hard to relax, we're always shy with cameras. I was worried we would look so stiff! But these are gorgeous! I would highly recommend Claire for any of your photography needs!

Poor me...

2007-05-03T08:09:00.000Z

Aww. I fell during last night's mountain race and today I am sore. Not bruised sore, right now it's more grazed sore. It was one of those falls where the ground was rocky and uneven and I hit along my entire right side. The graze on my lower arm is so sore right now I just want to go home and lie down! I wish! I whacked my chest off a rock too and I'm interested now in what that bruise is gonna look like.

The Week in Racing....

2007-05-01T12:37:00.000Z

I'm trying to summarise all that's been happening this past week. I've done two mountain races (Ticknock and Cushbawn)and including tomorrow nights race that will be 3 in a week. My legs don't know what's hit them but I'm doing speedwork too so hopefully that will counteract it. The mountains are fine for endurance but for speed they can cause you to slow down a little.
Tony and Gary and Niall went out on their reccie of the Wicklow Round. It's a project that's very important to Tony and although there's a few us who will be tagging along, it feel's like Tony's baby. He (along with us) will probably be the first to do it, haven't heard from anyone else attempting it yet so fingers crossed for him (and us). It'll be an 8 hour reccie on the hills of the second stage of it this Saturday. Let's hope we don't get weather too sunny as we will be carrying more water than we ever have before. Heavy!
Trail Blanch Font Romeu (finally) put up some photos of the snow race this year. Only one I noticed was of Tony, pictured above.
I'm still blogging away over at Team Geared Up and our own running blog Wednesday Night Runners. I'm hoping I'm not being too non-adventurous for Team Geared Up. I love running, that's all.
I'm still trying to put together final preparations for our all female team for the Wicklow Way Relay. I love the idea of 8 girls covering 120k of the Wicklow mountains and not being anywhere near last! Clonliffe girls are just the best, the club has come on heaps since Bronagh took over. We're running and winning all around us on the mountains!

ready for my close up.......

2007-04-27T22:48:00.000Z

I was reading that girl one day and it led me to this. So the three of us (me, Tony and Grace) are signed up! I couldn't believe it really! It genuinely feel like a real privelige to be involved. Claire has such stunning photos, the ones of her children are particularly beautiful.

It will be a chance to have a photo of our family as it stands now, right before it changes forever. And for that I am very grateful to Claire for the opportunity.

Joke

2007-04-27T09:40:00.000Z

What's Irish and stays out all night?

Patty O' Furniture.

Adventure Race

2007-04-23T08:33:00.000Z

I've been blogging all over the shop about it so I'll just send you here and here and here. There's a couple of posts on each sometimes! (Adventure Racing can involve various disciplines but usually it's canoeing, mountain biking and mountain running with navigation on teams of 4). As expected Krissy never stopped laughing the entire day.

Yesterday was spent recovering as I was wrecked from lack of sleep, not from the race. Back running properly now so next up will be putting teams together for the Wicklow Way relay, training for attempt on the Wicklow Round and then Jungfrau Marathon in September.

Blogging, Blogging and Blogging some more

2007-04-17T11:23:00.000Z

I've been blogging away from home! (no not just Wednesday Night Runners) but on a proper looking website!!! I'm so pleased to have been asked to join Team Geared Up blog. It's a sporty group blog about all things outdoors. Take a visit and leave some comments! It's a great reference for adventure racing, climbing, any kind of outdoor gear really!

I'm doing blogs about running and my first one was about the Connemara Ultra. I've blogged about our beginners attempt at adventure racing. Any good running stories, give me a nod!

Back to Work

2007-04-16T09:33:00.000Z

There's been lots happening but nothing really worthy of a blogpost. We were in Wexford for Easter, great time really, but lots of hassle with the noisy neighbours. Turns out the landlord, who said he had given them a months notice, hasn't actually, so we intend going to the gardai ourselves to make a complaint. Bit of a pain but we have nothing to lose and a street free of vodka and beer bottles to gain.

Lots of mountain bike training has been done in anticipation of the Adventure Race this Saturday and of course I've been blogging about that over at Wednesday Night Runners.

Canoeing for us all this Wednesday in Blessington, I better remember the camera this time.

We got tonnes of work done in the house. All the kids bedrooms are more or less sorted and Grace is now settled in hers with a few minor items to sort. The skip is full of junk, the new shed is ordered and so is the new carpet. It'll be a new house before the new arrivals get here! It feels good to be a bit more clutter free but I have a lot to do yet. Grace in fairness got rid of lots of clothes and freed up lots of space.

If we get a few more good weather weekends we can get the garden into a suitable state for kids to play in and if we can afford it, a deck.

Wow I'm tired after typing that never mind doing it all.

Builders Holidays!

2007-04-06T07:59:00.000Z

Being a builder means I'm off work now till Monday week!! wOOt!
I plan on doing lots of painting in preparation for the new arrivals. That's after all the mundane stuff of the house being filthy cos we're too busy mountain biking/ running and canoeing to clean/ tidy it and the 7 loads of washing to be done. So be it.

Last night was spent canoeing on Blessington lakes with the gang with the backdrop of the most spectacular sunset.

The Chipper in Naas

2007-04-03T07:40:00.000Z

After visiting my Dad in Naas last night Tony, Grace and I had our usual post-marathon splurge. It usually involves fish and chips in a supermacs in Moate or somewhere but since the soup and sandwiches after Connemara were so good the splurge was postponed till last night. There's a sit down greasy-spoon-type chipper in Naas and it serves massive portions. Great big heaps of fish and chips and beans and anything else you want to shovel into your face for a well-deserved feast.
In general, I'm not a fan of chippers outside Dublin. They are never Italian and therefore never any good cos they serve frozen chips. But this chipper, being just inside the pale, I think, is brill and is Italian.
We resisted the urge to grab a McFlurry on the way home. Angels we are.

Connemara Ultra 2007

2007-04-02T09:10:00.000Z

Well myself and Tony completed our third Connemara Ultra yesterday. It really was great. I know that's hard to believe if you are someone who has never run long distances but it really was. We both always enjoy Connemara. I know there's the usual cliches about the scenery but it genuinely is incredible and it does make you think about something other than running.
You know if you are running a race and you have to stay focused and not drift because then you slow up, well Connemara is one of those races that you actually want to drift off. It keeps your legs at a slow pace and that is quite hard to do for the first 13 miles. You really want to hurry on and get a few miles under your belt, but the thing to do is go easy.
I've done all 3 ultras in much the same time, and the 3 parts in 3 even splits of 1:50, giving me a finish time of 5:30. This means I'm actually speeding up for the last 13 because it's uphill mostly. I actually fly in feeling absolutely great, huge rush of adrenalin when you get to the top of the hell of the west and then flying in the last 2.3 miles. Jaysus it's great!!
The miles absolutely flew by, I couldn't believe how well it went, luckily for me. It's such a well organised event. Ray really must work full time at it.
Liam, Gary and Tony all ran PB's and the girls all had super runs in the half, along with Eugene. Lots of familiar faces down there too but unfortunately because it wasn't a secure baggage area I couldn't bring my camera. I took some photos the day before of the scenery but I forgot the uploading cable so will have to post later!

Next up is the adventure race 21st April. Scary this, as I'm a big wuss on the mountain bike and my legs will still be tired for the run and I'm no canoeist!

Update: photos from the day before in Connemara.

Connemara Ultra

2007-03-29T09:50:00.001Z

Myself and Tony are off to Connemara, with most of the gang, this weekend for our annual Ultra! I love this race.

Connemara is not so much a race as an experience. I've felt good for most of the race the last 2 times and hopefully this year will be the same. I love that feeling when you're running up the 'hell of the west' and you just say to yourself: "I feel f*cking fantastic". It only happens in Connemara! And that's after you've run about 37 miles and have 2 more to go! Last year I had Paul with me for the last 2 miles and we really encouraged each other along.

I always say hi to everyone I pass in Connemara especially if it's on an uphill. I'm probably more used to hills than some of the people I meet en route so I alway try and encourage others up them. It's a tough course for those of us who have done it before but even tougher for the newbies.

For those who think it's mad running 39.3 miles here's how I get my head around it: I jog really slowly for 13 miles, even slower than I think I should. I'm trying to make those miles not register in my legs. Then when I get to the 13 mile mark I forget about them altogether and starting counting up the marathon miles. So in effect I start to count the miles from scratch at that point. So when I get to mile 14 I actually count that as mile 1 and so on from there. That's cos that's how it's predominantly marked from then on. It fools your brain and so kinda fools your legs!

The next 13 miles are fairly flat so I run at my normal pace. Towards the end of this 13 miles as I'm coming towards Leenane I start to meet marathoners from the regular marathon race. This is a great distraction as I say hi and how's it going to anyone I pass.
The next 13 miles is all mostly uphill but the key thing is once you turn at Leenane with 13 miles more to go, you just keep telling yourself at that stage that you are heading for home. Just get up those hills, one foot in front of the other, that's all it is and get home as fast as you can.

Simple eh?

(It is really, it's the months of training that are the killer, the race is the easy bit!)

I was blogging on our running website about the essentials to wear/ bring here.

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

2007-03-22T10:36:00.000Z

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

From The Poetry of Robert Frost by Robert Frost

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15717

With the link above you should be able to hear the poem read by Robert Frost himself.

JFK Arboretum New Ross Co. Wexford

2007-03-20T10:44:00.000Z

Spent Sunday at the JFK Arboretum in New Ross, Co. Wexford. Great place, trees and plants were wonderful. There's some lovely walking trails and in the Summer it'd be a great place for a picnic, has a playground too. We did the St. patrick's day parade in New Ross on Saturday too! Priceless! Loved every minute of it!

Some photos here.

Fostering and the Changes Ahead Part 2

2007-03-15T10:36:00.000Z

Been thinking a lot lately about the changes ahead and that makes me think; if it's scary for us it must be frighteningly awful for a child. Myself and Tony have finished the course that we had to do and we're also about to come to the end of our assessment. So it feels like it's all about to start.

There are simple things to sort out, even in a practical sense.

1. We have to have a daily routine going, something that hasn't been done by us before because we've both always had to work and were never at home during the day. I love making lists so I intend to do a daily schedule and try stick to it, that way we can hopefully have time for everyone's needs. Can't spend all our spare time running anymore!

They have a couple of children in mind for us and we have been thinking about them a lot, even though we know nothing but their age and gender.

2. Saturday morning TV is something I've not done since Grace was tiny! Looking forward to it.

3. Budgeting for holidays throughout the year, instead of booking one (or 3 or 4) and going! No more running trips together that would involve being away from the kids for long periods. But we can still do the odd marathon/ ultra but just seperately and once we have established we can afford it. Maybe a trip to Disneyland every 2 years!

4. A regular grocery shopping day: lunches for 3 children for a week, dinners for 5 for a week. Might make up a menu plan for each day and shop for the ingredients. Saw a hint on some website about doing an excel document with your shopping list and putting an x next to what you need, filtering out just those and bringing that list shopping. We need to do that as we often come home with things we have 3 of already and forget to buy what we actually need.

5. Get involved with GAA or soccer. Definitely want to bring the kids to some kinda match, must talk to some of my family members about this, as me and Tony know nothing. The zoo is also a place we haven't visited in a while. We did lots of things when Grace was small, now we can visit all these places again!

6. Have a board game night. This is something even Grace loves and it's rare to find something that kids of all ages like. Also that could include the game Buzz Junior which gives a 4 year old as much chance of winning as anybody. Maybe have a movie night, once a month? And a baking night!!!wOOt!

7. While I'm good at using my camera all the time, I want to make sure I start using the camcorder a lot of the time to record special events for children in our house. I can't wait to get started.

8. Memories, life books and treasure boxes. Keeping things safe for these children is going to be a serious priority for us. We got so much inspiration from the course about this.

9. Budget for different expensive times of year, besides holidays such as; back-to-school time, Christmas etc.

10. Maybe do a parenting course or read up on those kinda books I haven't read since Grace was born.

11. Bikes and wellies for all.

12. I plan on trying to get involved in some kinda community things, I don't know what cos I haven't a clue what exists but it might be something to involve the smaller child or it could be something I do while they're at school. Also plan on keeping better contact with my friends who are stay-at-home mothers. They're all such good parents, well behaved kids, healthy food, all that kinda stuff!

13. We have to buy some new furniture for the rooms to cater for the new arrivals. We also have to finish decorating the hall and kitchen. Do the back garden, including deck. Turn the office into a room, hopefully for Grace. Get a new front door. Organize all the junk that currently clutters the kitchen.

I'll probably add to this list as I think of things. On Friday we will find out more about the prospective new arrivals, we have so many questions. I'm so excited though.

Wednesday Night Runners blog

2007-03-09T10:08:00.000Z

Wednesday Night Runners

Check out our new running blog at the link above. It has the profile of all the gang and what our intentions are, running wise, for the future. The plan for 2008 seems to be the Gobi March. From now on, myself and Tony will probably not be doing any multi stage events together as we couldn't both be away from the kids at the same time. Aw.

I'll hopefully aim for the Himalayan 100 mile stage race in 2009.