Running is never fine, be it rain or shine

EVERY week, Maeve Quigley will be pulling on her trainers, breaking a sweat and inching ever closer to achieving her goal of being fit enough to run the Dublin VHI Women’s Mini Marathon on June 3. She will regularly track her progress in a searingly honest column about the aches, pains and inconvenience of making fitness her friend...

IT’S now Week Seven and the big day is looming. With just three weeks to go, the countdown clock on the Mini Marathon home page still has the ability to strike terror into my heart every time I go online to look at the training plan.

I am back on board though, with all signs of a virus almost gone and training is going well. I may well still feel terrible, but there is no doubt that I am getting fitter.

When I started I could not run the length of myself. If you cast your mind back to the first column I wrote, I misread the times and ran for two minutes which left me in agony.

But on Sunday I managed two sets of 10 minutes plus another five with just two minutes walking in between each one. I am managing around 4k in that time and it isn’t too bad.

All being well, that means I could hit the finish line a good hour before my estimated time. I wasn’t really sure how it would work when I signed up so I put myself down for two and a half hours — and anything less than that will be a massive bonus.

Who would have thought this was possible in just six short weeks? There is a full 5K looming on the training plan as well and I think I might keep going after the marathon but we will see how I feel when the pressure is off.

Although I get a great sense of achievement with each completed run, training is not really getting any easier and the Irish weather is not helping. One minute you are struggling to run in the searing sunshine, the next the wind and rain are whipping round as you pray to the gods for a bit of relief.

Last week I decided that running in the rain would be preferable to the hot afternoon but I soon changed my mind after a miserable river run where the rain was pelting down so much I couldn’t actually see properly.

I’m not sure what June 3 is going to bring but hopefully it will be good running weather — warm, overcast and with a cooling breeze.

The fact that the marathon takes place in the afternoon is also helpful. I began to run in the mornings but as the training increases, I’m finding it harder to drag myself out of bed for the privilege.

I have found at weekends that I’m at my best around 2pm but it’s impossible to leave work for a bit of an afternoon run.

This week I’m going to change to after work. It might not be ideal but at least I won’t have to try and get up at the crack of dawn then head to work with aching limbs and a tired soul.

And, thanks to the training and health tips on the website, I have invested in a foam roller.

Currently my new favourite thing, this magnificent invention irons out any knots and bumps and helps give a good stretch, no matter what exercise or sport you might be doing.

These are normally around the €25 mark but I was lucky enough to snap one up in Lidl for just a tenner. It might not be high tech — but it works.

MAEVE is running in aid of St Francis Hospice. To donate see https://vhi-women-s-minimarathon-2018.everydayhero. com/ie/reluctant-runner.