Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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2010 Dublin City Half Marathon
OK, I had a problem. There are two races that I love to run; the Dublin City half marathon in Ireland and the Great North Run in Newcastle, England. Both 13.1 miles long but quite a distance from one to the other. A quick glance at a map will highlight the additional obstacle of the…
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Irish Runner 5 Mile, Dublin
Short and fast race, my fastest ever 5 miler running it in 40 minutes and 6 seconds (08:15 min/miles). http://connect.garmin.com/activity/40733893
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Achill Half Marathon
The Achill Half is one of my favourite races and this year I decided to take my motorcycle along for the ride. As children my siblings and I spent our long summer holidays in a remote coastal village called Claggan, I use the term village in the broadest sense of the word – there were no…
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Cork City Marathon
This was my third Cork City Marathon, and like last year I rode my motorcycle to Cork the day before the race. I was hoping for a new PB as training had gone well after the Barcelona marathon. The ride to Cork was tough, really tough as the wind and rain pushed against me all the…
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Newry City Half Marathon
This was a fine example of how not to run any kind of race. I was running alone and arrived at my hotel early enough to have a wander around Newry for a decent Italian for a monster bowl of pasta… unfortunately Newry is not a town know for it’s culinary variety or quality but what…
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Wicklow Half Marathon
This was the first Wicklow half marathon and was a little chaotic during registration but things settled down as we approached the official start time… only to return to chaos as the start time passed and there was no sign of any movement. The organisers eventually jumped onto a loud speaker where a little information went…
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Docklands Fun Run
One of the pleasures of riding a motorcycle is that you can park pretty much wherever you want… and I really couldn’t get much closer to the start line of this year’s Docklands 8K than this: The weather was perfect and the turnout was again bigger than last year but there is still a building site…
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Kildare Half Marathon
This was Kildare’s inaugural half marathon and a long time coming. The Curragh is a wonderful place to run and perfect for long distance races. We started from the Curragh race course where the army were drafted in to managed baggage and transport it to the finish line in Kildare town. We started some distance…
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Great Ireland Run
This race was my first proper race when I started running a few years ago. Over a pint one night Tanya, Adam and myself decided to become world class athletes… we trained hard, on at least one occasion, and never forgot the social aspect of running by having a slap up meal and a rake…
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Barcelona Marathon
Finally the big day had arrived!! We flew in yesterday at stupid o’clock getting us into the centre of Barcelona very early in the day but it did mean that we had a Spanish breakfast which is always a treat!! In fact almost everything Spanish is a treat; one notable exception is the Spanish Inquisition…
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Barcelona: 2 weeks to go!
Another poor week of running, only getting out on Wednesday morning at dawn for a 10 miler to the Curragh and back. It was the last long run (1 hour 32 minutes) before the marathon. Anything after this will be just keeping my legs warm for the big day!
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Barcelona: 3 weeks to go!
Not a single run this week, and no good excuses!
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Barcelona: 4 weeks to go!
Good weekend of running… a 5 miler on Saturday and a massive 20 miler on Sunday! I finished the all important 20 miler in 3:37 and felt great after! At 17 miles I couldn’t believe how well I felt and hit 20 about half a mile from the house. According to the fetcheveryone.com predictor thingy…
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Barcelona: 5 weeks to go!
This week was a good week of running; 5 and 8 mid-week runs and a half marathon race in Brussels at the weekend. It could have been better though, I missed my Thursday 5 miler and Saturday 8 miler but I’m OK with that. Looking forward to building up to the 20 miler next weekend!…
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Barcelona: 6 weeks to go!
I finally got my groove back on and got out on both Saturday and Sunday for a 7 and 17 mile run respectively. Keep this up and I’ll be fine on the big day! A miracle a may still be required though!!
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Barcelona: 7 weeks to go!
This is last week of pathetic excuses… needless to say not a single run this week BUT starting Monday I’ll be running before dawn every morning. With 7 weeks to go it’s going to be tough but with a minor miracle all will be well!
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DC to NY Part 3
I slept really well and woke late on Sunday morning, missing breakfast yet again. I planned to spend the day in Manhattan but had nothing particular in mind. Walking to the subway station in the light of day revealed a neglected neighbourhood with abandoned warehouses, building sites and a lot of car repair shops that…
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Barcelona: 8 weeks to go!
Finally I’m back to some kind of training. I’m in the US this week and making use of hotel gym facilities. This week started with a pathetic 2 miler, not my fault… the treadmill was rubbish and packed in after 2 miles. Later in the week I managed 11 miles, all on a treadmill which…
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DC to NY Part 2
This afternoon, just before I left DC, I had lunch with good company and got a lift to Washington National (Reagan) airport to pickup my car. Getting to the car hire office proved to be challenging. On our third tour of the airport the comedy had to stop and I was dropped off at the…
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DC to NY Part 1
It’s been a busy week. I’ve been working in Washington DC for the last 4 days and plan to drive to New York for a couple of days before I fly home. The work bit was a sales conference; a seemingly endless tunnel of PowerPoint slides occasionally fractured by food. My arrival at the hotel…
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