Running a marathon

A few weeks ago, on October 29th, Daragh ran the Dublin Marathon again. He did it last year - his first ever marathon -and whereas his main goal then was just to finish in one piece, this year his aim was to improve on his finishing time of 4 hours and 9 minutes – so you can imagine how thrilled he was to finish in 3:47.59- a 21-minute improvement on last year!

You might be under the impression that running is something I’ve been doing for ages, but actually that’s not true. I only started to get into it seriously about two years ago, when my wife and I did the Edinburgh half-marathon together. Before that, we used to go running around the park next to our house, but we’d never taken part in a proper race.

After that, I was bitten by the running bug, and after doing a few more half-marathons last year, attempting a full marathon seemed like the logical next step. To a lot of people the idea of doing a marathon seems really daunting- and, of course, it’s not easy-but if you’re willing to do all the necessary training beforehand, then it’s not as scary as it sounds.

I remember one Sunday afternoon about two years ago running seven miles and feeling really chuffed with myself because I’d never run that far before. Now, I’ve run 26 miles for the second time! So if it’s ever crossed your mind that you’d like to run a marathon, remember you don’t need to be hugely experienced –if I can do it, so can you!

By Guest Blogger Daragh

Image copyright marathon.photos.com

Glossary

marathon (n.) - 26.2 miles, or 42.2 kilometres

in one piece (exp.) - without any damage

thrilled (adj) - very excited

get into something  (v.) - become interested

half-marathon (n.) - 13.1 miles, or 21.1 kilometres

proper (adj.) - real, true

to be bitten by the bug (exp.) - to become really interested in something, and want to do it all the 

daunting (adj.) -  difficult, challenging

to be willing to do sth (exp.) - be prepared to do something 

chuffed (adj.) - very pleased, happy

to cross your mind (exp.) - have a thought or idea