10 Km race finished with a bit of out sch

Yesterday Night was the Mark Pollock 5km/10km Run in the Dark Race and it happened nearly all over the World, in many places here in Ireland but also in New York and many other places. I hope that everyone enjoyed it as much as I did, So lets start first with the Race Report.
I knew 10km running would be though for, it is actually amazing how quickly the body wants to forget the kilometers / Mileage you have already put into it.
As soon as you stop or slow down , the Body forgets and you have to start again , maybe not from scratch but pretty low anyway.
Last Year I did bucket loads of 10 km races , I even did a half marathon . This Year I did Triathlons and shorter races , so amazingly 10 km running was a real Challenge.
That happens if you don't regularly train, OK I knew upfront it would be though and my only goal was to enjoy it and finish it. Still I kept looking at that damn watch and something in me hoped I would run a decent time , the first 5km were fine, or as fine as they could have been.
It was mentally though because it was a 2 Lap race, so it would have been very easy just to step to the left after 5km and finish it but after I had already bailed out on the Weekend from a group Cycling ride after 20 km I decided not this time, it gets too easy to bail out if you do it too often.
The next 3 km were not too bad either , I got slower and slower but that was kind of OK , then the cramps kicked in, and they kicked in big time ,  I gritted my teeth and started to have a rather weird looking running / walking style , sometimes with jumps in it when the cramps kicked in.
But the Crowd and the other competitors were great , they just encouraged me to go on and while I was in Pain I also was thinking of the Guy who should benefit of this Race , Mark Pollock a Blind Adventurer Racer who got paralyzed a couple of Years back, if you don't know him just Google him, an absolute amazing Guy who doesn't seem to accept the word NO.
So with that in mind i finished a beautiful 10 km Race, the scenery was amazing during the Race thousands of Runners in the Dark and we all wore Safety armbands with blinking Red Led's , just seeing those thousands of red flashing Led's was stunning .
Than the real Highlight came after I had passed quite happily the finish line suddenly I saw Mark Pollock talking to other competitors and I got my chance to have a quick chat with him and shake his hand. Which means I had the Honor this Year to meet and greet Chrissie Wellington and meet and greet Mark Pollock , two very amazing Persons in their own right.Both have a very similar Mindset , they do not accept the word NO, meeting people like that is rather special.....

NEVER EVER GIVE UP 

The Wonder Drug : Physical Activity !

I borrowed this Sentence " the Wonder Drug : Physical Activity"  from a Speech I was listening to last Week  during a Patient Conference and it made a pretty big impression on me, because I think I'm living proof that this sentence is very true.
The Conference was held for Alpha1 Patients , it is annually conference to which I try to attend every Year.
Since I'm a Alpha1 carrier and no one can tell me if I ever will run into serious Heath Problems I tend to keep an Eye on the developments in the Research of Alpha1.

It is quite interesting and disturbing at the same time , no one knows why some Alpha1 Carriers ( which i'm ) get serious Lung and liver Disease, however it seems to be a small percentage of carriers who get affected. I know that smoking active and Passive is a huge factor.

I'm not smoking and I don't allow anyone around me to smoke , however I was for easily 25 Years of my life exposed to passive Smoking and that honestly scares me quite a bit , I just hope that this will not bite me at some stage.

Anyway the patient conference was very interesting and one of the guest Speakers was a psychologist, he spoke about Stress,if you are stressed your immune System might get affected and that is something a Alpha1 Patient can't afford and probably no one can actually really afford.

I know from myself if when I'm stressed over a longer period of time, I will get a cold or bronchitis.
So not being stressed is very important to me. One relieve for stress is physical activity , which brings me nicely around to the purpose of the Block , being a Alpha1 Carrier who tries to get fit with physical Activity .
I have now 4 month and 5 Days to get ready for my Half marathon, at the moment i can maybe run 5km without getting into huge problems and I'm slow I mean really slow but I have done now some training's runs and I'm slowly getting into the habit .
 I also have on my Breakfast Table the Training's plan for the Half marathon,every morning when I have my coffee I see it and that is a good reminder that works actually better than to to hang the Plan onto the fridge or something like that.
The good thing about the half Marathon plan is I know that this is only a intermediate Goal if I manage to get this done decently then late in 2013 I will try to do a Half Ironman and even that thought is very existing and a bit scary.
 I have already realized that I miss my Triathlons and I'm currently planning my 2013 season, so looking forward to do it again.
i believe if anyone even thinks of doing a Triathlon he/She is probably already hooked

So more Swim , Bike and RUN .....

everything from 5 km to Half Marathon

This morning I had a 5 km Trail Race and I have ot say that was a though one, the Trail mostly consisted out of Bog or at least that was my impression but even though I got wet and very muddy I really enjoyed that race, I did the "short" version of the Race since I knew I wouldn't be able to do 10 km of this type of race at the moment.
I did the same Race last year and managed to do the 10 km distance , OK just about.
Anyway my running has been a concern of mine , so when last week a friend of mine told me he had signed up for a half Marathon in March, that got me thinking. I realized the only way I will get into regular running habits again is with a scare factor, so the same evening I signed up for that Race as well.
I have done one other half Marathon before so I know how long 13.1 miles / 21 km can be.
Since I have some bigger plans for later in 2013 that half Marathon will be a huge stepping stone. If I manage to pull that one of in a for me decent time then I will go ahead to do a half Ironman late in 2013.
In regards to scare Factor that Idea can't get much bigger but I know I want to do this.

Funnily enough , last Year when I did my first Sprint triathlon another Friend of mine did actually on the same Day on the other site of the World a full Ironman.
 I heard the other that She wants to do another Ironman next Year. It sounds weird but it will be  huge boost for me, that I know a Person who will train to do twice the Distance of the same type of Race.

I'm writing this on the same day when the Ironman World Championship in Kona are about to start, I an hours time. In will be glued to the live Stream to watch all these amazing Athletes.
Time to get ready to watch an amazing Race with amazing athletes ,  I believe this Year there are 5-6 People on the Start line which are over 80 Years of age, not really possible to get a better inspiration