I.5 Mile.

Got up and down for a quick 1.5 miler this evening.  Not too many spectators out to cheer me on as I continue my Juneathon quest - very disappointing!

Thaaar She Bllooooowws.......

The same scene, just a few days ago, and it looks like an entirely different country...

The weather - the runner's constant companion, is fierce moody this year.  Last week she smiled on Friday and cried on Saturday.  Ever since she's blown hot and cold.  To be honest, I've fallen out with her this year.  Last year I could take her moods, actually the more volatile she was the more I liked her.  Windy, rainy, stormy - I didn't mind, I just wanted to be out there with her.  This year, though, I'm turned off by her wild mood swings.  Truth be told I've been making lame excuses just to avoid her.  It's getting a bit awkward between us... this evening I trotted down the road and up again for three miles and everything was like old times again - she smiled, I laughed, we got on so well.  Let's hope this rekindles our love affair... the ball is in her court now...

Mile.

Yesterday I did some sit ups, but failed to blog them up in accordance with Juneathon rules, so technically I'm out.  However, I'm going to plough on anyway - surely a 90% success rate is better than nothing!  Today I ran a paltry mile - it's all I had time to do... better than nought.

Another Day of Sit Ups...

Following yesterday's fantastic run, and lovely weather, comes a dank and dirty day of sit ups, press ups, and not a bit of running. Still it keeps Juneathon ticking, somehow!

7.5 miles, on a day of meetings...

My wife was the first soul I ran past, she on her way back from a walk, and I on my way to Dóilín Strand...

Upon joking about a need for drugs following a stressful day, a friend remarked that I should go out for a run to get my 'natural high' - never truer words were spoken.  Today, I finally broke the 5 mile barrier, for the first time in quite a while, with a fantastic 7.5 mile run, from one tip of the peninsula to the other.  This was a day of meetings for sure.  In the hour prior to set off Yolando and her children called to the house, followed by Big Ron and his youngest Cóil.  When all were gone I set off, down to the lighthouse first of all and then up towards the village.  The first soul I met on my run was my own dear wife on her way back from a walk - so the camera was sprung!  After this I met Síle and her young ones, crossed paths with Mícheál, Peadar and half the world... The opposite tip of the peninsula to us is the famous Coral Strand - Trá an Dóilín, so at this point I turned to head back for home.  For about a half a mile after the turn there's a steep and steady incline.  It nearly broke me!  But what goes up must come down (or at least level off!)... I trotted back home at a decent enough pace - and lastly met cousin Bríd!  A fine run, on a fine day...

Sit Up Day.

It's Juneathon after all, and though I won't be a winner, or anything near, I've decided to keep going for most of the month at least.  Today was a sit up day, just 30 - enough to make my soft stomach churn!  And on it goes...

5 Miles.

This scraggily beauty marks the entrance to our  home in wild and windy Conamara...

Out the road at 7pm, down towards the lighthouse and back up again.  Not a mile gone when the heavens open and I'm being lashed - punished for past sins, or sins of a past life or just punished.  Or am I being treated to nature's greatest cleanse?  While the world inside four walls can look out with dread at June rain, the runner is quick to adjust, and even delight in it.  All day long I felt sluggish, but all of a sudden I'm revived, galloping up Ard na Bleaistéirí, past my mother's house, nearing the top of the hill at Connolly's and still stretching the legs.  By the time I got as far as Matt Tom's I was ready for London 2012.  My intention was to go out for 3, but I ended up stretching it to 5.  And I loved every minute!