Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page for the 2009 Warriors' Run.

I'm raising money for the NSPCC - I think its time I put this silly running habit to some practical use!

The NSPCC do fantastic work to support children and their families and what they do is needed more than ever

£5 could provide crayons so a child can draw a picture about their feelings when they find it hard to talk about their experiences. £12 could buy a tea set for a play session at an NSPCC family centre, helping mums and dads bond with their children.
£50 could pay for three calls from children and young people to ChildLine.
£100 could decorate the story corner in a playroom at an NSPCC project, providing a warm and friendly atmosphere.
About the Warriors' Run:

The Warriors' Run is a 15km race which takes place near my home town of Sligo.

To quote from the website:

"The race is classified as a road and hill race or multi-terrained, so whilst approximately nine of its kilometres are on paved roads, it is the special six kilometres in the middle, to the top of Knocknarea that gives the race its bite. These six kilometres include a 700 foot climb through fields, loose gravel, unsurfaced and heather paths.At its steepest incline on the way up, even the most professional athlete slows to a walk and then brace themselves to face the equally daunting downhill run, back down the often slippery slopes, even in the driest of weather."

(find out more here www.warriorsfestival.com)

I'm very familiar with most of the route... enough to know this is going to be the hardest run of my life! I've walked up this hill every year for the last 20 or so years, but never all the way from sea level and I've never run up it.

(have a look at the photos and distance/elevation chart I posted)

Click here for a video of the 2006 race... http://www.warriorsfestival.com/content/media (the TG4 vid is best in terms of seeing the course but its all in Irish...)

I expect to be towards the back of the pack. But other than that I have no idea as I've not run anything as steep or rough as this before.

So ...

... please sponsor me and join in the competitive fun by estimating my finish time  (preferably including a supportive message) For every £5 sponsored, you get one guess - please put this in the message box (checking nobody else has already picked that time).

For those who want to apply some judgement, scroll right down to the bottom of the page for some information on my past and present form! For those who just want to make a wild guess, I won't be any faster than 1h 30 m and can't be any slower than about 2h 30 m (as the sweeper van comes round at that time to pick up the stragglers).

The closest guess to my time will win a small prize which will be as kitschy as I can manage (probably involving leprachauns from the Knock airport duty free shop). If that won't get you betting, I don't know what will!

 

Donating through JustGiving

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Form information

My fastest 10k time is 58 minutes.

I've run 4 half marathons since Feb 2007 - the fastest was my first - the Sussex Beacons  at 2:09 - mostly flat and on road. My second fastest was Ranelagh Half at 2:16 - very flat race but a hot day. I did Hastings which was fairly hilly but on roads, in 2:19. My slowest was the Burren Half Marathon (ahem, 2:57 ... but we did get very lost, managing to include an unscheduled mountain and ending up skipping across limestone karst...)

The closest race in terms of distance was the Kingston (half) breakfast run at 8.2 miles - which I did in April 2007 and came in at 1.18.

So as you can see my race speed is usually around or just under 10 minute miles

I've not been running much in the last 9 months - about 3 miles a week. But I'm now back up to 15 miles per week,  albeit at relatively slow speeds (averaging 10.5 minute/mile or worse!)

Most of my training runs involve hills as they are rather hard to avoid in my part of South London. But I'm struggling to find anything to compare to the offroad and up hill part of this race...