Hi everyone,

 Firstly a massive thank-you to everyone for sponsoring me, the money really is going to make a massive difference to St Mary’s church, Foy, again I invite you all to come stay and visit the church (though you might want to wait until it’s warmed up a bit, as my house doesn’t have these new fangled things called radiators. Nevertheless, that is a story for another time.) Thank you too to everyone else for all your encouragement and a reminder that even though the race has been run sponsorship can still be made via this web page

The race:

After arriving to rain in Dublin on Sunday I was pleased to wake up Monday morning to clear skies and perfect running conditions. Lining up for the start of the race, I decided to ditch the I-pod in favour of the Irish supporters and fellow runners. The advantage of this was getting to hear lots of Irish accents cheering me on, telling me I was ‘looking good’ even though I know for a fact they were lying. The disadvantage was having the ‘black eyed peas’ on loop in my head the whole way round. I am now prepared to argue with whoever mentioned the course being flat, as there are without doubt some nasty hills in Dublin, and yes after 18 miles, speed bumps do begin to fall into this category.

Despite all of this, I thoroughly enjoyed the first 23 miles, and crossing the finish line. I am not a good liar, so it would be wrong of me to say I enjoyed the last 3.2 miles, however everything else has absolutely made up for it. Finishing saw me turn from being relatively composed into a sobbing mess, due to feelings of elation, pain, exhaustion but most of all I think I just really wanted a hug. Luckily after a few frustrated phone calls I found Andrew and Bobby and they were able to provide me with shoulders to cry on.

 Aside from all of that, I have kept my side of the bargain. Completed the Dublin marathon in a time of 4hrs 1min 44secs and have the blisters, achy muscles, swollen knee and a medal to prove it. It is an experience I definitely would like to repeat in the future and an achievement that hopefully my friends, family and the parish of Foy can be very proud of.

Thank you all again, Lora xx

ps. Don’t forget to look at www.stmarysfoy.co.uk

 

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.