2015 Review - From Lilliput to Portumna in 2,039 miles!

All of a sudden it was January 2015 and the 12 Marathons in 12 Months Challenge was there. Now it was time to deliver. I had managed 7 Marathons (1 more than planned) in 2014 and clocked 1,188 miles (near 100 miles a month). I was unsure what to expect of this year. The races were planned. In fact I had planned 16 of them just in case I got injured.

Prepared: Yes. Confident: Yes. Scared: Yes. Certain of Success: No.

I had promised the Charity that I would do the training, the races and write a blog twice a week. I would try and get some local press interested with their help. Plus I would appear at any event they wanted me to. The rest was up to them. They agreed. I delivered. I will leave it at that. (Please note all money collected has gone to a very worthy cause there is no doubt about that we just could have done a lot more if they had delivered on their side).

What I have learned from this is to aim for more self reliance and taking control of situations as much as you can. Great lesson, applied to my 2016 plans for life, business and running.

I took on another communal challenge set by the wonderful running legend that is Collette O'Hagan. I have to apologise to Collette here as I have lost count of her Marathons totals, all I know is that it is well over 300!! Collette set a challenge to a large number of us to try and run 2,015 miles or kilometres (our choice) in 2015.

When I look over my mileage log I keep on Excel (spot the maths geek in me yet?) and spot the running gaps I come across 3 minor niggles and 1 injury that kept me of the roads for 2 weeks! Not bad and proof that a body at the age of 49 when properly trained and using the proper gear can withstand 5 to 6 runs a week, covering 40 odd miles.

I'm sure regular readers of the Blog will have heard the following numerous times but the members and committee of Marathon Club Ireland were THE major outside factor in my success this year. Their support, willingness to share tips, advice, hugs, Aaron's headlocks, camaraderie and positivity were there for the whole trip and I've had quite a few emotional moments this year thanks to them.

Achieved thanks in no small part to the members of this amazing Club.

 

My other big moments this year were running with Team Kerr, Team Hoyt and my MCI buddies in Courtmacsherry in July, a Marathon PB in Dublin in October and getting to know Team Kerr. Aaron, Sandra and David have reaffirmed my desire to give more than I take. My deep routed value of contributing to make others lives better and a desire to grow and be more.

With Team Kerr and Team Hoyt in Courtmacsherry in July.

I don't say this lightly, this family are pioneers in Ireland when it comes to assisted running. I am committed to see how I can help them in their future endeavours. Please take some time to check out there website. http://www.teamkerr.net/home.html

As you read above I didn't get any major layoffs due to injury and kept running the marathons I had planned. That meant I had done the 12 by mid September! That's when I decided to do all 16! It started with a -1 degree race over icy roads in Lilliput in Westmeath in January and finished last Sunday the 27th of December on a wet day doing a 43.2 km trail marathon in Portumna, Co. Galway. I did enjoy running a marathon in the home country in Brussels in October as well.

24Jan15	MCI Lilliput	IRE	Westmeath	MAR	4:37:15
28Feb15	MCI Lough Derg	IRE	Limerick	MAR	4:52:24
15Mar15	Tralee International Marathon	IRE	Kerry	MAR	4:09:51
12Apr15	Connemarathon	IRE	Galway	MAR	4:15:54
03May15	Great Limerick Run Marathon	IRE	Limerick	MAR	4:09:22
01Jun15	Cork Marathon	IRE	Cork	MAR	4:06:20
13Jun15	Portumna Forest Marathon	IRE	Galway	MAR	4:42:19
27Jun15	Waterford Viking Marathon	IRE	Waterford	MAR	4:20:32
11Jul15	Marathon des Escargots	IRE	Laois	MAR	4:36:13
25Jul15	Keith Whyte Marathon Courtmacsherry	IRE	Cork	MAR	5:53:27
29Aug15	Craughwell AC/MCI Marathon	IRE	Galway	MAR	4:45:30
19Sep15	Tullaroan AC/MCI Marathon	IRE	Kilkenny	MAR	4:14:11
04Oct15	Brussels Marathon	BEL	Brussels	MAR	4:03:53
26Oct15	Dublin Marathon	IRE	Dublin	MAR	4:02:13
15Nov15	Eddie Murphy Memorial Run Marathon	IRE	Clare	MAR	4:23:00
27Dec15	MCI Portumna	IRE	Galway	43.2K	4:33:57

As for the 2,015 mile challenge mentioned earlier, Collette needs to be thanked for setting this. I managed 2,039 miles. 850 more than in 2014 and this definitely helped with the 16 Marathons.

The 16 pieces of bling collected along the way. Recognise any??

So that's 2015 done and dusted. Now for 2016. My intention is to run more, in fact as much as I love doing it and am able to. And I know that is more than I did in 2015. So the direction I'm going in is 20 Races. 16 Full Marathons and 4 Ultra's. I have never done an Ultra so that's new, exciting, scary and means growth. I have also set a direction 2,500 miles to support that.

This blog will keep you in the loop on how I get on and also how the lessons I learned from long distance running can be applied in personal life and business as I set out on a journey to assist as many people that want to from a money driven life to a value driven life; from a profit driven business to a purpose driven business.

Hope you enjoy it! I'm always looking for feedback to help me get better. Feel free to contact me directly to do so on patrickmercie66@hotmail.com

Today January 1st I started with a 7.2 mile run through Limerick City. The journey continues, lots of miles with smiles, daring greatly!!!

Big Hug and Happy New Year, Patte xxx