Joe’s Blog

Hi All
Just to let you know the final amount collect was 4,264 Euro for the charities (ALJEFF-Suicide Centre & adapt House services).
Thanks again for your support, Have a safe and Happy Christmas.

My time was approximately 38:55 contrary to the results listed on the page. Not bad considering the lack of practice imho.

Photos {look - it’s a Web 2.0 app } - www.ece.ul.ie/funrun

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Limerick Blogger suggests Give a digout to people who deserve it and provides details of charities like MILFORD CARE CENTRE, LIMERICK ANIMAL WELFARE, REDEMPTORISTS CHRISTMAS APPEAL, SOCIETY OF ST. VINCENT DE PAUL and THE SAMARITANS

I’ll be running 5 miles shortly in aid of ALJEFF - Suicide Centre and Adapt House Services; ECE funrun

Digouts for charity (donations) are more than welcome…

The fun-run is on the horizon again so I donned the shoes and ran 3 miles last Sunday. It was a nice day for it but I wasn’t feeling too fit. Hopefully this weekend I’ll go better and further…

The blurb about the fun-run:

It’s that time of year again the annual Christmas “fun run” and we need your help again this year. The idea as usual of the Christmas fun run, is to provide a fitness goal that would be helpful for people jogging each day and it would also add a few pounds for local charities for Christmas. The charities people selected last year were “Brothers of Charity – Bawnmore” and “Limerick Marine Search & Rescue”. Last year we collected over €3500 and 50 people participated. Again we would like to thank AIB Bank for there generous sponsorship, and O’Mahony’s Bookshop (Hilary) for providing refreshments at the finish.

This year again we are looking for people to provide us with names of charities that are local and deserving. The idea is that all monies go directly to the charities. If you can think of any charities can you contact one of us, (Sean, Frank ).

Charities supported in previous year were: Friends of the Elderly, Lisnagry, CARI, Brother Russell House, Adapt House, Suicide Awareness, Rape Crisis and Alzheimers Society.

Date: Friday December 7th, 2007

Location: Plassey River Bank

I haven’t been in Limerick recently but for those of you looking for information see: www.ulplassey10k.blogspot.com

Plassey 10K 2007 entry form
Plassey 10K 2007 map of route

I had actually met the runner on a couple of occasions and seen him before the race with a friend of mine. I’d like to express my sympathy for his wife and young child who have lost a loving father.

Rough Translation by me of
http://www.morgenpost.de/content/2007/04/02/berlin/892287.html

For the first time in the history of the Berlin half-marathon, one of the runners died. A 39 year old runner from Charlottenburg collapsed at approx. 12.30 on Leipziger St., the cause of which is still to be clarified. A doctor who was also running at the time began resuscitation immediately. “The runner was brought by a rescue vehicle to the Charité [Berlin hospital] immediately” said Dr. Lars Brechtel, Medical Director of SCC Running. Even though the rescuers acted quickly, it was too late.

The man presumably suffered a sudden (cardiac) death. Physical strain must not necessarily be the cause for such a sudden cardiac arrest, according to Brechtel - almost no healthy person can run themselves to death. A hereditary or acquired heart disease could have possibly lead to the runner’s death. “At this time we can only speculate,” according to the doctor. For an exact explanation of the cause of death a pathological examination would be necessary.

During the Berlin Marathon in 2002, 2 out of almost 40,000 runners died on the 42 kilometer course - a 58 year old man from Denmark and a 38 year old from Panama.

With 80 cases of normal assistance by the paramedics on the course, 96 case at the finish and twelve transports to the hospital, the amount of medical assistance for the half-marathon was the same as the runs in 2005 and 2006, according to the organiser, SCC Running. Circulation problems were the most common cause.

The police hat 350 officers in place and apart from the dramatic death, there were no incidents. 171 cars had to be towed away from the course.

Some updates on the running. In Nov, I did the cross-country run (9K), took a weekend off, then the relay-marathon (12K section), another weekend off (it rained). But then in Dec I got back to the long distances - 17Km and did that 3 or 4 times. Then I was in Ireland for 3 weekends and doing a tour of Berlin on the 13th. So after a month I’m back running, 9K for a start last weekend.

What have I done about driving in Germany? Just a few things like:

• 14 Theory lessons - 1.5hrs each
• First-aid course
• Eye-sight test

I’ve also started the compulsory driving lessons (12) and it won’t be too long before I get to do the other compulsory lessons on the autobahn, in the countryside and at night….
I can so far recommend the driving school - MAX Sicherheitsfahrschule which has the added bonus of driving simulation and a day at the ADAC driving park to learn and practice how to control a car when it aquaplanes etc. It also has several driving instructors and cars.
So far I’ve driven the Volkswagen Caddy (Diesel)

And an Audi A3

As some of you may have noticed, the graphic for the post about the cross-country run changed to a different event (since corrected). Anyhow, I was actually invited at short notice to take part in that very event.

It was a relay marathon, i.e. a team of 5 men (or 6 women) run a distance of 42.2km divided into 12k (or 6k & 6k for women), 10k, 5k, 10k and finally 5.195k. We did it in a time of 02:58:37 and I did the 12k in 0:55:04! We finished 47th out of 591 male teams mainly due to the super fast times of my teammates:

Conditions were ideal, I increased by distance and shortened my average time marginally so I’m quite pleased. We also went for a buffet brunch afterwards in Prenzlauer Berg (€6.50 excl. drinks). They even had some Christmas cake

After this I think I’ll just do some casual running at the weekend and think about doing the half-marathon or marathon next year.

To explain the table above - I finished 122nd overall and 60th in my age category (20 to 39) with a time of 41min and 47sec. I’m glad I ran and I had a good time but it’s certainly not one of my better performances - it was soaking wet and I had breakfast a little too late (for the last 3K I had a stitch). The race was either 8.8 or 9K and timing was done precisely by little chips strapped onto your ankle with velcro.

www.berliner-crosslauf.de

Hehe, thanks to the Eurosong contest in Belgium, nostalgia, a memorable tune and perhaps a little devilment on the part of blogorrah.com, Johnny Logan and Kaye Styles have entered the Irish charts at number 25! The song has not appeared in Germany as far as I know.

The weather here has been surprisingly warm - one of the warmest Octobers on record I hear and its been very dry but today it has taken a dramatic turn in the wet direction and Thu will bring the first really cold spell - down to -2!

I went running again - on the 21st I did the 10K again but yesterday I dug up the courage to go the full 17K! Conditions were lovely and I had the thought of Kaffee & Kuchen (coffee and cake) to urge me on when the going got tough. This is an approx guess of the route - the nicest bit being when we run north on a bank overlooking the Wannesee.

Time: 1:30 approx - we run for 2k to warm up and then do some streching etc.

Regarding politics, I’m disappointed that lack of integrity is being seemingly rewarded - just look at this weekend’s poll. If we compare this to Sweden where 2 ministers had to leave office as soon as it was discovered that the did not pay their TV license and one of them paid a maid/cleaner in cash. see “Swedish minister resigns over TV licence fee”