Gort’s answer to the marathon man

DONAL Walsh is becoming a familiar figure on the roads of South Galway as he tunes up for the Dublin City Marathon, on October 26. Donal who is manager of Rosemount Nursing Home in Gort will be covering the 26.2 mile course to raise money for the Samaritans and he has been in training all year.

“People might have thought I was half mad at times when they saw me. At the moment, I’d be getting up at 6.30am to be out running at 7am, but earlier, when the mornings were brighter, I’d have been out by 6.30am,” he says.
After nearly 10 months training, he’s fairly confident he’ll have the stomach for this month’s challenge. “It’s been going okay. I’d be doing a long run at the weekends and shorter ones during the week. I’d be up to around 14 miles on the long run and I’ll be trying to get that up to between 16 and 18 miles in the next week or two. I don’t think you need to do the full marathon distance in training.”
When he started running at the start of 2009, Donal didn’t have a definite goal in mind, he says. “At the beginning of the year, I would have been going two or three times a week and I decided that I might as well aim for something so I decided to do the marathon. Since I was doing it, I said I might as well help a worthy cause and the Samaritans are an ideal organisation. They do great work and it’s something that runs 24/7. I work in the Rosemount Nursing Home in Gort myself and that’s something that goes around the clock as well so I’d have some understanding of that.”
He also feels that representing the charity will encourage him when the miles start to take their toll in Dublin. “I’m running for myself but I’m also running for the Samaritans and I think that’ll spur me on.”
Already, he has taken part in a number of warm-up events. “I’ve done a couple of 10kms. I ran the Streets of Galway and a road race in Scariff recently and they were both good warm-ups. I know that the full marathon is totally different but I think that I’ll be able for it.”
Consistency in preparation is very important and he can’t take much time off training. “I was out until three last Saturday night but I had to get up and do two hours on Sunday morning. I don’t find it too hard but you’d be a bit tired in the evenings. I’d usually be out four or five times a week. It’s certainly tough at times but there’s another guy around here who’s doing it as well and I’d go with him sometimes, it’s good to mix it up a bit.”
Donal’s fundraising efforts will be stepping up a gear in the run-up to the marathon date. To make a donation to his efforts, call Donal at 091 631847.