The 2009 Dublin half marathon is tomorrow in the Phoenix park. I’m not crazy about the course change from last year. It has far too many bends and all the running on the path will slow me down significantly. Still my speed on uneven surfaces is another issue. I’m feel I’m full of excuses these days.

This time last year I was in a nervous state, 5 weeks until marathon day. Having just gotten my first injury from running which turned out to be a touch of achilles pain I was unsure of what to expect from the half. Still I lined up on the start line. This was actually only my 4th race but for the first time I felt confident enough to be up with the club running guys and girls. It was a tough race but I went around in 81 minutes which I was very pleased with on this tough course.

Now turn to 2009, my problem is although I know allot more about what I’m doing this year I feel deep down that I was enjoying things and even a bit fitter in 2008. For almost the entire year I have been having problems with my left foot. I have given it almost a month to recover on two occasions and the dreaded plantar facia still keeps coming back as a problem. I was running more last year but not running as fast. I’m now trying to figure out if I’m a tortoise or a hare. I’ve got the speed but with some endurance work as a base I tend to fall over after the first file if I go all out.

Lets see how I go tomorrow.My foot has been ok this week even though I’ve gotten 40 miles and 6 runs in for the past 3 weeks. But tomorrow will be my make or brake day. A mark in the sand of recovery or acceptance that I need to take a couple of months out and work to fix this problem. As with any runner my problem is that 2 months is a massive amount of time. It feels like I would never recover or get back to where I’m at now. I’m 28 next month and time for getting faster is closing in on me. This is probably not the case but picking a time to take that break is a tough decision.

Lets see if I cant go under 78 minutes in the morning and my 47th place from last year. If I go any slower than last year I’m going to be gutted but if I go anything under 77 I’ll be delighted. For a non runner 4 minutes probably doesn’t seem like much but to me it’s a massive difference in fitness and success.