Rehabcare running training.

Hundreds catch the running bug and look forward to 6K event

Seamus Enright
at Killygarry


Despite the ‘orange status’ weather warning, pelting rain and wind speeds gusting at between 65 to 80kmph, a brave and sizeable group of spandex-clad runners turned out at Killygarry football pitch on Tuesday evening last week to take part in a trend which in recent years has gripped the nation - marathon training.
Hail, rain or sun, you will find organiser in chief, Peter Walsh at the GAA ground, putting ethusiastic runners through their gruelling paces. Last year Peter encouraged 40 locals to train for the Dublin marathon. Some had endured a 26.2-miler before, but there were others who “had never ran before in their lives,” Peter told  The Celt.
Training twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with a beginners’ session at 6.30pm attracting on average upwards of 100 people, of all ages, sex and ability.
There’s an 8.30pm session for the initiated
Peter pays credits to local charities such as Run DMC 4 CF and other groups for urging locals to get involved in this accessible and social forms of exercise.
“The fun element is so important,” enthuses Peter. “There has been an incredible response to what we’re doing up here. Killygarry are great to give us use of the track here and the facilities; there’s an adult gym up here too. From when we started last year people have just kept coming.
“People are turning up in all sorts of weather, like we had last Tuesday, and it’s not because they feel they have to, the great thing is they want to, and I’m delighted to be able to encourage that.
“It’s a social thing too. It’s so easy for people to sit at home and get into a rut, but the runs here are as much about meeting people as they are about getting fit.”

Act
Peter, a member of the defence forces, who regularly represents his country in the sport, explains how only five years ago he weighed 15-stone and could scarcely believe he could run 5k never mind the 42.195km it takes to run a marathon.
Peter has now completed eight marathons.
“It came to a stage when I couldn’t run for two miles,” admits Peter. “I had to get my act together.”
Posted overseas in Kosovo, on his off-time Peter would set out running around the war-torn country, and as he says himself: “I just caught the bug”.
That ‘bug’ has proved infectious as it’s been passed on to hundreds of Cavan people joining in Peter’s weekly training sessions, many of whom will join him on a run he is organising, on Saturday, February 22 at 3pm, in aid of RehabCare’s Resource Centre on the Cootehill Road.

Route
The 6K route will begin at Meadow View Inn on the Dublin Road in Cavan and is open to people of all fitness levels who can choose to walk, jog or run the route.
Participants can register at Meadow View Inn on Friday, February 21 from 6-9pm and on Saturday, February 22, 12 - 2.30pm.
Entry is €5 for U16, €10 for adult and €20 for family. For more information call Sinead Mulligan on 049 4331161 or email sinead.mulligan@rehabcare.ie 049 4331161
All proceeds go towards the healthy lifestyles programme in the resource centre in Cavan.
In partnership with the HSE, RehabCare at Drumalee offers social integration, community inclusion activities, personal development, independent living skills, sport and leisure activities, part-time paid work and work experience projects to the 63 adults who attend the centre.

Achieve
Back to the training, with 40 regular session runners taking part in the Dublin Marathon last year, Peter is hoping to encourage almost 100 locals to take on the challenge this year.
“People often think - oh I can’t do it, that’s too hard - but it’s not. The hardest part is putting on your running shoes. Some of the ones with us have gone on from running five or six kilometres to doing 10km, or a half marathon and even a full marathon.
There’s no pressure to try to do that, but it’s great to see people set themselves goals and reach high like that and achieve something.”