Going Round The Bend In Brno For 6 Hours

Going Round The Bend In Brno For 6 Hours

Dara O’Kearney

Getting ready
In terms of preparation and training, this was definitely one of my weaker efforts for an ultra. While I thankfully remained injury free and healthy, and did follow coach Norrie Williamson’s training schedule as best I could, it’s fair to say that I was struggling with motivation and finding it hard to hit the prescribed times in the speed sessions.

It’s fair to say that since I started playing poker professionally earlier this year, and particularly since my win in February’s European Deepstack Poker championships, poker figured much more prominently in my thinking than ultra running, something Norrie told me afterwards he picked up on from the frequency and content of my emails to him in recent months.

When I was ordered off the track by an ALSAA security guy two 800s shy of the 8 times 800 that was meant to be my final speed session the Sunday before the race, it seemed oddly symptomatic of how the preparation had gone. Mireille’s pleas that we were almost finished and preparing for an important race and had the expressed permission of several committee members to use the track fell on deaf or stubborn ears, and we were forced to beat a premature and ignominious retreat from the track I’ve considered my second home for the past few years since ALSAA Athletics told me I could use it.

Read the whole article at www.rahenyshamrock.com