The day after the night before the day after the night before...

... and yes, it was a long one but I did manage to get to bed by 3am, I may not have slept much but I was in the best place at that time of night considering what I am about to attempt tomorrow! It took a while to pack, say goodbyes and get going but we were on the road in good time and arrive in Naas on time. The plan was to ride the motorcycles to Cork but that plan was hatched weeks before over a cold beer or two. Now that we have factored in running a marathon the next day it may not be the cleverest thing to do but in true man-style and after much debate we decided to do it anyway and worry later.

We spent so much time talking about it that we were now running late so we abandoned plans to ride the long, scenic route there and instead we'd take the direct and faster motorway route. The journey was largely uneventful but still a lot of fun. We did make a couple of stops, or bio-breaks as my American colleagues might call them... I won't go into detail but they can be multi directional and involve liquids, solids or both!! Too much detail??

The scenery was rich and varied, and half way along I realised that today was my fellow runner Monika's last day in Ireland before she heads back to Italy. I didn't get a chance to say goodbye but perhaps she'll be back, it's a very small world!

We had to make it to Cork City Hall by 6pm otherwise we would miss registration and time was flying by. We arrived with minutes to spare and were some of the last to get our packs. Just outside the city hall the owners of a gourmet coffee stall were just about to begin packing up and as they poured the last 2 excellent cappuccinos of the day we began to realise that we were here, in Cork and that tomorrow morning we would be standing less than 100m away in a long line of athletes about to start a 26.2 mile run around this undulating city... and now we were scared! The conversation turned to finishing strategies... we were going to finish but we just didn't know how. I had only ran 22 miles during the entire month of May... 22 miles!! Now that's asking for trouble!