Our main priority for January to March was always going to be filling the numbers of people we would like to run with us in each county. Well you must have a goal, mustn’t you?

This seems to be easier said than done… 32 marathons, 32 days, and try and encourage /motivate/cajole 32 different runners to join us each day to run/jog walk or crawl a half or full marathon – sounds simple on paper doesn’t it?

Thankfully we are on target in terms of places filled to date and our team of 25 or so volunteers are working very hard to fill all the places in each county.

Some close friends of mine have a 3 year old son who 18 months ago started to show signs of unusual behaviour that warranted further investigation. Last summer young Tommy was diagnosed with autism at the National Diagnostic centre, SOLAS, funded by the charity Irish Autism Action in Dublin. Now Tommy is number 35 on a waiting list just to get into a school that can specifically deal with the challenge that he and his family face. Yes you read that correctly, number 35 just to get into the school. What a great motivation for Ken and I to remind ourselves of every time we don the runners to go off on another training run.

If you are reading this and would like to join us for one of our runs please log onto www.32marathons.com for further info. We really would love to welcome you on board. We are trying to raise a considerable sum and are asking people that register to raise as they can to help some fantastic charities.

The week just past has been rather easy it must be said. A total of 40 miles or so was covered over 4 days of running with a few swims thrown in. A “rest” week in terms of effort was just what we needed after 3 successive weeks of much higher mileage moulded into the quads, calves and hamstrings.

The 21 days ahead will see a raising of the bar which will see us cover over 200 miles over 6 different routes comprising road, trail and grass that Ken and I have identified as offering the perfect training grounds.

I can’t wait!

Don’t forget, www.32marathons.com… for any information.

Till next time

Gerry Duffy

Could you run over 800 miles in a month and a day? That’s the ambitious challenge facing long distance runners Gerry Duffy and Ken Whitelaw in July and August as they aim to run 32 marathons in 32 consecutive days across the 32 counties of Ireland to raise money for autism charities Autism NI and Irish Autism Action. Each week, we will add a new blog entry.

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