Hi,
It's been quite an adventure...
On Saturday a bird flew into machinery of the incoming plane and had to be removed bit by bit and parts replaced on the plane before we could board. The two hour delay was too much for some Dublin bound party goers who had even more time to drink before getting on the plane. As they were a bit 'out of order' six women were ejected from the plane after we had boarded and their luggage had to be taken off causing further delay. A 35 minute flight eventually arrived three and a half hours late.
On the positive side I was able to tap one of my fellow travellers for a generous £20 donation to Hopscotch Charitiy.
Managed to catch up with my old pal Mark from Presto days and his wife, plus Eileen from West Meath who used to live in Glasgow.
Anyway onto the main news. Headlines as follows:-

• Completed the 27th Dublin marathon today.
• My unofficial time was three hours fifty two minutes.
• Over £3,000 raised for Hopscotch Charity

Am well pleased with the effort. There was almost perfect conditions for the race. Highlights were the run through Pheonix Park, which is a stunning location and of course all the support from locals along the route.
I found the race extremely tough and will be keeping to my promise to only run this distance once. I had quite severe pain in my hips after about 11 miles and my slow finish was more due to the pain of running rather than stamina which was ok. If I hit the wall, I didn't notice it. Like most races its all down to how you feel on the day and I am really pleased to have comfortably beaten my original target time of four hours fifteen minutes and dropped below the four hour barrier. There are many other tales of an event such as this which hopefully i can share with you next time I see you.
Any positive feelings I have about running a marathon as a personal achievement pale into insignificance at the generosity of those who have sponsored my run and helped to raise a fantastic sum. Not all people had confirmed an exact amount and some cheques for unknown quantities were in the post when I left, but I can confirm that the total will be more than £3000 and will hopefully be between £3500 and £4000 once all the tax gift aid declarations are reclaimed. I really am overwhelmed by your responses and would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart, I hope to confirm the final total in due course and will hopefully pass you a message from Roberta McKay who runs the charity once all is finalised. I called Roberta from Dublin today and she is understandably delighted with the outcome, which exceeds all our expectations.
This of course is a signal that I will be chasing up your pledges over the next week. A cheque would be preferable but I can discuss other methods with you as required.
In the meantime I'm off out to enjoy my first non-pasta meal for some days. I hope to be in contact again soon.
In the meantime, take care and thanks again.
Yours aye
Murdo