Well we are back, best to start this story from last years race

Race Day 2013, It’s day I will never forget, 1000 odd people there to run / walk the race, family & friends there to support us, a great buzz in the air, but the thing I remember most is the feckin cold, my god it was freezing that day. But Myself and my running partner Shane Carroll stripped down to the shorts & shirt and headed on, in fairness I think it was the cold that kept us going for fear of god should we stop we would have frozen to the floor.

Myself and Shane took a steady pace, meeting up with friends along the way (Hi Terry O’Dowd and David Burke, troopers) and managed to complete the run in a respectable 1:47, I think the congratulatory bum slap every mile spurred us on.

Now there are two things I felt when crossing that line, a great sense of achievement, having never dreamed I could do it, it felt great to cross the line but better yet was to see my wife and family at the finish line spurring me on, and to see the look of pride in my little girls eyes nearly brought me to tears, something I will always treasure.

Like most people I got my fitness back, a love for going out training, you may see myself and Shane running around wexford town in the early mornings or cycling to rosslare and I lost 10kg (from 104kg down to 94kg) before the race, so I lost the man boobs and belly, i was toned as they say.

What is the goal this year, to get fitter, lose about 5kg (christmas splurge), and come in in a better time.  But we also have some new recruits, we have Tim Nolan joining us this year, (makes me sick, he is just born fit, and making myself and Shane look like an asthmatic convention) and we all have a bunch of friends going to do the run / walk this year too.

An executive decision by my wife has concluded I won’t be growing a beard while training this year ( i was having a rocky 4 moment last year), as great and as much as i loved it, there is only some many homeless, hobo jokes I can put up with (I have grey hair and my beard was patchy ginger).

Read my previous blogs from 2013 online, for all our highs and lows in training, injuries, beards and weight loss experiences.

So I say this to all of you who think they would love to do it, or need a goal to lose weight, set the Hope and Dream 10 as your Goal this year, whether you run or walk it, if you start your training today you will lose weight, you will feel great and two great charities will benefit from it, it will also change your life.

So go do it, start training today in 10 weeks time you will be better for it.

– See more at: http://www.hopeanddream10.com/2014/02/06/on-the-road-again/#sthash.NtImmLQz.dpuf