Wow what a week it has been. After 49 days, 11 hours and 37 minutes Gavan Hennigan completed his solo row across the Atlantic Ocean. He achieved his dream of being first home in the solo category and also breaking the record for the quickest solo row across the Atlantic from West to East. 
I spoke to Gavan a couple of times last year. He was spending a lot of time rowing off the coast of Cork trying to adapt to the concept of rowing across a vast ocean. From talking to him I got the impression that he had a lot of research done with regards training.
I’m looking forward to catching up with him when he gets back to Galway and hearing about his next adventure.
Sinead Kane set a new world record by running a marathon on each of the 7 continents in 7 days. Sinead has 5% vision. She is hoping this record will stand for quite some time. The world marathon challenge is organised by Galway man Richard Donovan.
The other day I woke to the news that Ron Hill’s run streak had come to an end. It felt like there had been a death in the family. A run streak of at least one mile per day starting on 20th December 1964 had come to an end. Ill health had forced Ron to call a halt to his run streak after 19,032 days.
I thought back to the day in 2009 when I was part of a group that ran the length of the Salthill Prom with Ron. It was a day that will always stand out amongst the many days l have spent running along the famous promenade.
It also gave me the kick in the ass l needed. I’ve had a bit of a pain in my hip. I rested up a bit and it was getting to the stage where I needed to decide if I was going to continue with my plans for 2017.
Thankfully I seem to be back on track. I have passed the 160 mile mark for the year. 
I have two more long runs in mind before Sunday’s Newry to Dundalk half marathon.
On Saturday 18th February I will be holding a running workshop at Westside Running Track.
I have an event page on Facebook for anyone interested.
It is suitable for runners of all levels.