#DreamRunDublin18 – 1 week to race day! We catch up with Peter Morrison as part of our special feature…

#DreamRunDublin18 – 1 week until the race day – Interview with Peter Morrison:

You’ll hopefully have been keeping up to date with the #DreamRunDublin18 project, which we are involved in within Rio Olympian Paul Pollock?

In the second edition of the Project, Paul has chosen a group of 10 athletes who he will help towards a sub 3-hour finish at the Dublin Marathon.

There is just over 1 week until the SSE Dublin City Marathon, which incorporates the AAI National Marathon Championships.

In the run up to race day, we have been featuring all athletes, asking about the project, their training and their hopes and expectations going forward.

So far, we have caught up with Conor Hogarth, Tracey Atkinson, Adam Ferguson, Eamonn O’Reilly, Peter Thompson, Philip McBride and Wesley McDowell.  This week we’ll speak to the three remaining #DreamRunDublin18 athletes, starting with Peter Morrison.

Let’s see how Peter is getting on…

How do you feel training has been going since you joined the #DreamRunDublin18 team?

It’s been a roller coaster ride the last few months, from being injured and seriously thinking I would not make the start line, but the last month my training has been going well, and running pain free fingers crossed!!! As before this I have had a couple of niggles that flared up, therefore I was unable to run most of July and August so missed a good bit of Paul’s program, which was very disappointing for me.  So there will not be much of a taper for me!

How has your training changed since joining the #DreamRunDublin18 team?

Firstly I have never had a coach before so this has been a great boost and I feel privileged to work with Paul.  For the previous few years I was involved in competitive cycling and racing, which was a great challenge, but due to work commitments I found the cycling very time consuming and I felt it was time for a new challenge.  The structure of Paul’s program has ensured I am not wasting my training sessions and has made me more in tune with the different aspects of running, i.e. speed tempo and not running flat out all the time.

The focus is of course on getting that sub 3 hour finish time at the Dublin Marathon 2018, do you believe you can achieve this? Have things progressed the way you’d hoped?

I am much more hopeful now in the last few weeks than a month or two ago, the Sub 3hr marathon has always been a goal of mine to achieve.  I  am under no elusion that breaking 3 hours is no easy task but I believe I have the ability to achieve it from the training I have had with Paul and the rest of the team.

What has been your favourite training session since commencing training with the Paul Pollock and the #DreamRunDublin18 team?

I would have to say the long runs even though I only managed getting a few of them done they have been a great tough session especially the speed at which you run them at and the varying pace this is all new to me having to run quite fast were as before I ran my long runs quite slow.

The atmosphere and camaraderie at the group training days is very clear – are you enjoying being part of the team?

Yes Very Much so it has been a fantastic experience to be part of the team and also a great honor to have been picked which was a pleasant surprise!, it has been great to meet new friends who have all supported each other which really helped especially on the days when you have been injured  seeing words of encouragement on the group WhatsApp.

I want to thank Paul for everything that he has done for the team and especially his patience in not binning me!!!! I would also like to thank Ryan from www.nirunning.co.uk and everyone else that has been involved in the project it really has been a great experience.

What the Coach thinks…

It is fair to say that Peter has had a far from ideal build up phase into next week’s Dublin marathon. Unfortunately, he was struck down with a hip injury and missed large parts of July and August, two crucial months in gaining the strength required for covering the marathon distance.

However, following an MRI scan and hip injection, his response has been fantastic. With the pain largely under control, we have managed to build the mileage up gradually and he has reached a decent level of fitness.

At the age of 42 and a current marathon personal best of 3:14, he has managed, largely through hard work and sheer determination, to put himself in contention for running sub 3 hours next weekend. His talent and potential has never been in doubt. Provided his body stays in one piece during the race and he takes a smart approach to pacing the race, then breaking 3 hours is a very realistic possibility.

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