The final total: €4,750

Thank you, thank you, thank you. The final total of €4,750 raised is three times our previous best effort.You are all amazing and as a mark of gratitude here's the highlights from the big one. Ladies and gentlemen, video coverage of my participation in the New York City marathon with commentary by Cóilín Duffy.



Thanks to everyone who supported us in any way. I'd like to extend a personal thanks to John Craddock for his efforts in Dublin and to Cóilín for taking time out of his busy schedule to record the commentary for that video.

Like the video says, we'll have a new challenge in August 2009 and we'll be announcing details in March.

The Transatlantic Challenge is set

As the interview above indicates, I'll be gunning for John's time of 6 hours 44 minutes and 30 seconds when I hit the Five Boroughs on Sunday. It's quite simple. If I'm faster I win. If I'm slower I lose. The battle for bragging rights is on, it's on like Donkey Kong!

Dublin Marathon highlights

A confident and assured John Craddock took to the streets of Dublin on Monday morning, and our cameras were there to capture all the action.



Congratulations to John, he avoided the personal worst and completed the full 26.2 miles. John's formal chip time was 6 hours 44 minutes and 30 seconds, which is based on when he crossed the start line. This will be my secondary target in New York, after my existing PB of 6 hours 49 minutes.

If you want to show your support for John's efforts you can do so at our MyCharity.ie page. We'll have further updates throughout the week leading up to part two of this year's campaign, the New York City Marathon.

Welcome Irish Times readers

Some of you today will be visiting this blog for the first time after reading about my escapades in this article from today's health supplement of the Irish Times. Welcome to STIG for CF Ireland's blog...let's get you up to speed.

As you'll be aware from the piece I'm doing the New York City Marathon on 2 November in aid of the Cystic Fibrosis Association of Ireland. On top of this my good friend and training partner John Craddock will be competing in the Dublin City Marathon on 27 October, which is this Monday, as part of our campaign.

Here's a montage charting our preparation that regular visitors to this blog will be familiar with.


There's plenty of info in the posts below about other activities we're doing as part of the build up and other ways in which you can get involved in the campaign.

If you would like to donate check out our MyCharity page and thanks for your support.

The Sunday Column - The last big runs

I am breathing heavily as I write this. I'm set to 'taper' in a week (more on that further on) so I needed to get in a couple of decent length runs before then. Thus this morning and yesterday I hit the mean streets of Ranelagh.


'The Distance', by Cake

I had contemplated doing the Simon Community's 5 miler in the Phoenix Park on Saturday morning but getting out there in time for the 10.30 start was just plain unfeasible.

Instead I opted to do a similar distance around my own area in Ranelagh. I've a lap of the area set out that's just under 2 miles long so three of these would be ample replacement. At 11am with my iPod on my arm I set out from Anna Villa. Around the corner on Ranelagh Road I encountered what would be a recurring obstacle that morning.

Babies, lots of babies. Ranelagh's full of them in their buggies, being rolled around and generally proving an obstacle to cumbersome runners like myself. If slalom running ever becomes an Olympic sport I'm a shoo-in for gold in the over 100kg category.

In my haste to get around them I realised that I had done an awfully fast first mile, I kept this up for the rest of the lap and was duly feeling it with two thirds of my run still to go. I ran a much slower second lap, as more toddlers swarmed the streets of my adopted village.

Up by Belgrave Square I took a mild breather before getting going again. Word to the wise, when you're feeling wrecked and need to keep running 'Stronger' by Kanye West (yes I know it's just a Daft Punk cover, but it's a great cover) is quite a good choice. In more refreshed form I took off on the final lap of the morning, slowing as I came to Birchall's at the corner of my road.

Later that day, having realised I wouldn't be drinking that night, I figured "Fuck it, I'll do another five tomorrow". So at 9.30am this morning I took off once again on another three lap stint.

Sundays are great. Parents are too tired or hungover to bring their kids anywhere, especially that early, so the roads were empty. Ranelagh was a virtually buggy free zone. The one family I did come across that could have impeded me even managed to spot me at a distance and the father moved the rest out them out of the way to clear a path (yeah, that dude's a ledge).

This morning's five was actually faster than yesterday, and both sets were done at a pretty hard pace. Thus I am sitting on my couch three hours later, still somewhat out of breath. Of course the flatmate isn't even out of bed yet, lazy sod.

The reason I decided to put in these two sets when I did was very much a matter of timing. From next Sunday I'll be tapering, which is the fancy way of saying taking it easy until race day. The typical advice is that runners don't do any hard runs in the two weeks before a marathon and instead just focus on staying loose.

So with my training nearly complete for this phase it was time to get in some good miles before race day. I'll likely do another five next Saturday morning before the tapering period begins.

Breaking News - John Craddock signs onto the STIG team

After frantic negotiations that required emergency legislation from both houses of the Oireachtas, STIG for CF Ireland can announce a major breakthrough. Veteran marathon runner John Craddock has signed on to the STIG for CF Ireland team for 2008. Check the video below for details:



John has acted as Emmet's coach and training partner to date in this year's campaign. He will now also compete in the 2008 Dublin City Marathon on 27 October, giving STIG for CF Ireland a competitive presence on two continents within the space of a week.

If you want to show your support for John and Emmet and donate to STIG for CF Ireland you can do so at our MyCharity page.

The Sunday Column - Draw results announced

The 2008 STIG for CF Ireland Prize Draw was held on Sunday and no expense was spared...actually scratch that, no expense was incurred in our staging of the event. Check the video below to find out who won.



Congratulations to all the winners. We have a major announcement coming midweek so keep an eye out for another video in the next few days.

If you missed out on the prize draw and still want to donate you can do at our MyCharity page.

Guest post by Sinead Keogh

Just like busses, you wait for a guest post and then two come along at once. Today's contribution is from Sinead Keogh. Sinead's a fellow journalist whose Inkheart blog where she unleashes the ink from her veins in all directions.

Enjoy.

Bah Normal Society...

In just over one month my student card is going to be out of date. No more printing stuff for free on the fly. No more discounts on clothes and cinema tickets. No more considering the best use of high speed library internet to be watching YouTube videos. Boohoo, well why don't you guest post about it?

It's difficult to know what to do with a guest blog – kind of like driving somebody else's car. You don't want to move the seat on them and piss them off but when you're a girl in a boy's car, you generally have to. STIG is a boy's blog. It has never, to my knowledge, concerned itself with make-up, pink things or frivolity. It's tough to find something in common with it as someone eternally concerned with pink things, make-up and frivolity who has never run a marathon. The common ground comes in the acronym: Student 'til I Graduate.

You wouldn't be wrong if you called me a joiner. I like belonging to things and being helpful. I enjoy events and lists and a nice bit of a sense of occasion. They invented extra-curricular activities with me in mind. As such, my memories of college will always be centred around debating and writing and attending things as if it was going out of fashion. It is those things that I'll miss the most.

In the "big bad world" there's plenty to be doing with yourself. There's always community theatre and charity groups to join. After that, it's almost as if joining groups to make friends when you're an adult becomes a bit weird. When you're 17 you're actively encouraged to social calendar your day up a notch in the pursuit of successful integration into college life. You get past 20 and suddenly that's odd. Suddenly the landscape of things to be a part of is curiously less vibrant. You can play poker or do a musical at any age – but what happens to the brave souls whose common ground was debating or student radio or clubbing together to get really, really good alcohol promotions and not much else?

A lot of college situations don't have to end with parchment in hand. Degrees become jobs, student housemates become young professional housemates, thinking it's perfectly acceptable to stay up all night watching Dawson's Creek episodes remains a curiously static thought. The best part though, the organising of things for free just because you want to, the meeting people you never thought you would, the random things you find yourself doing just because you got up that morning and chose college over bed – seems consigned to studentville. I can live without a Student Travel Card, weekday lie-ins and free stuff in Freshers' Week, but I'll never understand why there aren't adult societies for the pursuit of anything-that-takes-your-fancy-really all about the place. College caters to the random draws and niche callings, and they don't go away. STIG indeed, STIGDAKAS…Student 'til I get dragged away kicking and screaming.

Sinead Keogh's wordpress blog can be found at sineadkeogh.wordpress.com

See, montages do work

Going into training this year my personal best for the half-marathon was 3 hours 15 minutes and 54 seconds. My hopes of bettering this time were hindered by our success in the American Football season which saw preparations put back until mid-July.

Then this happened...



Well the results for the half marathon have formally come in and I cut that time to 2 hours 56 minutes and 26 seconds, over 19 minutes faster than my previous best. Booya!

Lights, camera, action

I'm still very much in the whole formative stages of this video-making malarkey but I've noticed some interesting developments with the videos that I have posted online.

The coffee spill video, which has now surpassed the 2,000 view mark, and one of my videos of The Dude, which is approaching the same mark, are far cruder than most of my more recent work. One of these has actually managed to get quite a few views quickly, namely the video below of Dell launching its new line of laptops



The developments are thanks in large part to the help of other video users. Cóilín has given me tips on how to make better use of Movie Maker while Laura Jane Rich has introduced me to some other programmes which should help improve the presentation of the videos.

These moves are in part to support my new site, the URL for which has been bought but is yet to go live, and of course to improve the videos I'm presenting here as part of the STIG for CF Ireland campaign.

To date last year's Powerade parody is the most popular campaign video to date, while the montage has done respectably so far. The next video should be up before I fly to San Francisco on the 8th of September so keep your eyes peeled for that.

The Sunday Column - We have a winner

Congratulations to Bob Corr who has won tickets to the All-Ireland Quarter-Finals this Saturday in Croke Park. My apologies to Bob for mispronouncing his surname in the video, I read his name as Carr on the list of tickets sold.

If you didn't win fear not for everyone who participated in this draw will be entered into the main draw for the big prizes next month.

Tickets are still available by contacting me at emmetryan@gmail.com

Remember all the money raised goes towards the Cystic Fibrosis Association of Ireland as part of our 2008 which climaxes this November when I run the New York City Marathon.

1,000 YouTube views and counting

My recent experiment of mixing coffee and laptops has now broken the 1,000 view barrier on YouTube. It’s the first video I’ve posted on the video sharing site to reach this milestone and while it’s still a few million views behind Sophie’s dancing vid, I’m still pleased with its success to date.

I’ll be posting new vids for the campaign on at least a monthly basis between now and the race and I’d be shocked if any of them match the success of the coffee spill.

These shorts are far from a solo effort and we’re already brainstorming on the next few vids. If any of you guys have any ideas that could be interesting or funny then we’re all ears.