This article is from page 21 of the 2011-10-25 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 21 JPG
AN INAGH woman is on the countdown to a marathon challenge she is undertaking next week.
Laura Gunter will represent Clare in the Dublin City Marathon next Monday.
Laura, who is a clerical officer in the Chief Superintendent’s office at Ennis Garda Station, was chosen from 16 Clare contenders to take part in the event. The competition was run by Spar and Laura was chosen as Clare’s Spartan.
Among the criteria for those interested in getting involved was that participants hadn’t run before. Laura fitted the criteria and took on the challenge with great enthusiasm. One Startan was chosen from every county in Ireland.
“The competition was advertised in June. They were looking for people who hadn’t run before. I was interviewed. They picked one from each county. This will be a first marathon for everyone,” said Laura.
A 16-week training plan was put in place by Karl Henry from RTÉ’s Operation Transformation and Laura followed this every step of the way. She has trained four times a week and has combined short runs with longer sessions, the longest of which was 20 miles.
She is tapering down this week in the run-up to the big event and is looking forward to taking part in the marathon next week.
“A lot of the others are injured. Thankfully I’m not,” she said.
Laura did most of the training by herself, but received good guidance from her family. Her father and brother have run marathons in the past and offered great inspiration.
She has developed a love of running and intends to keep it up. “I love it. I will sign up for smaller runs. I can’t wait for the run now. It’s like waiting for Christmas. All of my family and friends will be on different parts of the route,” she said.
The competition between the 26 Spartans will be decided through voting. Laura is looking for votes, on www.spar.ie. Votes should be cast by tonight (Tuesday).