33 members from Dunboyne Fit4Youth visited Morton Stadium, Santry on Monday 23rd November. The trip was organised by Fit4Youth Sponsors ‘Forest Feast’ and Pat Ryan, Athletics Ireland. They even provided the luxury of a bus for us.
We left Dunboyne at 6.15pm, and were expecting to be very wet on our return, as the heavy rain hadn’t stopped from early morning. But even the weather took a shine to our group. By the time we got to Santry, there was just a very mild drizzle, which kept the dust down while we trained.
Feargal met us there (straight from work, no dinner — such dedication) and gave his group just enough time to breathe in the damp air, and then it was down to warm up exercises and over to the starting blocks. Not a minute would be wasted with his dedicated group.
The rest of the group collected their red T-shirts, donated by ‘Forest Feast’ and sat in the stand to listen to John Travers, one of our International athletes. He told us that he developed an interest in running while in Secondary school, and began to love it. Because he loved it so much, he started to train harder and started to run competitively. He talked about the time and type of training that he does, and sent out a message that, if you want to, you can train hard and do well in Athletics, but that it’s also okay just to run to stay healthy and active, which is the Fit4Youth ethos. He also told us about the importance of continuing to keep up sporting interests especially during exam years in school and College. He answered most questions from the group directly, but didn’t give anything away when he was asked, giving his time consuming training, if he had time for romance (we will keep you guessing as to asked that question…..)
Then it was on to the track, where John (Travers) and Pat (Ryan) organised a great training session. A warm up lap of the track was followed by core exercises and then Paced miles. Our young athletes flew around for 4 laps in amazing times. They were however very gracious in waiting for their mentors to finish…
We were then given water and Forest Feast goodies to have on our way home. We got back to the clubhouse at 9pm, a little tired, but all happy and grateful that we got this opportunity. We re thankful to ‘Forest Feast’, Pat Ryan and Claire from A.I. and of course our own John (Holian) for organising this trip for us.
Pat Ryan sent a very nice email to thank us for attending and for being so enthusiastic with the training. He said that our members were a credit to their mentors and to Dunboyne club — but sure, don’t we all know that…
CLICK HERE to see the photos.
