Bill Stanley

I first discovered a love of running in my early teens, competing at middle distance and cross country events, with dreams of becoming the next Coe, Ovett or Coughlin. The highlight of my early running was winning the U16 Dublin cross country league and going on to represent Dublin against Liverpool. Following a period of illness which saw me miss most of the following season, I eased back on my ambitions of earning a US athletics scholarship and turned my attention to playing rugby.

Roll the clock forward a couple of decades, to one sunny day, when displaying the early signs of a mid life crisis, I pulled on an old pair of runners and headed for Shanganah Park. It didn’t take long for the bug to take hold, and within a couple of months I had joined Bray Runners and was signing up for my first race in about 25 years.

I spent a couple of years running between various injuries and niggles, always struggling to train consistently and with my running constantly competing for increasingly precious time. 2012 was a key year for me however. I made a conscious effort to run consistently and to follow a programme focussed on specific goals. I set myself three target milestones - sub 19 5k; sub 40 10k; and sub 90 half marathon. I finished the year with 3 new PB’s - 18:25 5k (Rathfarnham), 38:58 10k (Parkwest) and 1:29:14 half marathon (Longford).

The question for me now is where to next. Should I set new targets in the same events, should I go longer, or even shorter? For now my immediate focus is Ballycotton, and a sub 18 5k before year end would be good. Who knows then?

I love running for a whole host of reasons. I love what it teaches me about myself, about others, about setting targets and achieving goals, but most of all I love running because it is the part of my life where I feel most in control – injuries permitting of course!