HARRY WOODS is 74. Leaf through The Irish Runner 1995 annual and you will turn over 16 pages before you reach his name in the complete results of last year's marathon. Harry came in 2,640th in 6:49.47 in his 17th full marathon. Monday will be his 18th.
To say Harry is energetic is like saying Michael Jackson is slightly odd, or that there was a bit of pushing at the beginning of the All Ireland football final replay between Mayo and Meath.
He has completed 14 Dublin City marathons, three Finglas marathons and one in Brisbane, Australia, in 1990, when he won second prize in the over 65 age group. In Brisbane, Harry flew around the course in a comparatively bristling 5:10.
"You might lose 2lb or 3lb over the course of a marathon, but you feel seven foot tall," he cheerily observes. "I used to feel a bit stiff, but I don't anymore. In fact I go out the next day and ease it out. I'll do seven to 10 miles on Tuesday after the marathon."
Fifty years married next year. Sixty years out of Terenure College. The few hundred thousand miles out of his legs has forced Harry to make the transition from running to walking.
At 71, he came around to thinking that all the bumping and grinding of his bones probably wouldn't be that good for someone with plans to be an octogenarian. So he simply slowed down the pace, but not the mileage. Since 1994, Harry describes himself as a race walker.
"When I was younger I used to run the mile and mile and a half - five laps of Lansdowne Road in those days. They, had handicapped races then. I'd get about 20 yards on runners the likes of JJ Barry," he says.
I also competed in crosscountry in the late 40s and 50s against the bare footed Coolcroo Harriers from Tipperary. And remember we came second in the team award over eight miles in the Junior All Ireland."
His training comprises of a daily walk and, critically, a weekend event over 10 miles or so. "But it's a must to get in several events that are greater than 15 or 20 miles," he adds.
"I competed in the Dublin International Two Day Walk in June. We did 15 miles each day. The first day through Portmarnock and Malahide and the second day we came over the hill of Howth." Respectable times of 5:20 the first day and 5:15 on the Sunday testify to a robustness that Harry puts down to a carefully considered diet, good habits and early rises.
"I eat a lot of vegetables, potatoes, fruit and bread in rationed quantity and during an event I take on pure water only," he says.
Energy Action Limited, which provides basic draught proofing to the elderly and vulnerable citizens of Dublin for free, is this year's beneficiary of his efforts. The Dublin City Marathon is obviously the other.
