Fit for anything

Asthma needn't be a limiting factor when it comes to sport, as five Irish runners taking on the Boston marathon next month are keen to prove. Fitness can actually help control symptoms of the condition, writes Claire O'Connell.

When Allison Drummond announced to friends and family that she was going to run this year's Boston marathon, she was met with incredulous stares. The 30-year-old accounts manager from Baldoyle in Dublin wasn't sporty, she had no running experience and she had been on medication for allergic asthma since her teens.

But when a friend at pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca asked her to join a project to send five people with asthma to run the prestigious US marathon next month, Drummond jumped at the chance. "I thought 'yes of course I'll go to Boston for free'," she says, laughing. "All I have to do is run 26 miles. No problem."

So last winter she started a training programme along with four other adults with asthma, a condition that affects around 470,000 people in Ireland. The project aims to show that people with asthma can and should partake in sporting activities, according to the programme's medical supervisor, Dr Sean Gaine, a consultant respiratory physician at the Mater Hospital and chief medical officer with the Olympic Council of Ireland.

"We're not saying everyone who has asthma should run a marathon, but it's to show that there is nothing that can't be achieved if you have asthma, and to encourage people to say asthma is not a limit to sporting activity," he says.

"Asthma is an airway inflammation that causes difficulty with breathing," explains Dr Gaine. "It's like a big rash in your airways and typical symptoms would be a cough, chest tightness and wheezing."

Inhaler-based drugs are very effective at controlling the condition and exercise also plays a crucial role, he explains. "Regular exercise helps almost everything, and remaining fit is really the centrepiece to a healthy lifestyle. It's very important for people with a chronic illness such as asthma to remain aerobically fit so they can take on the ordinary challenges of life without putting a strain on the system."

With this in mind, the Boston runners underwent medical screening before starting a gruelling training programme. "I went on the treadmill so they could see how far I could go," recalls Drummond. "It's embarrassing now, but I did about one and a half miles. I was delighted with that at the time, I thought I was brilliant."

But under the guidance of trainer Karl Henry, her times and distances soon lengthened. And, apart from several days at Christmas, Drummond has kept up the training schedule, running mostly in the evenings after work.

"I feel so much healthier," she says. "Before, if it was a cold evening I probably wouldn't have gone outside the door, whereas now I'm out jogging for an hour or two. Regardless of the weather you have to go out. It's great, I definitely feel 100 times stronger."

At weekends Drummond meets her trainer and the other Boston runners for updates on training and nutrition and they go on a long run together. "It pushes them on a bit further. You need an external kick up the bum to make sure you are training hard enough," explains Henry, a veteran of seven marathons, who is training for an Iron Man competition this summer.

"Safety is the biggest thing when we go out," he adds. "We have a phone with us at all times and I have first-aid training. People with asthma need to build up slowly - if you jump in too deep the asthma could flare up very fast. So you gradually build up by around two kilometres a week."

Winter training has been particularly tough, admits runner Gareth Dixon from Leopardstown, but his family cheers him on to get out and pound the pavements. "I'll go home and the kids will ask 'how many miles did you do today?' "

Dixon has lived with asthma since childhood and played sports despite sometimes feeling the worse for wear. "When I was younger the diagnosis wasn't as good and it probably wasn't managed properly," he says. "There were times when I couldn't play soccer - I couldn't breathe and it would feel like a weightlifter's belt across my chest or somebody sitting there, I just couldn't get the breath in."

But asthma management has improved in recent years, so when a friend asked him to be involved in the Boston marathon project he took up the challenge. "The first couple of weeks were the hardest but then it got a little bit easier. Now after 10 miles I could stop and have a conversation with you. The asthma has gotten better and it's surprising to think that the body can cope with that when the lungs have been trained."

Runner Darren McCarthy wants to score a personal best in Boston and improve on the two Dublin marathons he has under his belt. "I was diagnosed with asthma when I was young and they said I would either grow out of it or into it, and I grew into it," says the Garda sergeant, who trains in the Phoenix Park, where he is based.

Since he took up running two years ago, his condition is easier to control and his doctor has reduced his inhaler medication. "It's good for people with asthma that they can see you can do it," he says.

As the trio limber up in the gym before heading out to train, they look the picture of health, chatting easily and undaunted by the prospect of a two-hour run.

"When you have got friends to run with it doesn't feel like a chore because you are chatting and before you know it an hour is gone," says Drummond. "The guys have been brilliant, they have taken me under their wings, telling me I can do it. I feel good now. I just have to keep pushing myself to get over the finish line."

For more information about asthma and the Boston marathon project see www.asthmasociety.ie. The Boston marathon is on April 16th. Asthma Society of Ireland, 26 Mountjoy Square, Dublin 1 (01-8788511)

Fuel up for the big trip

Getting nutrition and fluid intake right can make a huge difference when training for a sporting event such as a marathon, according to sports nutritionist Nuala Collins. She is working closely with the five runners with asthma as they prepare for the Boston race, making sure they build up their energy supplies and stay in their personal hydration zones.

"Normally, nobody would consider getting in their car and going on a long journey with no petrol, but nutrition hasn't been highlighted enough to athletes in the past," she says. The science has advanced recently though, particularly in relation to drinking fluids. "Thirst is not a good indicator of your needs," she says. "The runners have to know their hydration status and they have got to get into their hydration zone."

She asks the athletes to weigh themselves before and after a training session. "You'd be amazed at how much you can actually lose through sweat. It could be anywhere from one pound to maybe three or four in an hour's training session."

By working out their hydration status every couple of weeks as their fitness increases, the runners can calculate how much fluid they need to drink before, during and after a training session.

"It makes a world of difference to somebody's preparation," says Collins. "They know they can go that extra stretch, they are not going to find themselves weak or stranded or unable to finish, they have confidence that they have the right fuel on board."

Nuala Collins practices at the Slievemore Clinic in Stillorgan, Co Dublin (01-2831143)