Characteristically, Tommy Tiernan still looks completely bemused as he dons his official running gear for the first time and heads towards Merrion Square for the launch of the Adidas Dublin marathon's "Impossible Is Nothing" team.
The Galway-based comedian has been recruited to the team which will comprise first-time participants in the October 29th race drawn from around Ireland and overseen by leading Irish marathon runner and coach Gary Crossan.
Team members receive detailed training programmes and support from Crossan as well as nutritional advice, instruction on core training, injury prevention and recovery, not to mention an array of the latest running gear from the race's sponsors.
All but one (injured) member of last year's team completed the race and details on how would-be participants can obtain a place in this year's team are available at adidasdublinmarathon.ie.
Tiernan might just provide Crossan with something of a challenge. Although the 37-year-old has already successfully taken to the roads around Barna with his Bearnaise mountain dog, Mulligan - "he's a good pacemaker but I'm not sure he'd be up for the full distance" - Tiernan, somewhat alarmingly, admits to finding the boredom while running a little hard to cope with.
"I used to run everywhere as a child," he says. "Like, if I was asked to go to the shops, I'd run to the shop and I'd grab the loaf of bread and I'd run back.
"As an adult I still have that surplus of energy but I have a very short attention span and, for me, that's going to be the problem," he said.
"If I was chasing a ball for the 26 miles, I might find it easier."
His initial motivation, he said, was a mixture of the cash Adidas has promised to give CD's Helping Hands, a Galway-based charity which provides support to parents of children receiving cancer treatment in the city, and the endorphin rush he is anticipating at the end of each training run.
"I think the journey of it all has to be enjoyable," he said, "the fact of going out, running a few miles every day and feeling better afterwards; if that didn't exist and it was just something you were enduring for six months then I don't think it would be something you could get through.
"Having said that, I reckon the anticipation of it all is probably the best part. At the moment I'm getting little endorphin releases now just thinking about it. I've already bought myself one of those GPS watches that tells you exactly how far you've run and at exactly what pace and I'm really looking forward to buying a bit of gear each week and watching a few marathons on the television," he said.
Over the coming months, one suspects, this could all become something, er, of a running joke.
