Two of the marathon men were running for other people’s lives
“I’M WRECKED… It’s an unbelievable feeling to cross that line for the eighth time. That’s 57 now in 12 years,” said Gerard Fay from Bettystown, Co Meath. Never mind where he was placed. It’s his eighth marathon in eight days. Has he lost the plot? Can this be good for his body?
“There’s too much money involved to be pulling out now. Or maybe it’s the thick-headedness of the Irish. In a weird way, I do enjoy it,” he said cheerfully, looking for somewhere to sit before he fell down. It’s all about money. The financial accountant for property developers Benton Properties – “we’re still in business”, he says when asked the obvious question – lost three cousins to cystic fibrosis in recent years and his steely conviction is that “nobody should suffer as someone with cystic fibrosis does”. The target is €100,000. He runs the appeal through the website www.mycharity.ie
Still, he says, if he’d done only one marathon in eight days, it might have been better. “It’s in the back of the calves you feel it… from the hills”, he winces. “This was the easy one because I was with a crowd. The others were with the iPod.” And the crowd, he says, make all the difference. “The Americans are fantastic – you could hear them above the Irish…” His cousin Ruth McCabe – a self-described “marathon virgin” – has just completed her first run and still can’t believe she finished it.
Another upstoppable force is Johnny Donnelly, a former drummer with the Sawdoctors, whose extraordinary drive to raise money for the Irish charity Seachange (fighting extreme poverty) led to a plan to run 40 marathons in four years, then 60. Now the target is 80. He is distinguished by an ability to speak at great length and rapidity and remain standing, after running over 26 miles.
Their 2½-year-old son, Harry, has a breathing disorder which has them on high alert. So he ran the Chicago marathon 10 days ago, by flying in at 7.30am and getting a return flight at 3pm. “Stupid, I know.. But I really don’t want to be away from home.” He is off to Athens soon, then Singapore and Israel. “I should have done 80 marathons in 80 days – at least they’d be over with,” he grins. Also ahead is the Marathon de Sable, 156 gruelling miles of desert, which requires special “evacuation” insurance and sea flares… Hold on, he’s wincing a little. “Ah, it’s nothing… just a suspected broken toe.”