This ultramarathoner crossed the width of Ireland in a day — with a Guinness at the start and end
Robert Pope: Guinness-fuelled human being runs width of Ireland in a day
By Matt Murphy
BBC News
Image source, Rob Pope
A British marathon champion has run the width of the island of Ireland in less than 24 hours, seemingly condign the first person to achieve the feat.
Robert Pope ran from Galway Metropolis on Ireland'southward due west coast to the capital letter Dublin in just 23 hours and 39 minutes.
The 44-year-old took on the 134-mile (215 km) after a pint of Guinness in Galway, before finishing with another at the stop of the road on Sunday.
Speaking afterwards, he was in loftier spirits - if slightly worse for wear.
He jokily boasted to the BBC that despite the gruelling feat, he could still struggle upwards the stairs of his adaptation.
Pope, from Liverpool, decided to tackle mammoth route on something of a whim a niggling over two months agone, before deciding to use the opportunity to raise funds for the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF).
It didn't leave long to prepare. And then more pressing considerations - in the form of a music festival - apace took precedence.
"I was meant to do an eight-week grooming programme, but obviously Glastonbury got in the way of that," he laughed. "I was too working, so it was probably just five weeks of 'Yep, I'chiliad happy with that' training."
Prototype source, Rob Pope
Supporters greeted Pope forth the road
Only the distance runner was determined not to allow the fearfulness of failure to deed as a check on his ambition. In fact, in some ways it was the point of information technology.
"Ultrarunning has exploded in the last few years, and a lot of that is because on social y'all'll often see people doing these crazy bonkers runs," he said.
"But nobody ever posts annihilation near failure anywhere. You meet a lot of people posting and if they have failed at something they're like 'I'm absolutely gutted because I didn't succeed', but they did succeed because they gave everything they had to get at that place."
Pope is an elite ultramarathon runner, and has made his proper noun revelling in challenges that range from the unconventional to the extraordinary.
He completed the road over 422 days and chronicled the journey in his volume Condign Forrest: One Man's Epic Run across American.
And he maintained his unusual approach to distance running for his journey across Ireland.
Just moments before setting off from Galway'due south Spanish Curvation - a scenic seaside walk in the urban center - Pope settled in for a quiet pint of Guinness with his four-human being back up team at a local pub.
At 22.31 local time (21.31 GMT) on Sat, Pope dipped his feet in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean and ready off for Dublin along a road that should take well over 24 hours.
The early stages passed quickly, but fatigue fix in quicker than Pope thought it would.
"The wheels nearly came off very early, because we'd gone nearly 24 miles, maybe four hours into it, and I'd been nauseous for the last ii," he said. "I just said to the guys, 'I don't think this is me over-reacting, just I think I'm going to have to quit'."
Simply with the support of his team - and a well-timed can of Coke coupled with some painkillers - his form returned.
He followed a road of mainly of traditional backroads and some culvert paths to help his team avoid busy motorways and dual carriageways.
And while Pope was supported past four shut friends, he credits a expert part of his success to 3 random supporters who had heard of his efforts through social media.
"One fella, he'd driven down about 45 minutes having heard about information technology and he brought us downwards a bunch of bananas," Pope laughed. "And my body merely went 'yep, you lot want one of them, have ane of them'."
And in the town of Cloghan, in County Offaly, the staff of a local shop turned out to cheer him on and provide him with a fresh helping of cereal confined.
Having promoted his run under #EdgetoEdge on social media to gloat the U2 guitarist the Edge's birthday, Pope listened to the ring'south entire catalogue in chronological guild over the course of his run.
As Pope entered Dublin and began running through the metropolis's chaotic, bus-filled lanes of traffic forth the River Liffey, another "guardian angel" in the grade of a runner named Tony appeared to guide him towards the terminate line.
"I had near 10 miles to go," Pope recalled. "I'm in a hole at this point and Tony comes along and asks, 'Do you heed if I run with you' and I was just like 'yes, just I really need to concentrate now'.
"And then, we but worked together, and it got to the signal where I was following him... he would warn oncoming traffic," he said. "We came off the Majestic Canal heading down into Dublin as the sun was going down."
Later on reaching the Ha'penny Bridge, Pope decided to race one more than mile to the city's Samuel Beckett bridge where the Liffey flows into the Irish gaelic Sea. There, he says, he took a victorious photograph "in the middle of a dual-carriageway".
Image source, Rob Pope
Pope at the finish line with his support team of Darren, Eoin and Tony
With no official record of any previous runner completing the feat, Pope is confident he is the first person to run across the island in a day. Merely he accepts that "some gnarled old club runner from Cork could have done it in one case in January".
Having arrived in Dublin well before midnight, in that location was only one way to mark a landmark Irish achievement.
"The programme was to become to Dublin for a pint earlier the end of the 24 hours, and you'll be glad to hear we did," he laughed.
"We had a pint [of Guinness] at the start and a pint to finish."
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62469739
Posted by: moorertholonever.blogspot.com
0 Response to "This ultramarathoner crossed the width of Ireland in a day — with a Guinness at the start and end"
Post a Comment