Kerry Way Ultra Trail Marathon 2018 (7th/8th Sept)
David Fagan and the loneliness of the long distance runner
Imagine running a 200km loop starting in Killarney at 6am on Friday morning and finishing back again in Killarney on Saturday, with cut-off times at Waterville and Kenmare along the way just to keep everyone moving along! That’s nearly 5 marathons back to back. Also, throw in 6,000m of climbing along the way for good measure.
That’s what David Fagan faced on Friday morning 7th September at the Kerry Way Ultra Trail Marathon. Just to reinforce the message that this was no ordinary race, the list of items that David had to carry included a waterproof jacket and trousers, a head torch and spare batteries, route map, fully charged mobile phone, survival bag, whistle, first aid kit, gloves, hat, water and spare food. The Kerry Way is a mixture of mountain passes, trails, boggy ground, wire-covered sleepers, country roads and a minimum of main road. While there are markers along the route, they are for walkers and for use in daylight, so competitors had to be aware of the route and look out for the markers, fine in the day, but an ability to navigate helped, especially at night. To prove the point, the night time section of the route was in the south-west section and this area was recently awarded a Gold Tier Award by the International Dark Sky Association and is now officially the darkest part of the entire Northern Hemisphere, thus the need to carry a good torch!
Everyone taking part had to be completely self-sufficient, so there are no water stations, but the organisers arranged bag drops for the competitors, so at least David was able to split his considerable burden along the very long route. How did he get on? Of the sixty that started on Friday morning, more than half never finished the race, but we’re glad to report that David is made of very stern stuff and finished none the worse for wear in 33 hours. Well done David on surviving this ultimate experience of the loneliness of the long distance runner.
