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Austrian Letters

08/10/2014 Wed Killarney to Kenmare
09/10/2014 Thu Kenmare to Bantry
10/10/2014 Fri Bantry to Mizen Head
11/10/2014 Sat Mizen Head to Ballydehob
12/10/2014 Sun Ballydehob to Clonakilty

For further information on the run, contact Blue Bubble Marketing.

siobhanclifford42@gmail.com
or
087-2931029

I just had a wonderful two days running in Kerry, the Kingdom as the All Ireland champions county remind me from time to time. Ah yes the friendly rivalry between Dublin and the rest of the country continues as one man says
” Tony the only Dub to do anything decent this year!!!! ”

Well folks I got my own back for that night I gave a motivation talk in the IT campus in Tralee. Also another friend Karen Weeks a researcher from a different department on the campus brought some of her students in and filmed the entire talk
It was organised by another Dubliner Marcus Howlett who has been living in Tralee for many years now.
As we ran from Castleisland to Tralee, Marcus told me how he set up the ” Born to Run Marathon Club ” a couple of years ago. He was amazed there was no running club here. Once he held a race and presented the finishers with souvenir tee-shirts in the Dublin colours :)
So it was with great pleasure I did a motivation talk in Kerry which was organised by another Dub who founded their running club!

The talk lasted about 90 minutes and seemed to go down well! Irish readers are well aware Dublin has 31 opponents from the 32 countries on this island.
That night Marcus put Siobhan and me up for the night in his apartment. Thanks Marcus!

So off I ran out of Tralee with Fozzy Forristal, no not an Italian, a Kerryman and Fergus another local runner. These lads had taken time off work as did Marcus yesterday.
I ran with two Irish adventure runners in Colombia in 2012, Paul Mahon and his girlfriend Hilary had been backpacking around South America and tracked me down after someone emailed them I was in the area. I was delighted when the joined me for two days but after they left it was a long year before the next runner joined me in New Zealand. So after that lonely running year I am always delighted to welcome runners on the road
Unfortunately Fergus had to leave early for a dental appointment but Fozzy stayed for the entire 34km day.

My total now is 49,335 kilometres in 1,138 road days, still over a marathon average.
Austrian runner Thomas Bubendorfer who lives locally and has been following the blog from the start four years ago. Thomas also took the day off work to come out and run 25km all the way to Kilarney
He is a tough trail runner who recently switched to 24 hours and after winning the Belfast 24 hour race with almost 140 miles he has been selected to run for Austria.

He has proved he has the patience and persistence for the longer event when describing how he wooed his now Dublin wife Niamh whom he met in Austria while she lived there for a year studying German.
After returning to Ireland heart broken Thomas sent her snail mail letters every single day for two years till she relented. He assured me he never ran out of things to write about, at least a page a day! I told him he should have played hard to get and missed a couple of days! He said Niamh answered a few and she still has them in the attic!

They lived a long time in London before Thomas found an IT job in Kerry. Four children later the rest is history as they say!

Thomas is a respected runner and a great source of ultra running advice and nutrition. Please google his name to come up with his blog titled ‘ Diary of a rubbish marathon runner ‘ Obviously tongue in cheek.
Though Thomas says his cousin who shares the same name is a world famous mountaineer and is often asked about his rubbish marathon career!

Tonight we are guests of Thomas, Niamh and family, thanking everyone.

For more detail of my Ireland lap and photos please see Facebook pages for Tony Mangan and Siobhan Clifford

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 7th, 2014 at 11:56 pm and is filed under jogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Austrian Letters”

Ann Says:
October 8th, 2014 at 3:49 pm
Great read Tony, glad all going so well. Up the Dubs!!!!
karen weekes Says:
October 9th, 2014 at 9:57 am
Great to see you in Tralee Tony. I have a copy of your talk on a dvd for you so just let me know where you would like me to post it. Good luck with the remainder of your run. Hope fully the weather will be somewhat kind.
Karen

since Tony began his World Run on 25th October 2010

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About Tony

I have always considered myself to be an average runner. In school, I was even bullied for I was a sports wimp. Through hard work, dedication, perseverance, self-belief and a strong mind I succeeded in not only running around the world but breaking four ultra running world records during my competitive career. Having previously cycled around the world I didn't start running until I was almost 30. Then I had a dream of running around the world. For many reasons, I waited for over 20 years. One reason was to establish my pedigree as an endurance athlete. I started and finished my world run as the current World Record-Holder for 48 Hours Indoor Track 426 kilometres (265 miles), a record I have held since 2007. I also broke and still hold the World Record for 48 hours on a Treadmill 405 kilometres (251 miles) in 2008. When I retired from competition, more pleasing than any of my world, European or Irish records I had the respect of my fellow athletes from all over the world - in my opinion, sports greatest reward - an achievement I am most proud of. Then I finally put myself out to pasture, to live my ultimate dream to run around the world! This blog was written on the road while I struggled to find places to sleep and to recover from running an average of 43.3 kilometres or 27 miles per day for 1,165 road days. There were many nights I typed this blog on a smart phone, so fatigued my eyes closed. Many journalists and endurance athletes have referred to my world run as the most difficult endurance challenge ever attempted. During my expedition I rarely had any support vehicles, running mostly with a backpack. In the more desolate areas I pushed my gear, food and water in a cart which I called Nirvana, then I sent her on ahead to run with my backpack once again over altitudes of almost 5,000 metres in the Andes. I stayed in remote villages where many people had never seen a white person before. I literally met the most wonderful people of this world in their own backyard and share many of those amazing experiences in this blog. My run around the world took 4 years. There were no short cuts, I ran every single metre on the road while seeking out the most comprehensive route across 41 countries, 5 continents, I used 50 pair of running shoes and my final footstep of the run was exactly 50,000 kilometres, (almost 31,000 miles) I eventually finished this tongue in cheek named world jog where I started, at the finish line of my city marathon. I started my global run with the Dublin Marathon on October 25th 2010 and finished with the Dublin Marathon on October 27th 2014 at 3 05pm! Thank you for your support, I hope you can share my unique way of seeing the world, the ultimate endurance challenge! Read more...