Last weekend we had our competition winners Paddy Rowe and Owen Fenton join us for a retreat weekend running in the Mourne Mountains, so I decided to take the opportunity to do a podcast on the two ultra runners who have both ran 100 mile races.

This really is just a bit of Ultra banter with Paddy seconds from death last year after a bad accident at work and Owen who sees large wolves with red beady eyes chasing in him during a 100 mile race.

'The seed knew in order to grow it had to be dropped in dirt, covered in darkness, and struggle to reach the light'

We have one of Ireland’s up and coming Marathon Runners on the podcast this week David Flynn from Dublin who recently ran 63 min 48 sec in the Charleville Half Marathon, passing through 10k in 29 min 45 sec which is an astonishing times during marathon build up.

He is one of the most focused runners that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and after a few rocky starts he’s aiming on Dublin Marathon this year to show his true colours, he’s not shy from putting in the work topping 140 miles a week in training and I’m excited for him coming into the race next month.

'Love the game more than the glory, the process more than the prize, and the fight more than the finish.’

Your in for another Ultra episode this week, it does hit 2hr but when you compete in a race that is 200 miles long there’s a lot to talk about, our guest is a well known face around the Mournes a member of BARF running club and is linked to events such as the Denis Rankin Round and the Garmin Skyline.

In this episode Aaron talks to us about his adventures has he competes in the Bigfoot 200 which is the first race in a series of three 200 mile races known as The Triple Crown which are held in 3 consecutive months, Aug, Sept & Oct.

Aaron is familiar with hard races competing in races such as CCC TDS & UTMB, as well as completing the Rankin Round in both directions but the Bigfoot 200 by far has been his biggest challenge.

In this episode our host Robbie Marsh talks about the registration process, the set backs, the training and the learning that helped him forge his way to the finish of one of the greatest trail runs on the planet the 101km CCC in Chamonix.

Really don't know where to start with Stephen, he's completed all world of the world major marathons including Boston 2013 when the terrorist attacks took place, he's ran marathons in over 20 countries covering Argentina, Australia, Cyprus, England, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Holland, N. Ireland, Norway, Palestine, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, USA, Wales.

He's not long home from the Comrades Ultra up course, and has competed in the most spectacular ultra the Two Oceans.

In this episode we discuss his journey in search of the Seven Continents having completed Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania, South America

Keeping with the Mountain theme we have local runner Sarah Hanna who was up until five weeks ago known by her maiden name Sarah Graham, she just returns from the 44th International Snowdon mountain race where she flew the flag for her country for the second year in a row on Snowdon.

She hasn't been running for that long but continues to go from strength to strength taking numerous podiums, and is often seen testing the best runners on the mountain scene. 

On Sat 13th July at 2am five hearty souls stood under the arch in Donard car park at the foot of the Mourne mountains ready to take on the Denis Rankin Round, this magnificent course has been hot over the last few weeks with some great attempts ending both with success and failure.

They say a true challenge is one that completion is never guaranteed, and with only 24hrs to traverse all of the Mourne mountain peaks over 400m it would take a lot of skill and luck to complete the 90km course, with over 6500m of ascent strong navigation skills would be required to ensure success.

The team was made up of Sean Nickell the key lead out man and navigator who has more miles under his belt than the proclaimers, Marty ‘Chipper’ Campbell and Barry McCarroll all three of which had competed in races such as the 108 mile Donegal Hero, Keith Clarke Deca-Ironman and Mark Weir who’s experience racing through the Mournes would become invaluable.

We take a different angle this week and sit with the entire team for an open group discussion on what it takes to succeed in Denis Rankin Challenge, I hope you enjoy my being back on the podcast, if so why not drop us a line on our face book page and let us know.

Finally we got a chance to catch up an extremely inspirational runner Mary Hickey from Arklow, in 2018 at the age of 65 she decided to run the 1500 miles around the coast of Ireland in pretty grim weather conditions, she raised a staggering £70,000 for the RNLI and was awarded the outsider magazine women of the year award.

If that wasn’t enough tomorrow the 30th June she finishes a lap of honour where she completes the same course in the opposite direction on her bike, with her birthday a couple of days ago she is the beautiful age of 67 showing the age really is just a number.

Running isn’t new to Mary, she is the only women to have completed all 39 of the Dublin Marathon’s, gracing a pb of 2:57, winner of the Wicklow way and finisher of iconic races such as Boston and Marathon Des Sables.

We have an amazing athlete for you this week London Olympian and quite possibly one of Ireland's greatest female Ultra Runners Caitriona Jennings.

She graces a marathon time of 2:36:14 and just two weeks ago she came third in the world most iconic Ultra Marathon The Comrades on the up course in an incredible time of 6:24:12 on the 87Km course.

Caitriona has had her knock backs like every great runner, but her determination and self belief to succeed is what sets her apart from most.