Billy (70) maintaining his marathon record
FERNS NATIVE BILLY HAS RUN DUBLIN MARATHON EVERY YEAR SINCE 1980
WHILE anyone may aspire to run the Dublin City Marathon once in their life, a Ferns native is the member of a very exclusive club, having run the major event every year since the very first in 1980!
Seventy-year-old Billy Harpur is a familiar figure out running on the roads around Ferns and is looking forward to hitting the streets of Dublin on Sunday for his 37th City Marathon. Billy is one of just thirteen people to have entered every year since the event’s inception and he no longer pays to enter the race, but receives an invitation from the organisers. The Sliabh Buíodh Rovers (SBR) club-man has been putting in 16 and 17 miles a week in recent weeks in preparation and shows no signs of slowing down. What is the secret to his longevity?
‘I don’t really know,’ he laughs. ‘I suppose it’s just putting in a lot of hard training and dedication. Thankfully I don’t sustain too many injuries. I don’t smoke and I drink very little. I suppose I lead a healthy lifestyle.
‘In the early days I would’ve set myself a target of around three hours. These days I’ll be happy enough to finish somewhere around the four hours.’
Quite a few of Billy’s clubmates will be making the journey to Ferns for the marathon on Sunday, but Billy believes in the power of preparation and is planning to stay in the capital on Saturday.
This will ensure he is fully rested and ready to go come Sunday morning, when he will take to the Dublin streets with runners of all kinds of backgrounds, many of whom weren’t even born the first time he crossed the finish line at the event.