Meet our leaders Tasha, Mandy and Andrew...

Hi there, I’m Mandy, I’m 32, a yoga teacher and I am living in Wicklow town. I finally moved back after many years away for college and work but as the famous movie quote says: ‘ There’s no place like home.’

I commute to Dublin everyy day for work, sitting for around d ten hours a day, and when I gett home I find that it is too easy to sit on the couch and find excuses to do nothing for the rest of the evening.

This is something I want to o change.

I’ve never even run 10km let alone tried to run it as a race! It’s something I’ve always s admired others for doing and now it’s my turn to put on my runners, get out there, train hard, push myself and see whatt I can achieve.

By challenging myself to take this opportunity to be a leader and have an end goal to work towards, I think that this will help motivate me to change my habits and create new ones.

I aim to start 2017 as I mean to go on, so if you see me out running – or ‘attempting to run’ might be more accurate – say ‘ hi’! my belt but, over the last year or so, that has decreased a lot so I’ve taken on the Wicklow Gaol Break to challenge myself with a distance – a whole lot of it! – that I have never tackled before.

I’m excited and a little bit terrified but I am definitely looking forward to the challenge. Not so much the training in the rain but it’s all part of the fun (she says, now).

There’s nowhere I would rather run than this brilliant town.

I’ve taken on this challenge to prove to myself that my short legs have what it takes to carry me across the finish line but also, on a more serious note, as an opportunity to raise funds for the millions of people struggling around the world.

I am very lucky to be part of Concern Worldwide and any donations I receive throughout this process will be donated directly to their incredible work.

My name is Andrew Dickenson. I am 27 years old, live in Wicklow town and I’m currently a CNC operator for Dortek hygienic doors based here in the town.

I am the proud dad of two amazing boys.

Every year I always say to myself that I am going to get up off the sofa and do something. But it never happens.

Recently, I came across a post on social media about the Wicklow Gaol Break 10km run and said to myself ‘I would love to do something like that’ but I have no running experience so I forgot about it.

Then I saw a status on Facebook where Eoin was looking for leaders for the 10km run.

I built up the courage and sent him a message putting my name forward. Shortly after, Eoin replied and offered me the male 10km leader. This was the motivation I needed; that extra boost of confidence to spur me on.

Now I am looking forward to starting my training and hopefully start living a healthier and happier lifestyle, and who knows what the near future might hold?