‘On a run in Transylvania, I was told there are bears in the mountains’

The goal for Irish septuagenarian Collette O’Hagan is to run 1,000 marathons. She explains how running has been a catalyst for adventure travel

My running journey started as a child. I grew up in the middle of nowhere, in the “back beyond” as we say in Ireland. Nobody had a car so our only transport was on foot. I had many siblings and we would run to school, taking a short cut over the fields and jumping over the stiles. So I suppose my love for running started then, but it lay dormant for many decades.

Fast forward to the early 1990s. I was in my early 40s and I was quite ill, when my husband asked me to join him on a run. So I went out, and I hated every second of it. I found running hard, not least because I was unfit and I had been ill. But he persisted and we went out most days, and it got to the stage where I actually started enjoying it. Before long I started running ahead of him and he said: “You’re on your own now.”

Within two years I had finished the Dublin City Marathon, at a time when only 10 per cent of the runners were female. I remember standing at the finishing line thinking this was definitely for me. But I also had another epiphany: that this wasn’t a finishing line at all. I was only at the starting line.

I have now completed 811 marathons, and doing so has taken me all around the world. Some years ago I completed a 50km race in Transylvania in Romania, near the village of Bran which is the home of Dracula’s Castle. I went with a group of Irish runners, and while going up the mountains I quickly realised I was out of my depth. We had poles, because it was quite steep, and I had been told there are bears in the mountains. Soon I was on my own, because once you get going runners break off. I was terrified.

But I have so many positive memories of exploring the world on two feet. The Walt Disney Marathon is a fun one – Mickey Mouse was there cheering us on. I also did around 10 marathons in Barbados, a fascinating place but hard in the heat. You start at 5am, and even then it’s getting hot. But it was great to run at that time, because it meant that by 10am I was relaxing in the sea.

Some of my favourite marathon memories are from the majors (New York City, Boston, Chicago, London, Berlin and Tokyo). It’s a wonderful way of sightseeing. In London you get to see Tower Bridge, Cutty Sark and Docklands, and you’re witnessing them on foot rather than on an open-top tour bus. In New York City you go through the five boroughs of the city, which I would never have done were it not for the marathon. And the atmosphere is everything. In Dublin I remember in the early 1990s women would make cups of tea on the side of the road, ready for you to drink. Last time I was in Belfast there were kids coming out with their little sweets and jellies; it makes them feel good if you come along and take them.

Not all are like that, though. In Tokyo there were tightly regimented cut-off points: if you were a couple of seconds late, you were gone. In Beijing the roads were manned by Chinese soldiers instead of cheering crowds. When I run

I like to have a craic with people and a smile, but it’s not like that there. They want you to get around the course, to get on with it and then get off the road. That’s not really my style.

What next? My target is to reach 1,000 marathons before I hit 75. There will be times when I run marathons on consecutive days: I’ve just run 10 marathons in 10 days in the Great Barrow Challenge in Bury St Edmunds. People say, “How can you do a marathon day after day?” but the body adapts. The key is to keep going. Even when I had Covid I regularly ran a mile, to keep my running streak going.

I feel so privileged to have seen so many places around the world, and I can’t describe how thankful I am that I can run. I want other people my age to see that they can run, too. If you have the desire, I would say forget about your age and start slowly, building up gradually. Start with a short run, then a 5km run, then progress to a 10km. If you’re in your 60s, give yourself a couple of years to build up to a marathon. Even if you’re in your 80s you can still start running – you’re never too old.

The secret to marathon running is all in the head: believe it, and you will achieve it. There will be moments when it’s really rubbish weather and you’re freezing cold, and these are the times when you must distract yourself. Do another mile. Cross that bridge, get over it, and keep going. Because you will finish. If you’re strong mentally, it’ll get you through an awful lot.