Mary: I’ll run solo around Irish coast
It’s Arklow veteran runner’s biggest challenge yet
ARKLOW veteran runner Mary Nolan Hickey will soon take on her biggest challenge to date – to run and hike around the entire coast of Ireland in aid of the RNLI.
This year marks Mary’s 50th year in athletics and she has been planning a special way to mark it for over a year.
‘I’m 65 and this year marks 50 years of being involved in athletics and I wanted to take on a special challenge. Last New Year’s Day I was thinking about it and I decided that on January 1, 2018, I would set off to cover the entire coast of Ireland which is approximately 3,000km,’ Mary explains.
Mary will take to the roads for her solo challenge on January 1 and anticipates that the journey will take anywhere from three to seven months to complete.
‘ This will be the longest time I will have ever been out of Arklow and as it is solo, it will be a very emotional and psychologically challenging journey. I am apprehensive and excited at the same time,’ she adds.
Mary will be joined from time to time by friends and supporters along the way, but for the most part she will be running and hiking alone with only her GPS tracker for company.
‘We are setting up a website with GPS on it so people can see where I am and tell me if I’ve gone the wrong way!,’ she says.
Along the way, Mary will be staying in accommodation provided by hosts and supporters as well as lifeboat stations.
‘I am doing this in aid of the RNLI, both Arklow and national. Coming from a coastal town and as a rower I see first hand the dedication of the crews and I wanted to support them. Anything raised on the gofundme.com page from January 1 will go directly to the RNLI.’
Mary will be raising funds before she sets off to cover any additional accommodation and travel costs required when she does not have a willing host available.
The first of these events is a table quiz on December 8 in The Old Ship at 9 p.m. Please come along and show your support. A table of four costs €20.
Mary extends thanks to her team of supporters who have helped her make this dream a reality including Brenda Byrne, Alison Behan Reddan, Padraic O’Meara, Jean Molloy and Arklow RNLI.