The drug at is Marathon running

THOMAS CONWAY speaks with Tipperary based trio Paula Wright, Paul Hogan, and Neilie Hall who have competed in a remarkable 535 marathon between them, and counting.

Nobody ever runs a marathon just for the fun of it. You don’t put yourself through one of sport’s most gruelling physical phenomena purely for the craic and enjoyment of it all. There is almost always an underlying motive, a personal reason - often an unspoken one which drives you forward and keeps you going even when the lactic starts to bite and the wall hits.

Because really a marathon is less of a race and more of a psychological journey, an all-consuming 26.2-mile trek to a better place. It doesn’t matter where you are - you could be ploughing through the avenues of New York city or flying down a country lane in rural Roscommon - the chances are you will experience the same burn, fatigue, adrenaline, and elation. They are all part of it, that catalogue of sensations. And they are all too familiar to the likes of Paula Wright, Paul Hogan, and Neilie Hall.

Between the three of them, they have completed a combined total of 535 official marathons. Imagine that. All in, it equates to 14,017-miles of running of sheer strain and lung-bursting effort.

Paul sits atop the rankings on 186; Paula lies narrowly behind on 182; and Neilie isn’t far off with 167. And that’s not counting their ultra-running feats, which extend from 50km endurance races to 24 and 48 hour runs. When everyone else is sleeping, you’ll probably find these guys running.

Physical transformation

But the beauty of marathon runners - this trio in particular - is that everyone has their own story.

Take Paula for instance, she has featured in these pages before, back in 2019 when she had just completed marathon number 100. Her story is special because she literally started from scratch. In 2012, she realised that her bodyweight was getting out of hand, primarily due to a debilitating form of diabetes contracted during pregnancy. She had three young kids and suddenly it dawned on her that something had to be done, for their sake if not hers.

Cue the start of a remarkable journey, during which the Finnish native progressed from breathlessly running the roads around Newport, where she lives, to completing marathons at impressive pace. In the process she has lost over fifty kg (7.8 stone). A staggering physical transformation by any measure.

Why running? There is just something about it, Paula feels. Something primordial, something evolutionary perhaps. People often talk about the “runner’s high” - a kind of transcendent state which athletes achieve when they hit their rhythm. Paula describes it as a state of “flow.”

“When I started running, it just felt natural,” she says.

“There is a certain kind of ‘flow’ when you run, when you run comfortably. And there is a certain kind of peacefulness in the movement. It’s soothing when you are running, and then obviously, you can do it anywhere. You can go to forest trails; you can run on the beach - and Ireland is such a beautiful country. So, you can get great satisfaction when you’re out and about.”

For the first year, progress was slow, but then it was swift. A humble five-miler turned into a half-marathon, and eventually she had her first full length marathon in the bag. There were set-backs, moments of doubt, but then something happened during a race down in Tralee. She was feeling good, coasting along a scenic road with the Atlantic on one side and the sun shimmering on the waves. It confirmed what she already half knew. Running was for her.

“That was the moment when I was like ‘oh I really love this.,” she revealed.

“Because I remember seeing the sea, and the sun was shining across the water. And I was just like ‘I want more of this - this is stunning.’”

Soon marathons weren’t enough. She veered into ultra-running territory, embracing 24 and 48 hour runs. And then last year she took on a 6-day race out in Hungary, in 35-degree heat. Six days of non-stop running, fuelled by a concoction of high-energy fizzy drinks that she had never tasted before. It was a surreal experience, but it was also a measure of how far she had come - from the woman who struggled to put down five miles to the athlete who could run for days.

Making an impression

Paul Hogan’s running journey originated from a slightly different place. Honest, articulate and originally a Kilkenny man, Paul is a Garda, stationed in Templemore. Growing up he was always sporty and active, always “doing something or playing something,” whether it was hurling or soccer or whatever was on the menu. So, he had that base level of physical fitness.

Shift work intervened, irregular working hours made it difficult to commit to a team sport, so he began contemplating new ways to exercise. The prospect of running a marathon was floating somewhere in the back of his mind, but only one thing could prompt him to take on the challenge - love.

“I had a brainwave, an idea that I’d like to run a marathon, but had never really committed to it until 2009,” he recalls.

“How it happened, well, it’s actually ridiculous! I was trying to impress a woman, that’s how I ended up doing it! And now to be fair, I ended up marrying her!”

The serial marathon runner has that likeability factor - he is candid and well-spoken, friendly, and somewhat fearless. But when he first entered the running game, he was naive. Running marathons was never meant to evolve into a long-time endeavour. Had you met Paul at the finish line of the Dublin Marathon back in 2009, his maiden race, you would have encountered a slightly bewildered, shattered man who had no intention of putting himself through such an ordeal again.

“A marathon is 26.2 miles - I thought it was 26 miles; that’s how innocent I was,” he says.

“I got to the 26-mile mark looking for a finish line, and I didn’t know what was going on!

“I promised myself that day I would never run again. I was broken, mentally, physically, just broken. But there is just something about it though, something about the running.”

That “something” kept him at it for another couple of years, and then in 2013, somewhat like Paula, he realised that he was in this for good. He started running marathons as a pacer, helping to guide groups of runners through the race in a specific time-period. It was his calling.

“The pacing changed running for me, to be honest with you. That was a game-changer,” Hogan revealed.

“Anyone that has run with me alongside them as a pacer will remember me, because look, I’m loud, I’m 6 foot 2, I wear bright colours running and I talk an awful lot. But the beauty of it is that people tell you great stories when they are running with you. The amount of people that open up to you. You are on a journey on the road.”

He cites the Connemara 100-mile race as his greatest athletic achievement, but pays tribute to his support crew, without which such a feat would have been impossible. On St. Patrick's Day of this year, he paced the Rome Marathon, starting under the shadow of the Colosseum and sweeping through the streets of the eternal city, with the soundtrack from The Gladiator film blasting out in the background. That was special, he admits.

Couldn’t stop running

Often it takes people years to forge an appreciation of their physical health, of the importance of activity and exercise in preserving physical and mental wellbeing. Illness is often the catalyst - you do not realise what you have got until it is suddenly taken away from you. For Neilie Hall, that realisation struck him early in childhood.

“When I was six, I spent three months in hospital in Clonmel. I got rheumatic pains in my legs. I wasn’t able to walk,” he reveals.

“This didn't originally inspire me to run but it had an impact. I spent three months, three summer months, unable to walk inside in a hospital. I think it was 1969.”

Fortunately, he recovered. He went on to live a childhood replete with activity - he ran or cycled everywhere, perhaps conscious that there was a parallel reality in which none of that would have been possible. As far as long-distance running was concerned, there were the odd few races here and there, but it wasn’t until 1984, his first Dublin marathon, that things really took off. But what you have to realise about Neilie is that he has that wonderful, Forrest Gumpian approach to running whereby he just goes out and runs.

“I just wing it. I run, and if I can get through, I’ll get through,” Hall says.

“The only race in my entire life that I didn’t finish was a triathlon, and that’s because they thought I had hypothermia coming out of the water. If they had let me onto the bike, I thought I would have been ok, but that’s the way it went.”

For years, Neilie and a couple of other enthusiasts spearheaded Ballynonty AC, a small athletic club outside Killenaule. They notched up some notable achievements - Neilie, Jimmy McCormack, and Noel O’Dwyer won a senior bronze All-Ireland medal in the marathon in 2001. A lack of numbers meant the club had to be dissolved in 2020, but it didn’t stop Neilie from running.

He joined Fethard AC, and like Paula & Paul, he is also a member of Marathon Club Ireland. The 62-year-old is a maverick athlete, a fun character. He also runs for a good cause - the South Tipperary Hospice. It is easy to identify him as well. Neilie will be the one dressed in a full body length costume of Sonic the Hedgehog, who has now completed twenty marathons and counting. His intention is to still be running marathons at age 100. Paula and Paul would say something similar. And do you know what, you wouldn’t bet against them.