Local James Cahill and a group of 28 others recently decided to raise funds for LauraLynn Children’s Hospice. James commented “Over a Beer at Christmas my Brother in Law Fergus Hayes and I were discussing having something to train for as all the Marathons were being cancelled due to Covid 19, there was no end in sight of the restrictions so we said we would set about organising one ourselves”.
They considered several options and chose the Dublin Mountain Way which is 41km and can be extended to a full marathon distance of 42.2km quite easily, the decision was made in an instant and April 24th was picked as it was close enough to get a full training programme completed in time. The Course itself starts in Shankill Village, 10km to Johnny Foxes, 20km Tibradden Wood, 33km Bohernabreena Waterworks and finish line at 42.2km at Tallaght Stadium. On the 4th of January after a few discussions with close friends they set up a WhatsApp group and became a team of 8 and slowly but surely word got out and more and more people joined up. With football being cancelled they had a strong influx of players from Glenville FC in Palmerstown join up as a way of staying fit.
LauraLynn Children’s Hospice are based in Foxrock and they provide a community of care that delivers evidence-based, personalised services to children with palliative care needs, complex care needs and complex disabilities, while also providing family support services and a home to residents where quality-of-life is paramount. To see the great work carried out at LauraLynn, visit www.lauralynn.ie.
James added “Within our group of now 29 is a wide and varied mix of runners from novice runners to Elite Marathon Winners and we have all been passing advice and tips on a weekly basis. We were lucky to have one of Ireland’s Premier Fitness Trainers Anto Doyle Owner of Block 9 Health and Fitness in our group, Anto was on hand for nutritional advice and gave us a month’s Boot Camp training via Zoom and waived his fees to the Charity which was an amazing boost for the group”.
In conjunction with the Fundraising Team of Cathy & Liz in Lauralynn, they have set up a idonate page www.idonate.ie/DMW21 and quickly got the ball rolling. They set a target of €1,000 which was hit in the first month, after a discussion within the group they decided to raise the target to €4,220 which would equate to €100 per kilometre. As of the end of March €3,179.98 has been raised, but they would love to hit their target for Lauralynn as it means a lot to everyone involved. The Government announced recently that countywide travel will be allowed from the 12th of April which enables the group to proceed as planned, they will be going out in small socially distanced groups on the day dispersed over 4 hours so there will be no risk to anyone and they should all finish roughly at the same time also.
For more information and to donate see www.idonate.ie/DMW21.
Pictured above: 4 of the team from L-R Denis Gaffney, Eoghan Mc Donagh, Gareth Heneghan and James Cahill.
