‘We need to keep fighting’ - Ben's running challenge

A local runner is training for a seldom undertaken and truly massive challenge: To run the length of Ireland, from Mizen Head to Malin Head, a distance of more than 550km.

Ben Banaghan (24) has spent months preparing for this epic venture, which he has taken on to raise funds and awareness for two very worthy causes - Mental Health Ireland and Templederry's Alannah Sheehan, who is battling a cancerous brain tumour. He is targeting the end of this month for the challenge - the equivalent of running more than 13 back-to-back marathons - which Ben hopes to complete in less than a week.

“It might take five days, it might take six days, it might take seven days. I'm just going to go based off how I feel each day, but the aim is to get it done in and around five or six days, so about 100km or 110km a day.”

The route he has chosen would take him from Ireland's most southerly tip in Cork up to Donegal via his home county and town of Nenagh. His plan is to go it alone with a small support team consisting of a driver for the camper van he hopes to get a few hours of sleep in, a fitness physio, a nutrition specialist and support runner to share a few kilometres here and there with him.

COVID CHALLENGE

The whole thing is of course dependent on whether Ben gets official permission to take on the challenge while pandemic restrictions are still in place. He has made representations and has prepared a risk assessment in support of his case, which he hopes will be viewed in terms of unique merit.

The Covid-19 situation has presented a series of challenges in their own right to Ben, who originally attempted to do his Mizen-Malin run six months ago, only to suffer a knee injury that sidelined him for several months. He then got back to running with the help of a professional trainer based in Cork, who devised a specific training plan for Ben that alternates running with gym work, building in mobility, core and weight-lifting exercises to safeguard him against injury.

Needless to say the closure of gyms and restrictions on movement set him back further, but Ben had adapted his training accordingly and remains fully focussed on triumphing over adversity, attracting further attention to the two causes he wants to support.

“I’m going to be promoting mental health and well-being at the highest level of awareness I can, since it is such an integral part of our ability to persevere and succeed in anything we do in life,” Ben said. “Just like Alannah is proving to every one of us every single day, with strength and fortitude, we can continue to fight and not give up even when doubt creeps in and begins to tell us to give up - we need to keep fighting and back ourselves.”

TRAINING REGIME

An avid sportsman, Ben hurled with Nenagh Éire Óg up to U12 and then with Kiladangan up to U21 level. He also played soccer for Nenagh AFC and won a soccer scholarship to the United States, where he spent some 18 months studying and playing the game in Virginia.

He is now balancing his long-distance running training with his final year of Construction Management at Limerick Institute of Technology. Ben typically runs four or five days per week with two or three days of strength and mobility work.

His running training is varied and involves not just long runs but also shorter ones at a more intense pace. A recent weekend training session involved a half-marathon on Saturday morning followed by another half later that day, repeated again on Sunday. But the week before he did a full marathon (42.2km) on Saturday and then pushed on into ultra marathon territory with a 50km run on Sunday.

“It is quite tactical,” Ben said of his approach to the Mizen-Malin challenge, which involves breaking the distance up into segments and short intervals. “I wouldn't be resting the body too much because I'll have to get up and go again in a while.

“I know this is going to be a big physical challenge, but it's going to be more mentally challenging.”

WORTHY CAUSES

As for his chosen beneficiaries, Ben said he wanted to help a specific local cause and opted for Alannah when he heard about her story and the positive outlook on life that she upholds. Her fundraising campaign will receive half of everything Ben raises, while the other half will go to Mental Health Ireland, the local sportsman championing a cause we all need to talk about.

“I was always going to do it for mental health. It's such a big factor but it's rarely talked about.

“I know that people are starting to talk about it now with the Covid situation but before that the stigma around mental health was appalling, really. Like if you were a man and you mentioned mental health, you might get people disagreeing with you. The stigma around mental health is atrocious.”

Donations can be made by searching for Ben Banaghan on the GoFundMe website or through visiting Ben's Facebook and Instagram pages, where updates are posted.