Marathon Man Corcoran clocking up the miles
My body’s used to running 184 miles a week. It’d be nice to just stop, but you’d injure yourself if you did.”
Alan Corcoran ran a marathon last Saturday in Waterford. Fair play, you say.
Corcoran ran a marathon the day before that, though. And the day before that. He ran a marathon every day for 32 days before that again.
About 921 miles in five weeks, more or less. We’ll get to the how. First we’ll get to the why.
“I had the idea in 2010, when I was still a sprinter and doing that kind of training,” he says. “I thought the idea of running a lap of the entire country might be a good target, a good venture.
“Then last January or February a friend of mine showed me a video of Terry Fox, who came up with the Canada Run, and that got me thinking about the idea again.”
And then life intervened. Corcoran’s father — Milo, former FAI president — suffered a stroke within a month of Alan seeing the video.
That synthesised the impulse to run a lap of the country with the urge to help people.
“I ended up thinking, ‘what can I do to get to this stage’, so I got in touch with Gerry Duffy and got a training plan, and Gerry Deegan, who’s based in Waterford, helped me to prepare.
“I contacted the Irish Heart Foundation, who’ve been running campaigns to raise awareness about strokes — when my Dad had a stroke I hadn’t a clue what a stroke was — and they were delighted to help out with publicity and so on.”
Corcoran also name checks the National Rehabilitation Centre for their help in getting his father back to a level of health where he’s in Israel organising soccer camps for Israeli and Palestinian children.
As he’s raised the issue of health, though, what does almost a thousand miles in a month do to the body? “I’m not too bad, I think my body’s adapted to it fairly well. I’ve no big injuries, at least. I’m feeling pretty good.
“I’m fairly lean naturally and I don’t think myself I’ve lost much weight, but people who know me are telling me that I’ve slimmed down a good bit.”
Corcoran credits a upbeat outlook with giving him the ability to complete the 35 marathons.
“I’ve kept a positive attitude, I have a lot of friends with me as support group and the key to it is making the whole experience as much of a laugh for ourselves as possible.
“There have been days I’ve been very sore and hobbled to the finishing line, but once the race is over you’d feel a lot better. Keeping things positive has been very important.”
There have been practical challenges as well. The Waterford man has had a sensible approach to footwear, for example. And he’s made it to the main evening news every night instead of hitting the bed too early.
“No, I haven’t worn out a pair of runners. I’ve got four pairs of runners which I’ve rotated — I used one pair for one race, then put them away and used the second pair for the next race, and so on, so I haven’t actually worn out a pair yet.
“I haven’t gone over the top in terms of my bedtimes either — between nine and 11 every night, nothing over the top in terms of being early, I’ve hit 10 most nights.”
His times have been respectable — only three marathons went over six hours, and two days he posted times under five hours.
Today, of course, Corcoran is free of his daily 26-mile penance. But that doesn’t mean the eight running shoes are off the hook just yet. Having built up a training schedule to help him survive the last month, he can’t just park his feet up on the coffee table.
“No, I’ve got to taper down my training,” he says. “You can’t just stop straightaway, that’d be very bad for you. My body’s used to running 184 miles a week at the moment. It’d be nice to just stop, but you’d injure yourself if you did.”
It was nice to finish up in his home place on Saturday.
“It couldn’t have worked out better. It’s the first big marathon in Waterford, there was a good buzz around the place and you’ve a lot of people running it who probably wouldn’t run a marathon if it weren’t being held in Waterford.”
Beyond the finishing tape, just one dream is left.
“I’m looking forward to a good fry-up. I’ve been having two bowls of porridge a day every morning for the last few weeks to build up my energy for the marathon.
“A nice fry would do the job at this stage.”
Tuck in. It’s well deserved.
* For more information and to contribute, visit 35marathonman.ie
* Contact: michael.moynihan@examiner.ie Twitter: MikeMoynihanEx
