Carolan Lennon
This is a milestone year for Eircom and Special Olympics Ireland as we celebrate 30 years of working together. Special Olympics Ireland provides sports training and competition to every Irish person with an intellectual disability, in a community based club and we in Eircom are extremely proud of this relationship.
This year is also significant because the World Games will take place in Los Angeles. Eircom is sending a team of volunteers to support Team Ireland and we have set ourselves the goal of raising an additional €100,000 for our charity partner.
The first major fundraising initiative for us is the Great Limerick Run. In 2014, 96 Eircom runners participated in the Great Limerick Run, raising €22,000 for Special Olympics Ireland, and we also won the Fittest Company Challenge. The success of 2014 created a passion for running in Eircom and almost 300 of us will head to Limerick this weekend to defend that title and compete in support of Special Olympics Ireland.
The first training challenge we set ourselves was to run the 8,326km distance from Dublin to LA, the home of the 2015 World Games. We completed that within the first eight weeks of training.
I am a reluctant runner – slow and not very talented – but I am responsible for corporate social responsibility in Eircom and the captain of the wholesale Fibre Lights team. The Fibre Lights are the reigning Eircom champions and with our title to defend, €100,000 to raise and Special Olympics athletes to support in LA, participation in the 2015 Great Limerick Run was not optional.
I run before work and sometimes into work, and then I try to do long training runs at the weekends – often with my long-suffering husband, who has three marathons under his belt. I started in January, running 5k twice a week on the treadmill and 7k or 10k outside. In February I stopped running inside and aimed for two 10k runs a week.
We invited a series of experts to Eircom throughout our preparation to talk to our runners about correct training. The nutritionist advice really helped me. As I run before work I was often running on an empty stomach which is a no-no so now instead I find myself sitting in the kitchen at 5.30am eating porridge while the rest of the household snores.
In March and April I moved on to three runs a week and built up my distance. Having completed 18k – not easily – I am starting to feel confident that I will complete the half marathon in Limerick. I may even be beginning to enjoy it.
Angela O'Mahony
I am from Porto Alegre in the south of Brazil. I came to Ireland to study English for months in 2007 and met my husband, Aidan, after only three months in Dublin. Eight years later, here I am. In Brazil I used to go to the gym and have an active life, but I found the Irish weather made it difficult even to go to the gym.
I started to put on a few pounds, fast. However I started to notice that despite the unstable weather Dublin was full of people running, cycling and walking, so I decide to have a go and start to run in 2012. I started very slowly with short distances and doing five minutes’ walking and one minute’s running. Some days I hated it, thinking It’s so wet and windy; I feel terrible; I am so tired; Just go home and give up; You are not able to do it. I refused to listen to these thoughts. In 2013 I actually started to enjoy running and see results and in 2014 I did my first 6-mile competition with the Eircom team in the Great Limerick Run.
All I can say is that anybody is able to run. It doesn’t matter how unfit you think you are, once you put in some hard work and have patience.
Billy Cussen
Running a full marathon is something that I would have never thought possible three years ago.
When I was 22, I was diagnosed with sciatica due to a rupture in my L1S1 vertebral disc. I was informed that invasive surgery was the only option to remedy this and had an 80 per cent chance of losing 30 per cent of my mobility. Three years later, I’ve made a full recovery, participated in three full marathons and am preparing to compete in the Great Limerick Run representing the Eircom Fibre Lights Team.
I’ve made sure to train intelligently for this marathon. My training began in January and a typical week’s training involves four runs, three swimming sessions and five core sessions. I do two 5k runs and two longer runs, each 10 or 20k. I’ve always avoided training up to a full distance for a marathon, as fatigue caused by overtraining can be detrimental. My core sessions involve resistance training with dumbbells as well as body weight exercises such as planks, burpees, press-ups and leg raises. Flexibility is another key to success here and I always ensure to stretch properly before and after each training session.
Gareth Davies
It was 6.30am on Thursday, February 21st, 2013. I had spent the past several months feeling unfit, overweight and a little miserable and that was the moment I decided to do something about it.
I went out and started a slow jog. I went three kilometres. I repeated this most weekday mornings. I was a little embarrassed by my fitness levels, so the darkness and quietness of the streets at that hour suited me. It was the end of May before I dared to go any further than 3k and then I got up to 5k. Slowly, I started to get stronger. I started to get faster. I started to get slimmer. By the end of June 2013, I decided to be brave and step out of the darkness and run in a 10k fun run. It was a great experience and I really loved it. At the finishing line they were handing out flyers for an upcoming half-marathon and without really thinking about it, and high on the endorphins of my first public run, I signed up.
It really hurt but I got the job done, crossed the finish line and picked up my first ever medal. I brimmed with confidence. I kept training. I continued to feel all the physical and mental wellness that exercise can bring. I ran in a few more 10k races and even persuaded my body to try another half marathon.
In mid-March 2014 I heard through work that there was the opportunity to participate in the Great Limerick Run and to support our partners in Special Olympics. I lined up with about 1,000 others: it was the 250th time I had laced up my trainers and it was a fantastic way for me to mark my journey.
Raymond Buchan
I'm originally from Perth in Scotland and moved to Dublin in 1996.My favourite training route is around the cliff path in Howth, ending with a run along the beach. I prefer to run on trail routes rather than pavements. In 2015 I'm having a break from Ultra races and am delighted to run the GLR half marathon for a bit of fun, to raise money and help my department in Eircom win the bragging rights for another year as the company's champion runners. I am really impressed by the number of people who have never run at all or never run more than 5k who have said, "Right, I am going to run 10k".
Keith Mulvey
All of the people that I run and train with in the "Mud Sweat and Runners" group and Glendalough AC have the same mindset. Have fun with friends, share stories, be proud of your own achievements, support each other with a team spirit, set goals and challenge your body and mind. The rewards are bountiful. A marked decrease in stress, healthier body, increased positivity and immense personal satisfaction. Balancing, family, friends, work, social and personal time becomes second nature.
So when Eircom distributed information advertising the Great Limerick Run, celebrating 30 years sponsoring the Irish Special Olympics Team, I found that I had clocked 750km, climbed more than 10 vertical km, run my first Ultra race and helped organise a charity auction before I even reflected on having signed up for the full marathon. I will also compete in the Tromso World Series Sky race coinciding with the date of the closing ceremony of the Special Olympics. I can’t say that over the last few years running has taken over my life; it’s more that so I’ve just made time for it again in my life and I love it.
Daire O'Neill
I started to run only a few years ago, and did only short distances. At first it was a chore, but now, having taken part in quite a few events, it has opened my eyes to the many social and charitable organisations, that make events such as the Great Limerick run their business. It's a fantastic way for people to get out and enjoy themselves. The runners get a high and a sense of achievement, and the hundreds, sometimes thousands of people that attend these events just to cheer people on, enjoy the spectacle of the event itself. All the while raising money for many great charitable organisations.
I’m proud that Eircom have chosen to partner with Special Olympics Ireland. As a company they contribute and promote the charity from within. We are actively encouraged to take part in any way we can from running in the Great Limerick Run to taking the Ice Bucket Challenge.
Simon Tuite
I started running in about 1982 when I decided I needed to keep fit and manage recurring back problems. Also, my father had a heart condition and suffered a heart attack in his 40s, so I decided I needed a more active lifestyle. I ran my first marathon for the 1988 Dublin Millennium and my last one in 1992. I'm not a natural runner so did a lot of cycling over the year too. In recent years, I got a bit hooked on adventure racing and have completed a number of events included Gaelforce West 4 times. This is a combination of running, cycling, kayak and mountain climb over a 70k route.
Entry to the Great Limerick Run is compulsory in Eircom, especially if you work in Wholesale and have a pulse. Actually, it’s a great event for an even better cause. There is an infectious feelgood around the whole event; the training, the banter, slagging, injuries, recoveries, competition, pride, shame . . . and that’s before the race even starts.
My preparation is going pretty well. I’ve entered the 10k, which is just fine for me right now. I’ve had the usual aches and pains but have done a 10k recently in training so I’m looking forward to an enjoyable spin around Limerick.
This year, my wife has also decided to sign up. This is her first race and has never run anything close to 10km before. She is preparing hard, especially on the fundraising front. This really became clear when I received an email and SMS from her fundraising campaign introducing me the event and asking me to support the Eircom team.
Michelle Toner
I was never a runner in the past, nor do I take exercise, ever, but the Great Limerick Run is changing all that for me and for the first time in my life I dare say I might even be enjoying it.
I am on the planning team for the Great Limerick Run, so participation was never optional. Following Eircom’s 2014 success at the Great Limerick Run the enthusiasm for running has spread like wildfire. I am delighted that 300 runners will participate in support of Special Olympics Ireland on the May bank holiday weekend and we are taking our training seriously.
Training runs leave daily from our office; you can choose to join an early morning or a lunchtime run, a short 5k to blow off the cobwebs or join the pros and marathon runners on the fast 10k sessions. It’s brilliant to have so much choice and I have a whole new circle of friends because of it. I’ve also changed my eating habits dramatically. I have more energy, my mood is better and I look forward to my training runs.
Our conversations have changed in the office too; instead of asking were you out over the weekend (generally understood as, did you get to the pub?) “out” now means running. How far did you clock, how did you feel afterwards, are you training for muscle memory, endurance or speed? These conversations are all new to me, but I am enjoying them and learning a lot.
We’re already planning to focus on new health and fitness campaigns for our colleagues following the race. We have a yoga instructor teaching classes in our head office on a Wednesday at 5:30pm, we’re starting a new season of early-morning spinning, and much more, because the appetite is obviously here. I plan to keep up my lunchtime running sessions and I am on the lookout for our next team challenge to keep that healthy competitive spirit burning.
Oonagh O'Reilly
Signing up for a 10k was a good way to focus on getting fit, especially after the sloth of Christmas and a post-Christmas holiday where the most energetic exercise was choosing between red, white or amber.
I hadn’t run any distance (even to the bus stop) in several years, but was encouraged by Carolan to volunteer (if “volunteering” can be mandatory) and the “we’re all in this together” spirit of my teammates (go Fibre Lights) I started off slowly.
An early run one morning saw me limping back home after only 4k, pretending to all the fitter and faster runners out that morning that I had already done my full workout, and really, it was them who were the lazy late starters. But I kept at it and I’m now up to 7k: I am banking on the adrenalin rush that apparently hits true professional athletes on race day.
Deirdre McCabe
My running career commenced shortly after I had my second boy and long walks just weren't shifting the baby weight. After a few months my running buddy and I needed a goal to work towards and in my naivety decided my first competitive race would be "The Warriors" run in Strandhill, Co Sligo (a 15k race up and over Knocknarea). Two hours and 15 mins later and in danger of being swept up by the sweeper van I decided that maybe a 10k would have been enough for my debut race.
Undeterred however I was inspired by Carolan Lennon and stepped up the training to do the half marathon last year for the Great Limerick Run. I started training in January and by Paddy’s weekend I was running 10 miles.All the athlete who compete every year in the Special Olympics Ireland competitions are the real Warriors, and they have inspired me and 300 of us in Eircom to go out again this year and run our PBs for what is a really wonderful cause. It is a great privilege to be involved again.
