Extreme SportsMany people idly dream of one day running a marathon but few imagine completing it along one of the earth's polar ice caps. Richard Donovan describes his first Antarctic marathon as "just the regular 26.2 miles".

And it was, except he ran it through minus 50 centigrade, at 10,000 feet above sea level and because he eventually moved ahead of the other two ultra runners to survive the course he was alone for several hours at a time, moving on instinct and hope through pure whiteness.

"We thought we were running," he remembers now. "But the thing about that race was there was no comfort zone. The thought repeatedly went through my mind: I shouldn't be out here. Maybe that is part of the attraction."

That 2002 race was a controversial beginning to what has become an annual trot around the polar ice caps. The outdoor clothing label North Face sponsored that race and Donovan was one of six entrants. Three fell away and the Galway man left his two American opponents behind and headed on across the frozen circuit alone. The safety snowmobiles elected to stay with the Americans, meaning that for considerable periods, the Irish runner was like the last man on earth.

"The course was marked but there were several hours when it was just white and you had to just trust you were still on course."

Such radical and total exposure to the natural landscape is part of the appeal of ultra running. In late 1999, Donovan ran the gruelling Marathon des Sable with his brother Paul and in the years afterwards something clicked.

Since then, he has run the Inca Trial Marathon through some of the most visually breathtaking and physically gruelling terrain in South America, the Poor Man's Comrade Marathon in Australia, the Everest Challenge race and has become the chief organiser of the polar cap races.

But 2002 was his most frantic year and he travelled the globe in search of extreme challenges, never meeting the same runner twice.

But the fraternity of ultra runners is growing and in the past couple of years, Donovan has got to know other like-minded creatures.

The immediate presumption is that ultra-running draws a 'type' of character: that is the pursuit of the eccentric.

And the second assumption must be that it takes a physiologically rare athlete to complete such torturous feats. But it was only after the Sahara race that Richard Donovan even began to think of himself in terms of being a 'runner'.

"Paul was the one in our house with the talent. He was the real athlete.

"I remember I put on a couple of stone after the Marathon des Sable and was thinking, God, look at the state of me.

"I mean I could go out and run five or six miles but it would be a struggle.

"I would feel it afterwards. But I had realised that I had, perversely, enjoyed the Sahara experience.

"What happens in all those races is that you break yourself down to a certain point and then you begin to rise again.

"Without sounding corny, you do go through an epiphany of sorts. It is a matter of mental strength - which is maybe why a lot of women seem to make good ultra runners.

"And the other thing is that it is suited to slightly older people - men in their late 30s and 40s supposedly peak in the sport. But it is growing, particularly in America, and beginning to come into the mainstream."

For his latest mission, Donovan will hardly require snowmobiles, but given Irish summers he may well have one booked on stand-by.

Starting on July 4th, he will attempt to run from Malin Head to Mizen Head in a record five days.

The main purpose of the run is to raise funds for the Chernobyl Children's Project and in doing so add to Donovan's world fastest 100 kilometres and 100 miles records.

His route takes him through most major towns along the west coast and if he looks like a man who has just completed two marathons, that is because he has. Every day.

"I know it is going to hurt. But I am hopeful. You just don't know until you are out there. There are moments when you are wrecked and bored beyond belief and other moments when it just feels like the perfect thing to be doing."

Donations in aid of the Chernobyl Children's Project can be made to Richard Donovan's Malin Head to Mizen Head run at lo-call 1890924665. Further details available at www.head2head.ie