77-year-old Peadar in training for his 41st Dublin City Marathon
The show must go on – even if it’s the Dublin City Marathon, you’re 77-years old, and you have to fast-walk the event on the roads surrounding the fields of Athenry.
Peadar Nugent from Moyvilla, Derrydonnell, does intend to retire from the marathon circuit. But not just yet. He’s planning to hold on for another three years, until he reaches his 80th birthday.
Not for one moment did Peadar have any doubts over participating in his 41st successive Dublin City Marathon, once he knew for definite that the event was going ahead – in virtual format.
The virtual bit means that the marathon field will run their 26 miles and 285 yards in their home areas all across Ireland and be satellite tracked on their mobile phone or Garmin devices.
Despite shoulder, hip and knee surgeries down through the years, Peadar is one of an elite group of 13 athletes who has managed to complete all 40 of the Dublin City Marathons.
Those surgeries and an osteoarthritis diagnosis haven’t diminished Peadar’s enthusiasm for the road by one whit – although he has heeded the surgeon’s advice to walk, rather than run the event, over recent years.
“In previous years, I’ve come in around the five hours and 20 or so minutes mark (roughly 12 minutes a mile) but that’s with a big crowd around and the atmosphere of the occasion.
“This year [the October Bank Holiday Weekend], I’ll be walking it around my own area along with fellow Athenry club member, Máire Treasa Beatty, and I’m hoping to come in at six hours – or maybe just a bit under,” Peadar told the Connacht Tribune this week.
Needless to say, Peadar lives a healthy life. He never drank nor smoked and has hardly ever missed a morning in his life without his usual breakfast – a big bowl of porridge.
“Even on marathon days, my diet has never changed. The bowl of porridge is the perfect food for the marathon – you’re not too full and yet it sustains you.
“During the races themselves, it’s just a case of regular water intakes and about half-way through, one banana. The banana is easy to absorb and it helps to replenish the sugar levels,” said Peadar.
(Photo: Peadar Nugent pictured with Máire Treasa Beatty after collecting their medallions on completion of the 40th Dublin City Marathon in October, 2019. They are now gearing up for the 41st virtual running of the event on Sunday week next). This is a shortened preview version of this article. To read it in full, see this week's Connacht Tribune. You can buy a digital edition HERE.