John in front of Liberty Hall Dublin, where he trained for his Empire State Building run in February this year (Martin Murphy\The Epoch Times)
John O'Regan ultra marathon runner, who competed in the Dublin marathon for the first time back in 2001, came forth in a 24-hour race on London’s Tooting Bec track covering a distance of 220.021km on October 18th which means he has attained the standard required for participation in the World 24 Hour Championships in 2010.
John spoke to The Epoch Times about his running to date and how he incorporates his training, work and family life.
John competed in the Dublin city marathon in 2001, this was his first taste of long distance running. The Dubliner had planned on doing a race called the “Marathon des Sables” in April 2003. This consisted of a 150 miles (240 Km) race over 6 days in the Sahara Desert. In order to prepare himself fully for his first ultra marathon, John signed up for a part time sports related course in Trinity College Dublin (TCD).
While in Trinity John was introduced to Mr Bernard Dunne and Dr Nick Mahony from the Sports Medicine, Performance Laboratory in TCD, “During my first test in advance of going to the desert, they told that me that I was too over weight, carrying too much body fat, was not fit enough and had a hell of a lot of work to do.”
Fortunately the guys from the Sports department were able to help John with planning his training program. The help that John received from Bernard and Nick has enabled him to prepare for his first and all subsequent ultra marathons he has taken part in.
John believes that science is the key to reducing injury and prolonging ones sporting life,
“For these kind of events you really have to train smarter as well as harder,” said John.
After finishing his first ultra marathon in the Sahara Desert, John jumped from the frying pan, past the fire and into the fridge when he did a marathon in the North Pole in 2004 with blind explorer Mark Pollock.
One year later John won his first extreme marathon the The Yukon Arctic Ultra which was 100 Miles across the frozen Yukon Wilderness following the trail of the 1000 mile Yukon Quest Dog Sleigh Race.
After that John set himself the goal of over the following seven years he would compete in the most extreme running event in each of the seven continents, and in doing so he hoped to take in as many terrain as possible.
John completed his goal this May, when he took part in the The North Face 100K in Australia the seventh and final continent in his seven year plan.
The Empire State Building
Because of John's impressive running CV he was invited to compete in the Empire State Building run this year.The race itself was a bit of a free for all when it started, with elbows flying etc. John had to sprint up 86 flights in approximately 14 minutes. This was literally a sprint compared to the longer events John has been used to.
In order to train for the event John had to get permission to use the stairs in Liberty Hall. During his lunch break he would pound the stairs and recover in the lift on the way down. However he was getting too much recovery so he decided to alter the routine and started running up 4 flights and down 3 this alteration meant his training and recovery were maximised.
Keeping his life balanced
In order to keep his family life balanced with his wife Catherine and his two children Aisling(12) and Cian(8), John tries to limit the impact of his training on the family by incorporating his training into his commute to work. He trains at lunch time and early in the morning at the weekends, so he can be back at home in time to make sure he fulfils his duties as a dad, like bringing the kids to sport practice."The beat training programme is one that fits around your life, rather than fitting your life around your training, that's the reason why I can still do what I am doing," concluded John.
Now at 40 John has run in extreme events on seven continents and this year he reached the standard required to participation in the World 24 Hour Championships in 2010.
