ON 11 JUNE, a construction worker from Leitrim will begin running up and down Croagh Patrick. And he won’t stop ascending and descending until 24 hours have passed.
The ultimate aim is to complete 15 round trips and break the world record of 12 runs [18,000 metres] in 24 hours. But regardless of the number of reps, Ricki Wynne from Drumshambo will continue his uninterrupted running until the time is up.
His colossal running effort is all in aid of Motor Neurone Disease [MND] to honour a close friend of his who is living with the dreadful condition, and to commemorate the memory of another Drumshambo native who has passed away. MND is a progressive neurological condition that attacks the motor neurones, or nerves, in the brain and spinal cord. Currently, there is no cure for the disease.
“I live in a small town and I play football for Leitrim Gaels,” Wynne tells The42 while discussing his inspiration for the Croagh Patrick project, ”and in our club two people have been struck down with that illness. And these are really fit men working in the construction industry. It’s a horrible condition.”
Wynne first became drawn to ultra running after finishing up with football in his 30s. By chance, he entered a 12-hour race with his brother in England and finished in “10th or 11th” out of 3,500 entrants.
“It started at night time and went all the way through the night,” Wynne remembers. “We knew we did really well but what I took from that was that I really loved that we were running for 12 hours, and we were able to run for 12 hours. Imagine if we actually trained for this kind of thing?”
From there, he entered his first official ultra race in Portumna in 2017. The distance was 50km and Wynne came second in a time of 4 hours and 5 minutes. The following year, he came back and broke the course record while also chopping 23 minutes off his own time.
Starting from a position of knowing very little about the sport, Wynne quickly flourished as an extreme distance runner.
“I knew that I wasn’t too bad at this,” he adds, “and that I’d keep it going. I ventured into the mountains and hills and found that I enjoyed that so much more.
“Just something about running up mountains and being outside for hours and hours. I just love it.
“On average, I’d train six days out of the seven a week. People often ask me if I take a recovery and it’s kind of hard to take a recovery day when you work on a building site.”
On the day we speak, Wynne is working on a roof and as soon as it’s quitting time, he will be swapping his building site clothes for running attire, and clocking up 20km. 11 June is fast approaching and he has a big job on his hands.
“I’d also like to take on the world record,” he says, “which was broken by a guy over in England and he holds the record for the most vertical metres ascended and descended on foot in 24 hours. It’s something like 22,679 metres, so if I go up and down Croagh Patrick 15 times, I get 22,920 metres.”
Wynne had a few reasons to choose Croagh Patrick for this fundraising run. His wife is a native of Mayo, and comes from Westport. Croagh Patrick is also a regular stomping ground for Wynne, and when he’s away doing other ultra races, his wife uses the Mayo Reek as a reference point while talking to friends about his sport.
“She’ll say, ‘it’s seven Croagh Patricks,’” Wynne says , quoting his wife’s way of explaining it all to others.
“That’s my mountain and I’m there every couple of weeks. I’m up and down three times in three hours every time I go there. I’m good on it and I’m well used to it.”
On 11 June, he’ll be running along the same trail as the many people who climb Croagh Patrick on foot, but with enough space for him to get up and down freely.
The 24-hour element of the challenge is just for Wynne but he welcomes anyone to join him throughout the run. A few people from the ultra running community have already signed up to run some of the sections with him.
“A lot of work has been put into Croagh Patrick and they’ve put steps all the way up to the really hard bit at the top. They’ve put steps in along the left-hand side so it’s great because runners can stay on one side and walkers can stay on the other.
“Loads of people from trail-running groups that I know have reached out to me, and they’re going to do one or two of the hill repeats. Some guys want to run the night section with me to give me a hand because there’s loads of people who do this kind of stuff who are mad to help and to support me.”
Wynne has another major competition coming up at the end of August, when he will travel to France to run in the Ultra Trail Mont Blanc [UTMB]. Wynne calls this the “Mecca for trail running.” Along with his two brothers, Wynne will run in a race called the Courmayeur Champex Chamonix [CCC] which is 110km in length with over 6,000 metres of climbing involved.
“For me, I just bounce from one thing to the other anyway,” says Wynne about his tiresome workload.
“I don’t like sitting still, and that’s another reason why I do this kind of stuff. And I want to do it for motor neurone disease because it takes away what we take for granted. I’m 5ft 2 and I’m very, very small. I’m very, very light. But I’ve managed to make my body do these crazy things, and I think it’s unbelievable what our bodies can do. There are no limits. And yet, motor neurone disease can come and take that all away.
“For those people that can’t do it. I’m going to push my body until it breaks.”
You can make a donation to Ricki Wynne’s fundraiser here.
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