Kildare man tours 32 counties with Jeep Ireland – and runs 1km in each- in 25 Hours!
An active member of Clane Athletics Club, Kildare man Oisin O Briain likes his running but earlier this month, he took on a unique challenge that quite literally saw him drive and run the entire country to cover all 32 counties. Having completed Ireland’s longest Ultra Trail race, the 200km Kerry Way Ultra, three 3-times, organised & run a Backyard Ultra, and raced around the country in various endurance races, Oisin likes to test himself. He also enjoys encouraging others to test their limits as the organiser of the annual Jeep Mondello24. Taking place each June, the latest edition of this 24-hour cycling race around County Kildare motor racing circuit Mondello Park saw Oisin encourage almost 100 teams made up of around 350 riders take on the challenge with a new record distance of 943km being covered by the winning team from County Armagh.
During a recent conversation on the many positives that come with running, Oisin mentioned how in particular his interest in mountain running had taken him all over Ireland. Thinking about this a little more afterwards, he asked himself had he actually run in all 32 counties? Well he can now say he has!!
With a free weekend looming after another successful Jeep Mondello24, which he competed in himself himself as part of a team on the famous Brompton city bike, he put it to Mondello24 sponsor Jeep Ireland if they would mind him taking the Mondello24 Jeep Avenger on another little 24-hour adventure. With adventure part of the Jeep DNA, they enthusiastically told him to go for it. The challenge? Drive to all 32 counties and on arrival run 1km in each.
Oisin shows Leo Nulty his intended route at Mondello Park just before beginning the trip!
With the Jeep loaded with running gear, food, and a pillow for driving breaks along the way, at 13:30 on Saturday, and with his youngest daughter as his co-pilot, the adventure began. Kicking things off with the first 1km run in Sallins to put his home county top of the list, what was to follow was a epic journey to cross county borders and tick off the 32 counties.
Highlights were the counties visited in the darkness of night – little or no traffic and Saturday night stragglers being entertained by seeing Oisin running up & down main streets. Some shouted encouragement while others used strong language to question his sanity – all good fun. On running his first kilometre in Northern Ireland, Fermanagh the 19th in the challenge, he found a 20 pound note right on the border of the bridge crossing that would bring the good luck of a safe adventure.
While some tactical errors in original locations selected to run meant new ones needed to be found to keep the challenge safe, this led to Oisin missing his under 24-hour goal but when you have clocked up over 1300km of driving plus 32km of running what’s an extra hour – the challenge in the end taking 25-hours to complete.
In addition to helping him tick the boxes of running all over Ireland, Oisin said the challenge also gave him one of the most memorable & fun geography lessons to share with his daughter!
