I don’t know how many people will recall the evening of the Castleisland Horse Fair Day on November 1-2010.
If they do, the memories will be mostly of the interior of public houses and the post fair craic. The evening in question turned nasty as the street cleared of man and beast and darkness fell.
Just then a road-weary figure jogged up the street with a buggy in front of him and a tri-colour flying from it.
I happened to be on the street with my camera and approached the man and he told me his story after I directed him to his appointed place to stay.
Would you believe that he was just setting out that time on a world-wide ‘jog’ to raise funds for Aware – the charity which helps people to fight depression – and that he has just returned to Ireland a couple of weeks ago on completion of that mammoth journey.
Tony Mangan was born on April 20th 1957 in Dublin and is an ultra distance runner. He has just completed an around the world run for Aware.
“I didn’t start running till I was almost 30. Then I dreamed of running around the World. I got delayed for over 20 years for many reasons, breaking a few world ultra records. Now I am retired from competition I can finally live my dream.”
His world run the began with his participation in the Dublin Marathon in October 2010. Moving from east to west he commenced in Ireland before heading to North America, before proceeding to Central and South America and on to Australia, Asia and Europe before returning to Ireland. He wishes to finish at 2.05pm on 27 October 2014, to finish where he started with the Dublin marathon.
Tony Mangan’s goal was to complete a distance of approximately 50, 000 km over a four-year period of near-continuous travel. This involved running roughly the distance of a marathon per day.
Mangan set out to make the journey as continuous as possible on a world map. Each day he rans with his buggy, named Nirvana, which is best known in the U.S. as a runner’s stroller. It has one small wheel in the front and two large ones in the back.
In the buggy Mangan packed a tent, tarp, extra shoes, clothes and some food where most runners would sit an infant or toddler.
Frank Greally of The Irish Runner covered Tony Mangan’s home-coming only recently and you can read his report by following the link here.
