Jimmy Nugent. Photo: Ann Hennessy.

Marathon man Jimmy just keeps on running!

KEEN marathon runners usually have a target in mind, like five marathons, or 10, or 20 . . . or even 50. For the odd enthusiast, a century of marathons is the target and that in itself is a massive – and rare – achievement.

For army man Jimmy Nugent, those milestones have all been reached and much more. Jimmy, who is from Mullingar and lives in Athlone, has run 218 marathons and he is now eyeing up number 300!
Jimmy (57) ran his first marathon 15 years ago, in 2002, and instantly he was hooked.
He teamed up with Denis McMonagle to run 200 marathons and when Denis retired from running marathons in 2015, having completed 212 of them, Jimmy could have joined him. But he was bitten by the bug and he was determined to continue!
And he enjoys every minute of it. He trains six days a week and aims to fit in a couple of marathons every month. His average is 25 in a year, but he surpassed this in 2011 when he completed the gruelling 26.2 mile distance no less than 37 times. This year, he has completed two so far – one each in Tipperary and Mullingar – and his target is another 32; he aims to complete marathon number 250 in Clonakilty in December. This will involve several back-to-back marathons – two in as many days – along the way but this doesn’t faze Jimmy.
Most of his marathons have been run in Ireland, but he has completed several overseas including New York (three times), Boston, Chicago, Florida, Berlin, Munich, Krakow, Transylvania, London and Edinburgh.
As for his favourite route – New York! “There’s something else about New York. There are probably two million people along the route. Following that it would have to be Florida. It is absolutely superb. There are characters from all the Walt Disney films along the way,” says Jimmy.
He describes himself as a latecomer to running; his younger days were dominated by football and boxing. He initially started running in an effort to lose weight.

 

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