Harsh Irish weather helps to give marathon-man Thornton an edge

Talking Sport with Stephen Glennon

There are not too many in this neck of the woods who can see the positive side of these harsh winter days of snow and sleet and wind and rain – except, maybe, for Galway runner Gary Thornton who has just completed seven marathons on seven continents in seven days!

You read it correctly. The Galway City Harriers athlete was one of 49 runners who recently took on seven marathons on seven continents in just a week – and he won them all. It might seem an absurd thing to do but Thornton remarks that factors such as the inclement Irish weather cultivate the mental resolve it takes to meet these endurance events.

“The weather in Ireland – and this winter has been pretty poor, consistently poor – that is good for the head. That builds up the head. I am used to that hardship of going out by myself in this westerly point in Europe, right on the edge of Europe, right on the Atlantic.”

Thornton, who was sponsored and supported by fellow elite endurance runner Richard Donovan, jests not. When he got his Olympic ‘A’ standard in 2015, he had trained through storms of all descriptions.

“I was out there by myself on the Prom – nobody else was out there – because people thought it was too crazy to walk on the Prom never mind run. I just had to get those runs in though.

“I suppose, that is your mentality and I have built that up over 20 years over many 100 mile-weeks. I don’t consider myself mentally tough because that is the environment I am working in all the time,” notes the father-of-one.

In order words, it is something that just comes naturally to him but he acknowledges he was pushed to his limits when he took on the gruelling World Marathon Challenge recently. He began in Novo in Antarctica, completing the 26 miles in just under three hours.

He subsequently took on Cape Town (South Africa) and Perth (Australia) and it was in the latter that the body began to feel the pinch – and the mind was soon to follow. By this stage, he was on his third run and he had barely got an hour’s sleep between the three legs.

“I just couldn’t come down and you can’t make your body sleep. It is like when you have an exam in your university days or you have an important match and you are trying to get your head down to sleep.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.