It’s all about the process in completing endurance feats

Talking Sport with Stephen Glennon

FOR now, there are only two things you need to know about Gerry Duffy. The first is that he ran 32 marathons in 32 days across 32 counties. The second is that he subsequently completed 10 Ironman events – 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile cycle and 26.2 mile marathon – over 10 successive days.

If you knew nothing else about Duffy, those two stats would be enough to give you a sense of the man. Yet, the motivational speaker will be the first to argue he is not defined by those events alone but rather the process that enabled him to achieve those incredible feats.

One of the most sought after and respected motivational speakers on the circuit, the Mullingar native has been employed by not only those of a sporting demeanour but also by multi-national firms such as Facebook to inspire their workforce.

Any of the 400 people who last week attended the first of Joanne Murphy’s excellent Tri Talking Sport evenings on inspiration and motivation in the Salthill Hotel will admit Duffy is a little bit special. Then again, his story is a remarkable one.

“I took up running at 27, so 21 years ago,” says Duffy, who earlier in the evening took time out to sit down for a chat. “For five or six years, I just ran 5km on my own along the canals of Mullingar but at the turn of the millennium I started to stretch it and got up to double figures for the first time.

“I then ran a half marathon, did a marathon and then I got into triathlon and went up the grid there from sprint to Olympic to Half Ironman to Ironman. It was when I did the Ironman, and it had such a profound effect on me in other areas of my life, that I started to bring the same strategies to achieve other stuff that I used to think was impossible.”

Some may call it an ‘eureka’ moment but Duffy realised that the most powerful tool an individual can have is the mind and he began to understand the power it can generate – not only in triathlon but also in business, education, ambition and health.

Consequently, the Gerry Duffy of today is a far different animal to the Gerry Duffy who found himself coasting through life for over a decade because he wasn’t aware that he was, indeed, alive. “From the age of 17 or 18, I was in college initially and then I worked in the travel business. Then I worked for the insurance industry and I worked for an insurance company in Galway.

“I got up every day and I did the same so I got the same. Life wasn’t giving me a huge amount in terms of experience but as soon as I made a change, everything changed and I started to get happier. So, when I took up running, it sort of woke me up to the fact that I was alive,” he continues.

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