Two well-known local soccer personalities are taking part in the Extreme North Quadrathon Challenge – four half-marathons over four days – next month.
St Johnston duo Paul Duddy and Ciaran Bovaird are set to embark on the gruelling challenge, in order to raise money for two charities: the Donegal Cancer Bus and Pieta House.
Duddy is a former League of Ireland referee, who still officiates at games in Donegal, while Bovaird played for and managed Kildrum Tigers in the Donegal League.
The Quadrathon takes place around Inishowen from August 11-14, with four separate events: the Kinnego Marathon, the Malin Marathon, the Mamore Marathon and the Muff Marathon.
It is an anti-clockwise course around the Inishowen peninsula, incorporating 104.8 miles of roads, beginning at Moville and ending at the Redcastle Hotel.
The event is being run by Extreme North.
“My motivation to do this is in memory of my Mum (Sadie), who passed away earlier this year,” Paul Duddy said.
“Ciaran lost his father (Hugh) ten years ago. This is something we’ve decided to do to raise money for two very important charities.
“Everyone knows the importance of the Cancer Bus and Pieta House are doing fantastic work around suicide.
“I mentioned this to Ciaran around May and we decided to give it a go.”
Both are multiple marathon finishers and have been clocking up a lot of miles in preparation for the Quadrathon. They’ve been regulars at the local 5ks and have also done the Cookstown half-marathon, the Buncrana half-marathon and Buncrana 10k events.
Paul Duddy with Matthew Crossan of Matt’s Takeaway
Ciaran Bovaird with Seamus Crawford of SOS Tyres
“We do a lot of running together,” Paul Duddy said. “I helped train Ciaran for his first marathon.
“Before we did any running like this, we’ve been running around together since we were kids. We grew up together and played football together.
“We’re excited about this challenge. It’ll be tough but we’ll be ready for it.”
They have been sponsored by Matt’s Takeaway, Mac’s Mini Mart, SOS Tyres, CoreFit – Russell Porter and McIntyre Engineering.
