Paddy’s 650km run for mental health reaches Portlaoise this Wednesday
Patrick McClintock
On Wednesday 22 July, Paddy McClintock will run into Portlaoise — day six of his attempt to run the entire length of Ireland, roughly 650km from Mizen Head in Co. Cork to Portrush in Co. Antrim, in 14 consecutive days between 17 and 30 July. In order to make that time, Paddy is and will have to continue to run the equivalent of a marathon every single day for the next two weeks.
Wednesday’s stage of this Odyssey will carry him around 45km from Templemore into Portlaoise, which will bring him up to roughly 290 kilometres covered since he left Mizen Head last Friday. Portlaoise is also a planned reset stop for his small support crew, who have followed him the length of the country in a camper van. Local runners and cyclists are warmly invited to join Paddy for a stretch of the road into town, or simply to cheer him in — supporters have been running and cycling alongside him on every stage so far.
Paddys’ quest has been inspired the memory of two close friends, Olly Chessher and Honor Edwards, both lost to suicide. He says that those losses have reshaped how he thinks about grief and mental health, and that they are the reason the movement he is raising money for — Check in on a Mate; a charity which he describes as founding to get people thinking about what really matters in life and to help normalise mental-health conversations through sport, and make genuinely asking a mate how they’re doing a standard thing to do rather than an awkward one.
In a statement, Paddy said:
“Every day of this run is for Olly and Honor. If one person in Laois sees this and picks up the phone to ask a mate how they’re really doing, every kilometre will have been worth it. Come and run a few of them with me on Wednesday.”
