A Tipperary man has raised almost €4,300 for Pieta House after running 500 kilometres during Lent.
Killea native Alan O’Riordan ran the equivalent of 12 marathons over those 40 days near his home in Dublin city centre, covering a distance equivalent to that between Cork city and Glasgow.
The final 150 kilometres of his fundraiser was done after the Covid-19 lockdown was introduced, meaning he did all his running within two kilometres of his home.
Alan – a brother of AFL star and former Tipp footballer Colin – says the restrictions made the closing stages quite monotonous.
“I had to use Google maps to find out what the 2 kilometre radius was – once I went out the door I ran two kilometres left then turned back around and do another 2 kilometres as far back in the right direction.”
Despite the repetitiveness and maybe a bit of physical pain he said it was nothing compared with what the people he was trying to help are going through mentally.
