On the evening of July 12th, our Club Grounds will play host to a phenomenal act, as Claire Kelly will finish her mammoth run of 12 Marathons in 12 Days, starting from Aberdeen and culminating in Ratheniska, by arriving through our gates to the cheers and congratulations of friends and family.
We are absolutely honoured to have been asked to play host to Claire final leg, which will be the culmination of a month of marathoning to raise funds for MND Scotland and the Irish MNDA. Of course this is a cause that is very close to our own hearts, having lost our beloved clubman, Domo Byrne to the disease in 2015. Claire is a niece of Domo and this is just the latest in a long line of initiatives both she and Domo's extended family have undertaken to remember the great man.
For Claire, this challenge follows a year of marathoning from November 2015 to October 2016, a marathon a month, also in aid of MND. This year however she decided to push herself even further, and sticking with the "12" theme chose to run 12 Marathons in 12 Days. Why you may ask? Because, as she said herself, she can.
The challenge for July sees her take on 12 full marathons throughout the month. Some solo, most self-set routes, all 26.2 miles long (at the very least, some will in fact be longer!), that will push her harder, both physically and mentally than any challenge she ever undertook.
Claire will run a total of 314.4 miles in marathons alone, and potentially further as she will need to keep moving in between. This is no small challenge and although she already has a whopping twenty plus marathons under her belt already, this undertaking will most certainly take a toll on her body, and mind.
So what can we do to help Claire?
Firstly, on July 12th, GET TO OUR CLUB GROUNDS BEFORE 7PM and welcome Claire home! Its a truly amazing undertaking in Domo's memory and we'd love to have a crowd there to welcome her and her family and friends.
And SECONDLY, you can DONATE. Every donation is valued, so to give a little and help a lot, go to this page https://give.everydayhero.com/ie/12-in-12-2018 and support the MND Associations in Ireland and Scotland
So, from all of us here in Park/Ratheniska GAA, we thank Claire for allowing us play a part, we wish her all the very best over the coming gruelling days, and we can't bloody wait to welcome you to our Grounds on July 12th!
Just keep running!
We will leave you in Claire's own words
"The support that I have had while I have been doing this has been overwhelming, from friends and strangers and strangers that have become friends I have been touched on so many occasions by people that have been willing to share their own stories of how their lives have been affected by MND. While of course I wanted to raise as much money as I can for the charity, raising awareness and getting conversations started has been incredible too"
More information on her run can be found here https://www.12in12.co.uk/12-in-12-2018
