Wheelchair athlete Jerry Forde hits 465 marathons!

The main man Jerry Forde with Paddy Rodgers who helped out on the bike

A few weeks back, I had a post up about how Jerry Forde was looking for a cyclist to help him out for an MCI marathon in Blackrock in Cork City on Saturday the 4th of January. Big shout out to local runner Paddy Rodgers who answered the call!

When Jerry first told me about needing a cyclist for the marathon, I asked him was that the one at the Blackrock Castle car park. 'Ya ya, that's the one' said Mr Forde and he duly told me the date and start time.

Grand says I, I'll turn up and do the first of five laps with Jerry and then hand over to Paddy for the other four.

So I cycled from home that morning and turned up just before 8:30am at the Blackrock Castle car park. Not only was there no sign of Mr Forde but there was also no sign of any race! I was wondering at this stage if I had got the times and date wrong.

I cycled on the loop on what would be the opposite direction to the runners and eventually spotted Bernice Glavin. After a quick chat, Bernice tells me that she had started early and the start was in St.Michaels GAA grounds in Mahon, a small detail Mr Forde had forgotten to tell me!

Eventually we got going about half an hour late with an official start time. After a chilly first lap, I then handed over to Paddy who did the honours for the remaining four.

Amazingly, this was Jerry's 465th marathon! I spoke to Jerry during the week and I have now updated his marathon list... https://jerryforde.wordpress.com/list-of-marathons/

Fingers crossed, he hopes to hit the 500 mark sometime in the middle of 2021.

Thanks also to Alan who also offered to help. Alan, you never left your email address in the original post so I couldn't contact you.