Guest Post: ANOTHER FIRST FOR DENIS!...by John Walshe

Denis at the start in Youghal

ANOTHER FIRST FOR DENIS!   ... By John Walshe

As he himself says, it may not be as momentous as the first man on the moon but another statistic was added to Denis McCarthy’s remarkable list of achievements on Thursday (December 19) when he became the first to run the entire length of the newly-opened Youghal to Midleton Greenway.
 
Although the official opening doesn’t take place until the New Year, what was termed a ‘soft opening’ was enough for the East Cork athlete to lace up the shoes and rise to yet another challenge. The new section which extends from Youghal through Killeagh and Mogeely opened on midday and just a couple of minutes after noon Denis headed off into a strong headwind on his 14.2-mile (23km) trek.
 
“I suppose the first will always be remembered, whether it’s the first mile under four minutes or the first on the moon,” explained Denis on why he decided on this. “A man who would have inspired me in a small way was a West Limerick athlete, Tom Fitzgerald.
 
“Tom said something to me once which struck a chord; he was working in Cork on the construction of the Lee Tunnel and said to me one day he was the first man to run under water, so those little things inspired me to run the railway line.”

Passing through Mogeely after nine miles (15km)

Recently the 61-year-old notched up 10 years without missing a single day of running. This streak would have been much longer but for fracture to a bone in his leg back in 2013 which brought almost 28 years of continuous running to a brief suspension. But then, even while on crutches, he famously managed to complete the Shanagarry five-mile race in 71 minutes.
 
“There were eight days in which I actually did nothing, but then there were days trying to train while hobbling around in a medical walking boot until a doctor said to me I’d never heal like that, so I stopped running then and went on crutches.”
Last October, another milestone was reached when he competed in the Cork county senior cross-country championship for the 41st time (he has also ran the East Cork equivalent on 42 occasions). Back in the 1990s a different challenge came to fruition – that of running a race in each of the 32 counties on this island, before his 32nd birthday.

“It was a small bit daunting heading out this morning,” admitted Denis of his railway run. “My mileage is not particularly high at the moment but when I got as far as Killeagh I was fairly settled as I was familiar with the terrain after that, it’s only a short skip to Mogeely and then only five miles back to Midleton.”

Mission accomplished – the number on his chest says it all!

Guest Post: DENIS MCCARTHY – A RECORD SETTER AND A RECORD COLLECTOR ...by John Walshe

DENIS MCCARTHY – A RECORD SETTER AND A RECORD COLLECTOR

(By John Walshe, Midleton & Dist News/Youghal News, 12/01/2023

Maybe the words of Johnny Logan’s Eurovision winner ‘What’s Another Year’ came to mind when East Cork athlete Denis McCarthy recently totted up his mileage for the past 12 months. (And, by the way, if you wish to know what year Logan won and how many weeks he stayed in the charts, no better man than Denis to supply the answer - as we shall see later).

Denis McCarthy with his Cork County C-C winning team medals from 1985 and 1986

A meticulous keeper of statistics, Denis’ running log for the year just gone shows a total of 2,020 miles covered, an average of just over five-and-a-half miles for every single day. This annual total has been the norm for at least the past 40 years and the Ballynoe native estimates he has now clocked up in excess of 100,000 running miles.

“Since June 5th, 1985, I’ve only missed eight days,” says the 60-year-old, before adding, nonchalantly, “but some of them were on crutches.” A running streak that began on that date in 1985 finally came to an end 28 years and four days later when a bad fall resulted in a fracture to a bone in his leg.

Even while on crutches, he still managed to complete the Shanagarry five-mile race in 71 minutes. “There were eight days in which I actually did nothing, but then there were days trying to train while hobbling around in a medical walking boot until a doctor said to me I’d never heal like that, so I stopped running then and went on crutches.”

Last October, another milestone was reached at Macroom when he competed in the Cork county senior cross-country championship for the 40th time (he has also ran the East Cork equivalent on 41 occasions). Twice, at county level, he has been a scorer on the winning East Cork team of which he’s been a member of since its inception in 1985.

“The first county I ran was in Castlemartyr back in 1981, when I was with the Youghal club,” he recalls. “After that, I just took it one step at a time. I always had a kind of unique interest in the race, going back to the 1970s when there was a great rivalry between the likes of John Hartnett and Donie Walsh. It was a kind of a county versus city rivalry in my eyes; between them they won a total of seven titles so that gave you an idea of the stature of the race.

Denis competing in the East Cork C-C championships last September for the 41st time

“In the 1980s, Tony O’Leary dominated the championship and that sort of infatuated me as well. In 1989, when I was running and training with Liam O’Brien, to see a man like Liam who had dominated Munster athletics finally come along and win the county senior, and to see what that meant to people. And then I was finding myself on East Cork teams and was a scoring member when the club took the title in 1985 and 1986.”

And, after four decades, there may be one more final county fling: “This year is the century of the Cork county senior cross-country. According to Liam Fleming’s book, the first one took place at the Cork Showgrounds in 1923 and it would be nice to run it a century later. East Cork have won it on 21 occasions and as a proud club man it would be nice to see them retain the title they won last October after a lapse of five years.”

During the 1990s another unique challenge was hatched and came to fruition – that of running a race in each of the 32 counties on this island, before his 32nd birthday. “I was after running a number of national intermediate cross-country races, it took me eight years to get out of that category and I was travelling to a lot of obscure counties, for want of a better word.

“When I did my tally, I had something like 18 or 19 counties so I then felt that the 32 was within reach.” In an era when races were a lot harder to come by compared to today, for someone in the far south of the country the northern counties would be the hardest to get to.

At Christmas 1993, Denis had just three counties to go. On St Stephens Day he travelled to Tyrone, where, on a snow-covered course, he finished third in the Greencastle 10km. A week later, he availed of an invitation to take part in the Derry cross-country championships, thus leaving just Monaghan on his agenda, and this he 'bagged' the following March when he finished fourth in a road race in Glaslough.

For most of the races in the far North, it meant leaving his home in Ballynoe at an unearthly hour, and not arriving back until around midnight. One of the longest journeys he undertook was to Donegal, a round trip of about 500 miles. He left home at 5:30am, slept for a short while in his car alongside the tomb of W.B. Yeats in Drumcliffe, Sligo, before going on to Donegal Town, where he finished sixth in a 5km.

Pictured in 1994, the year he ran a race in each of the 32 counties

Over the years, Denis has won 179 East Cork championship medals, 94 county medals, 82 Munster medals and 19 national medals in road, track and cross-country – such mind-boggling statistics trip readily off his tongue. With personal bests on the track of 8:33 for 3000m and 14:58 for 5000m, he was no mean performer. He won the 5,000m county title in 1986 and of the 2,064 races he has competed in (up to December 2022), he has finished first on 198 occasions.

An employee of Glenmar Shellfish Ireland in Curraglass near Conna for many years, Denis’ other passion – apart from his running - is attending car boot sales and adding to his record collection. And there is also a tie-in here from his travels up north, as he explains: “That same week I was in Belfast I came across a CD single by Bryan Adams ‘Everything I Do, I Do It for You’ which had spent 18 weeks at Number 1 in the UK charts.

“So I bought it and when a new record went to Number 1 after that I continued and then I started getting older ones at car boot sales and record fairs and tried to work backwards. It was the UK charts I was first chasing but then I branched out and started collecting Irish Number Ones which date back to 1962. There have been over 1,000 Irish Number Ones, and I reckon I have them all.”

 Last year, Denis even got a mention on John Creedon’s popular RTE Radio 1 show when he contacted him with a reminder that on October 5th the Irish charts would be sixty years old.

“If he was plonked in front of Mangus Magnusson now on Mastermind I’d say that Denis would be well able to match the questions on his chosen subject,” said the Cork broadcaster – a fitting tribute indeed to this remarkable man who not alone sets records but collects them as well.  

A list of guest posts from John Walshe on the site can be found HERE

Denis McCarthy of East Cork completes his 1,000th race

Denis McCarthy of East Cork AC is a well known figure on the road race circuit and reached an important milestone in his running career last Thursday. The Ballintotis 4 mile race was actually his 1,000th race and the race organisers presented him with a special prize to mark the occasion.

Denis is also the holder of the longest running streak in Ireland. Having started on the 5th of June 1985, Denis ran at least one mile per day up until the 10th of June 2013...a total of 28 years and 4 days without a break, an incredible 10,232 days of running.

Denis McCarthy's record running streak comes to an end after 28 years...

According to the US Running Streak Association, the official definition of a running streak is as follows...."To run at least one continuous mile (1.61 kilometers) within each calendar day under one's own body power without the utilization of any type of health or mechanical aid".

In Ireland, it is widely recogised that the person with the longest continuous running streak is Denis McCarthy of East Cork AC.

Having started on the 5th of June 1985, Denis has run at least one mile per day up until the 10th of June 2013 when a bad fall resulted in a fracture to a bone in his leg. That makes a total of 28 years and 4 days without a break, an incredible 10,232 days of running.

(Photo courtesy of Doug Minihane)

Longest US Female Running Streak Ends...

Starting on the 5th of July 1978, Julie Maxwell of Kasson, Minnesota had run every day for the last 33 years. Her 12,212 day running streak ended on the 10th of December after breaking her right ankle. She had the longest running streak of any female in the USA (and probably the world) as certified to the United States Running Streak Association (USRSA)

“It is with a heavy heart that I tell you of the end of my 33-plus-year streak,” said Maxwell to USRSA. “I fell Sunday morning and broke both bones in my right ankle! With my foot facing backwards, I knew I would not be lacing up my shoes for my daily run.” Maxwell plans to start another running streak when she recovers from her injury. “I assure you that when I heal, I will begin another streak.”

The official definition of a running streak, as adopted by the United States Running Streak Association is to run at least one continuous mile within each calendar day under one's own body power (without the utilization of any type of health or mechanical aid other than prosthetic devices). Running under one's own body power can occur on either the roads, a track, over hill and dale, or on a treadmill. Running cannot occur through the use of canes, crutches or banisters, or reliance on pools or
aquatic devices to create artificial buoyancy. USRSA Website HERE

From an Irish point of view, the person with the longest running streak is Denis McCarthy of East Cork AC who has run every day since June 1985! I'm not sure which Irish woman has the longest running streak?

Anyone want to start?? :o)

American runner Aaron Shatzman maintains 30 year running streak

There was a story on the Internet during the week about 65 year old Aaron Shatzman in Pennsylvania who has maintained a 30 year running streak. Starting on Oct. 9, 1981, he has run approx 53,700 miles since then and currently runs 3 miles every day. When asked how he managed to keep the streak going, he said..."It has to do with perseverance, persistence, hard work, and accomplishing a goal. It would be easy to take a day off and more fun to watch TV. Not giving in is the important thing."

Another person with another notable running streak is Ron Hill in the UK who has run every day since December 1964.

In Ireland, the person with the longest running streak is most likely Denis McCarthy of East Cork AC. Starting in June 1985, he has run every day since.