By 
JUNE
NIALL HEANEY (ATHLETICS)
WE were blessed with some beautiful early summer weather in June, but Niall probably regrets picking his 55th birthday to undertake a gruelling running challenge. The Loughmacrory man decided to run 55 miles on that special occasion – 11 times around the Lough 5 course – to raise funds for Marie Curie and NI Chest Heart and Stroke. Unfortunately for Niall and the dozens of people, including a host of his Omagh Harriers team-mates who turned out to support, he had to undertake his run on the hottest day of the year! Fortunately, the sunny weather brought out the generous side of the local public who donated a total of £7156.18 or £3,578 to each charity!
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Niall was featured in the Ulster Herald on Thursday, August 6, 2020
Niall’s birthday challenge helped boost the coffers of two charities
BY CHRIS CALDWELL
To mark his 55th birthday in June, Niall Heaney ran 55 miles around Loughmacrory and in the process he raised £7,156.18 for two charities. For that monumental effort, which resulted in Marie Curie and NI Chest Heart and Stroke receiving £3,578 each, the Omagh Harrier has been named Ulster Herald Sports Personality of the Month for June.
Before undertaking his gruelling birthday challenge, Niall had hoped against hope that he would manage to raise between two and three thousand pounds, so raising around three times his target has left him pleasantly surprised.
“I thought we might raise £2,500 and if we got that type of money I’d be very content,” he explained. “I certainly didn’t expect it to spiral the way it did. “A lot of people came along and handed me money and told me about such and such a person they knew who wasn’t well.
“That made it even more worthwhile because it’s not until you do something like this that you realise how many people have friends and family in difficulty, you just don’t know what’s going on behind closed doors.”
Niall’s 55 miles challenge to mark his 55th birthday was done around the Lough 5 course, which meant he had to tackle the circuit 11 times. Normally a run of that magnitude would be tough enough, but unfortunately for Niall and his massive band of supporters, his attempt came on what was the hottest day of the year at that point.
“On the day, the atmosphere was fantastic – the craic was great – but a few degrees cooler would have been nice!,” he admitted.
“I lost nearly five pounds in weight through dehydration. It was definitely tough, it was extremely tough but it was so enjoyable because of the amount of people who came out to support me. It was unreal and I was completely overwhelmed by it.
“It was a great day, an amazing day and everyone, my neighbours, there wasn’t a house on the road that didn’t come out. The kids made posters, it was a big community effort, they were unreal, they were standing around the lough, standing on the road, every house had water out for us.
“The Harriers had planned to have two of them running with me every hour for some support but no-one expected the numbers that turned out.
At one stage there was 27 or 30 and everyone ran way past what they were meant to – some people ran four or five laps, which is 20- 25 miles! A lot of people just kept running because they were just enjoying the craic!
“We started about 7am and I didn’t really think too much about the weather because I just wanted to get it started – I hadn’t slept for most of the night anyway, so I just wanted to get going!
“I didn’t think it was going to get as hot as it did. I thought it might cool down as the day went on but instead it got hotter and hotter and people were saying it was reading 27 in their cars!”
Although suffering from the heat throughout his run, Niall admits that even if he had considered stopping he probably wouldn’t have been allowed to and if he had, he would have missed out on his highlight of the day, crossing the finish line hand in hand with his four daughters – Niamh, Maeve, Dervla and Aoife.
“I never thought I wouldn’t finish it because I had that much support, they would have carried me around it!,” exclaimed Niall, who finished in nine hours and 56 minutes, well under his 12-hour target time.
He continued: “The last lap was tough, it was definitely tough but I had that much support around me that there was no way I wasn’t going to finish it – I wouldn’t have been allowed to!
“It was an amazing way to finish, crossing the line with my daughters, it made all the difference on that last lap!”
Even though he found his birthday run tough, it hasn’t put him off seeking a challenge and in just over a week’s time he will tackle the Skyline race in Donegal, which will test his legs further still with over 4,000 metres of climbs.
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