Northern Ireland man is running from Belfast to Dublin ... in his tiny back yard

Ian Hillsdon, a runner from Downpatrick, was supposed to be taking part in the Belfast to Dublin Ultra Marathon but since it was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic he has decided to do the race at home.

His efforts – travelling on foot around two cones three metres apart – are being streamed live on Facebook via the Flying Horse Flyers page.

Ian explained: “The distance between each cone is three metres. There are 1610 metres in a mile. The distance from Belfast to Dublin is 107 miles.

“I’ve seen on Facebook over the last couple of weeks people doing marathons, etc in confined spaces in their houses and gardens as they’ve had to self isolate or social distance or whatever.

“What I’m going to try to do is do 107 miles without leaving my back yard. I have been testing a few things over the last few days to see if it’s possible for me to attempt it.”

He said: “I’ll be using my Garmin watch and my good wife’s Fitbit (when my watch needs charged) to record the distance.

Both are linked to my Strava account.

“If the (Facebook Live) connection drops and I don’t notice message me and I’ll get it restarted.

“If you don’t see me moving in front of the camera its probably because I am either eating, drinking or at the toilet.

“I’ll try to be doing a pace of four miles every hour at the start and take it from there.”

He said: “Every year I try to set myself at least one personal challenge to complete that I haven’t done before. Few years ago I done Belfast Marathon for first time, two years ago I done two marathons in a year – Liverpool and Dublin – and last year I done an Ironman 70.3 in Dun Laoighrie as well as 54 miles in Last One Standing Castleward.

“This year’s challenge was to be the 107 mile Belfast2Dublin Ultra but a few weeks ago it was rightly cancelled because of the Covid-19 situation.”

He started at 10am today (Friday) and hopes to have completed the 107 miles within the 36 hour time limit for the ultra race he was entered in.

In doing the race Ian is raising funds for PIPS Downpatrick: “It sort of fits in with the charity I’m raising money for – PIPS Downpatrick –where there is always a solution to every problem you come across. You just need to talk and think it out.”

Anyone wishing to donate can do so via www.gofundme.com/f/1wjmrb2vdc

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