Ep 16 with Micheal Kelly - from Alcoholism to Irish Mountain Running Champion

Welcome to episode 16 of Trail Running Ireland. The show is hosted by Eoin Flynn, UTMB Finish Line Race Announcer and 10 times Irish International Mountain Runner.

We´re delighted to announce a new sponsor for the show, COROS, who have made a massive impact on the global GPS watch market over the last number of years:

· They have recently launched the PACE 2, the lightest GPS watch ever made

· The COROS APEX won the 2019 Runner’s World Gear of the Year award

· The COROS VERTIX was awarded the 2019 Best Altimeter Watch by Outdoor Gear Lab.

Make sure to check out their new UK and Ireland website: https://uk.coros.com/ for more info and we look forward to working with them over the next few months.

First up in this weeks episode, Eoin chats to Simon Kelly from the Waterville Trail Running Festival who brings us all the latest news on the racing calendar including a date for the upcoming IMRA AGM and his own thoughts as a race director about 2021.

(19m05s) Our expert trail running coach Rene takes a real deep dive on the anaerobic training system, how important it is and how tricky it can be to get training in that zone done in the right way.

Rene can be contacted at www.runningcoach.ie

(41m20s) For this weeks special guest interview, we´re going to change pace a little bit. We´re going to talk to Micheal Kelly. Micheal's name might not be at top of race results lists at the moment, like a lot of our previous guests this year, but there was a golden period back in the mid 2000s were Micheal Kelly was regularly on podiums in road and cross country races around the country and also on the mountains.

He won the Irish Senior Mountain Running Championships and he represented Ireland and the green jersey with distinction on numerous occasions in major international championships.

But before his running career really took off, Micheal was an alcoholic and was in a very dark place. Running made a massive positive and life changing impact on his life and at the moment when things have been so tough for many people listening this year, hopefully Micheal's story will inspire and show that there is always light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how dark that tunnel may be.

Finally, a special thanks to Basic Needs with Trail runner Shane O´Mahony from Cork on drums, for our very cool soundtrack.

Get your running gear on, let´s go!