The Quadrathon is a series of four full or half marathons around the Malin Head peninsula in Donegal, Ireland. This year it was held from 17-20 August 2017. Although the weather was predictably Irish (everything in one day) we managed to avoid the worst of the summer storms.
Shane Sharkey, Ben and Laura Pickard and Clive and Jenny Kent had a mini-holiday, staying in a lovely house in Culdaff only a few minutes from the beach and right in the middle of the loop that the marathon runners were going the draw around the peninsula. Each day there was a different start/finish, with the half marathon starting at the 13.1 mile point and running the latter half of that day’s marathon.
Malin Head is the northernmost point in Ireland, and it feels like the Extreme North, exposed and wild. The scenery was breathtaking, especially when running along the coast road or reaching the top of yet another hill and seeing the purple moors, golden beaches or deep blue-grey Atlantic ocean spread out before us like a patchwork quilt. The real strength of this race series was the people though, the support and camaraderie that lifted us up and carried us along to the end of each day feeling stronger than ever – some great characters and lovely people that we look forward to seeing again (it seems to be a small world). We all had off-days, where the size of the challenge became overwhelming, but came through that and finished strongly. While it wasn’t about the times for most of us but about covering 104 miles over four days (or 52 miles, for Laura and me), Clive came 21st out of 92 finishers in the Warrior challenge and raised £700 for the MS Society in the process.
| Pos | Name | Day 1: Kinnego Bay Marathon | Day 2: Malin Head Marathon | Day 3: Mamore Marathon | Day 4: Muff Marathon | Total |
| Full | ||||||
| 21st | Clive Kent | 04:25:51 | 04:30:55 | 04:45:48 | 04:17:41 | 18:00:15 |
| 59th | Ben Pickard | 05:50:36 | 05:29:28 | 05:37:19 | 05:43:04 | 22:40:27 |
| 79th | Shane Sharkey | 05:50:37 | 06:21:07 | 06:55:45 | 06:50:00 | 25:57:29 |
| Half | ||||||
| 71st | Laura Pickard | 02:43:14 | 02:51:15 | 02:52:53 | 02:31:54 | 10:59:16 |
| 79th | Jenny Kent | 02:48:18 | 02:59:56 | 03:03:38 | 02:31:50 | 11:23:42 |