Marathon man Michael’s toughest challenge

TULLOW resident and wellbeing and performance coach Michael Demetriou will take on a mammoth task in the Moroccan Sahara when he competes in a 250km ultra-marathon across the desert in April.

The Marathon des Ables, often referred to as the toughest foot race on the planet, is a 250km ultra-marathon, where participants are required to carry all their food and equipment on their back for the entire race. The only thing supplied to runners is water, of which they receive about ten to 12 litres daily.

It is run across six stages over seven days, with around 1,000 people from 50 different countries taking part.

Originally from Clonsilla, Dublin, Michael lived in the Netherlands for a while before returning to Ireland, where he settled in Tullow with his wife Helen, where her family is from.

A former player with Tullow RFC, Michael, who runs the wellbeing and performance coaching consultants Thrive Together, has extensive experience in sports psychology and coaching and has worked with a host of teams at Tullow RFC on mental skills and preparation. Since hanging up his rugby boots, Michael has undertaken several extreme challenges and events.

“I love challenges, and sport is a great way of reaching the soul,” he explains.

“I needed something to replace rugby when I finished up. For the last number of years, I’ve been doing a number of different challenges, from sprint triathlons to cold water swimming, such as doing an ice mile challenge, which is swimming in water below five degrees for a mile,” he added.

Michael says he likes to pick one challenge a year that he says will both “scare and excite him a little bit”, with a Netflix documentary the catalyst for him deciding to run the Marathon des Ables.

“About seven or eight years ago, I saw a documentary on Netflix called Losers and one of the episodes was about an Italian guy called Mauro Prosperi, who, in 1994, left his family to go into the desert and do the Marathon des Ables. He got lost in the desert during a sandstorm and everyone thought he had died, but he managed to survive on bats and lizards and drinking his own urine. So, quite extreme stuff.” 

At the time, Michael said he couldn’t fathom why anyone would put themselves through such an ordeal; however, over time, and after completing a number of other physical challenges, his perspective changed.

“I had worked with Damian Browne, the former rugby player, before, and he had rowed across the Atlantic and done some other extreme challenges, but Damian set up a company a few years ago called the Iron Mind Institute and he was sharing that he was training people to take on the Marathon des Ables and that kind of sat with me and drove my curiosity to see how someone trains for something like this.” 

Damian’s programmes are extremely detailed, involving training the mind, body and spirit and require massive dedication, with Michael starting training intensely for the marathon last August.

“Last Sunday, I was in Lugnaquilla with 18kg on my back for four hours. My training in the past has always been high-intensity stuff, so endurance was a bit of a shock to the feet. But, like anything, with gradual exposure to these things over time, the body gets used to it.” 

For this high-intensity training regime, Michael has had to prioritise his recovery, which is not always easy to manage, given he travels a lot for his work as a coaching consultant; however, he says he finds the injuries from the long distance hiking more tolerable than the pain he was subjected to on Monday mornings following a hard game with Tullow RFC.

“I have had minor little niggles here and there throughout the training, but it’s better than waking up on a Monday morning with bruised ribs or a sore shoulder from a rugby match.” On top of his training, Michael is also raising money for three charities in the process.

“This year, it is the 40th edition of the Marathon des Ables, and 40 years ago I was in Temple Street Hospital as a patient and they did a fantastic job looking after me there for two months. Supporting people at these early stages of life when they’re sick and in hospital is something that deeply resonates with me.” 

Supporting people at different stages of their lives was the inspiration behind Michael’s selection of the other two charities, Focus Ireland and the youth mental health charity Jigsaw.

“My brother works for Focus Ireland, so I know they do fantastic work with people who are really struggling in life and are homeless or are potentially at risk of losing their homes.

“And then Jigsaw supports young people’s mental health from the age of 12 to 25. We were deeply affected at Tullow Rugby Club by what happened to one of our teammates in the past, so Jigsaw does great work to help young people reach out and get support.” 

Anyone who would like to donate to the three charities can do so by clicking the link www.idonate.ie/fundraiser/michaeldemetriou1, with every donation going straight to the three charities.

Best of luck, Michael.