A CORK-BORN pharmacist has qualified for one of the toughest endurance events on the planet: the World Ironman Championships in Hawaii.
Diana Hogan-Murphy, 37, from Montenotte in Cork but based in Cavan for the last six years, will line up against some of the world’s best athletes after she qualified by finishing second in the UK Ironman Championships recently.
Though admitting she got the shock of her life after discovering she had made the cut for the gruelling event, the specialist antimicrobial pharmacist isn’t one bit fazed by what’s ahead.
“I did the UK Ironman championships as best I could and when I went through the finish line I had a text from my mother saying ‘well done, you got second’. I knew I was in then,” she tells TheScore.ie.
“I really killed myself doing it and achieved the ultimate in making Kona. It was amazing, absolutely amazing. It was also special because I had all the Cavan triathlon club crew around me share the experience.”
To put her achievement into context, just 50 out of the 2,000 competitors (2.5%) made the grade. An Ironman event consists of a 2.4-mile (3.86km) swim; a 112-mile (180.25km) bicycle ride; and a marathon 26.2-mile (42.2km) run, raced in that order and without a break. Hogan-Murphy was always a sporty type; played tennis at a competitive level and competed nationally in eventing and hunting.
In UCC, where she completed her undergrad, she founded the roller blade hockey society, captained of the squash team and acted as secretary of the golf society. But it wasn’t until her late 20s that she developed an interest in endurance sports.
“I was doing all the other sports but I said I’d do a marathon, did Dublin in 2004, then started doing a good few very year; I did 14 marathons in one year. Then I developed an interest in ultra-marathons and self-sufficient ones, so it all progressed from there. Then when I did the Marathon Des Sables, also known as the toughest race on foot in world I decided to do seven continents; which is an ultra-marathon on each continent. And I was working all the time I was doing this.”
What’s striking about her story is how her sporting endeavours dovetailed with her academic commitments. Like when she completed a Masters in General Pharmacy she was racing all around the world.
“You have to be very dedicated and efficient with your time to do this lifestyle. I believe you can do anything you want if you have the dedication and you have good motivation. I’m doing a PhD as well at the moment and I’m halfway through it, I did a Masters in General Pharmacy as well and that took three years. I was doing all that throughout the endurance events; I find if I’m not studying, I’m at work and if I’m not here I’m doing sport.
“I get about eight hours sleep a night,” she continues, “but I’ll be asleep at 11 and up at seven. I think in the winter it’s much easier to get up early. In the summer it’s bright until 9 or 10 or 11 so I can do lots of stuff in the evenings but in the winter I swim in the morning at 6.30 for an hour and a half.”
Kona is the ultimate, however, and will be something of a lifetime ambition.
“Not that many people can or will get to Kona. It’s the ultimate. The swim in Hawaii has huge currents and swells. It’s going to be extremely tough. For the cycling there’ll be winds of up to 60mph so you could literally be swept off your bike quite easily. It’s really windy and warm; there’s an 11-hour time difference and it’ll take 25 hours to get there so there’s all those elements to consider. A lot of the people competing will be professional, so it’s their jobs. I’ll be back to work the following week.”
Oh, and you probably guessed the training will be quite intense between now and then too.
Next month, she is taking part in the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc — a 168km one stage running race through the Alps with a cut-off of 46 hours and a climb of 9,600 metres, the hardest event she’s ever participated in. “It’s my fourth time taking part in it and I have gotten through it once. You don’t sleep and you don’t stop.
“After about 35 hours, you start hallucinating, but you know you are hallucinating so it’s all a bit of fun,” she said.
