Paddy O'Leary is an Irish transplant who on October 13 set the FKT on the East Bay Skyline Trail, running 32.61 miles in 4 hours, 18 minutes, 12 seconds. He was training for the TNF50, where he was 5th place last year; he's also been 3rd at Chuckanut and 4th at Way Too Cool.
So what's a young fast guy like Paddy doing running an FKT?
"When I moved to the Bay Area 5 years ago I didn't run at all, I was a Lacrosse player who moved here for work. Then I fell in with a bad crew, that peer-presured me into running ultras."
"It dawned on me that in Ireland I was a very good lacrosse player but in America, I was one of the weakest players, whereas with running, l was actually pretty decent at it. In the space of 14 months, I went from a half marathon to 100km race."
His advice?
"I try to take a lot of calories on board every 30 minutes, about 300 to 400 calories an hour. Outside racing, I don't follow a nutritional plan. The marginal gains achieved by having a restricted diet would turn into marginal losses for me because I'd be giving up the enjoyment I get out of food and beer."
Photo by Ryan Scura (@rscura)
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