SUPER fit husband and wife Catherine O’Donoghue and Tony Sharpe firmly believe that the couple that runs together stays together – and they will set out to prove their theory once again this weekend.
This time last year Catherine, from Glenflesk, Killarney, and Yorkshire born Tony spent the Saturday before their wedding competing in the Dingle Marathon, as reported by KillarneyToday.com at the time.
Although based in Sydney, Australia, their brought the date of their Killarney wedding forward by two weeks to enable them to partake in the big race.
And although they returned down under soon after their big day, they kept on running and they have returned to Kerry this weekend to take on their second Dingle Marathon to celebrate their first wedding anniversary.
Catherine and Tony first met through a running club in Sydney three and a half years ago. The daughter of Seán and Mary O’Donoghue, she has lived in Australia for the past five years and works in fashion with Karen Millen.
When they embarked on the 26-mile run back west a year ago they were joined by 20 friends who travelled from Australia for the wedding and to partake in either the full marathon or half marathon.
“Returning to run the marathon again was Catherine’s idea. We decided that while we were over here on holiday it would be a great idea to repeat the Dingle experience,” Tony said.
“We so enjoyed last year with the wedding of course, but the scenery in Dingle was spectacular and the atmosphere was fantastic and worth another go”.
Since last year, they have completed another six marathons between, including the gruelling Ultra Trail Australia event, which takes place in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, with Catherine completing the long slog of 100km through the mountains in a time of 14 hours. Tony took on the 50km route and 39km fun run – dressed as Elvis.
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