By Irishexaminer.com,Jack McKay

Copyright irishexaminer

“So basically, I suppose we’ve been buddies for a few years and Alan has background in running marathons, eight or nine years ago,” Liam Dineen begins. “Myself, I’m kind of more new to the scene of running really.

“But we just saw a few things on YouTube that kind of peaked our interest. Different running events, fellas doing all sorts of stuff. One thing in particular that caught our eye was to do seven marathons in seven continents, it’s like an official event that’s actually organised by I think two Irish lads, and we said that would be pretty cool to do, but kind of fairly expensive!” he laughs.

“It’s like a formal event, you’re chartering flights down to Antarctica. So we said that probably wasn’t the move at the moment.”

Antarctica wasn’t happening, but the idea lingered. And so, Dineen and Minihane took on their own plan. 350km of punishment, shared evenly across New York, Boston, London, Paris, Barcelona, Dublin and Cork.

“We wanted to do something for charity and then we kind of landed on cancer research as something we wanted to do.

“Both of our families have been affected by cancer,” Liam explains. “I think obviously most families in Ireland will be in the same boat. We would have lost family members to cancer and also, we’d see, friends of ours now whose parents maybe have died in recent years, due to cancer as well.

“And I think like we’re at an age now, we’re kind of 28, 29, 30, where you kind of see that a bit more. It definitely looms over your life and your family a bit more at this age.”

Conversations with the Irish Cancer Society only deepened their motivation.

“They have some phenomenal funding towards research projects in Ireland at the moment, particularly around lung cancer and things like that,” Dineen remarks. “And they’re doing incredible work and it’s only like 5% government funded as well.

“We’re fairly passionate about cancer research and I think the running event as well symbolises that.”

The route is personal, too. Barcelona, New York among them — cities they live in, have ties to, or in some cases, have never been.

“Logistically, going across a couple of different continents was difficult for us. We were looking at trying to get something like Australia in, but it just wouldn’t have been feasible,” says Dineen.

“Alan’s based out in New York and we’re both living in Barcelona at the moment, and we’re obviously both from Cork. We’re actually really happy with the route and how it’s turned out.”

Training has been relentless, the body hardened by the heat of Barcelona and weeks of raising their distance.

“The training has been going well,” Minihane says. “I suppose we’ve four or five months of good training done. Liam’s done up to 130, or 140km a week for a couple of weeks, I’ve done about 100 kilometres in my peak week. We kind of trained 30% of the time together, then the other 70% alone or with others.” There is structure to it — running five, six days a week, gym, sauna, rest days — and a taste of the madness to come.

“We did do two back-to-back 50kms a couple of weeks back just to see what it would be like,” Alan explains. “We kind of found out a lot there, it was more of an experimentation more than anything in Barcelona, so it was good to do that as well.”

If the miles are daunting, the fundraising goal is every bit as inspiring: €77,000, a figure chosen for its symmetry with the challenge itself. They’ve already passed €9,600, and confidence is high that the total will climb sharply once the running gets underway.

“We’re at €9,600, and we’ve received other sponsorship as well,” says Minihane.

“Our overall goal is to raise €77,000 but we’re tipping along nicely, I think the week of the event, when people see what we’re really doing on socials via vlogs or stories or whatever on Instagram, I think people realise it’s an actual real thing and you see us in pain and travelling!”

The physical toll will be immense, but the cause lends clarity. They talk about survival rates — three in 10 in the 1980s, now up near six or seven in Ireland. The Irish Cancer Society aiming higher, the friends hoping their efforts will help nudge the numbers further still.

And they are not running alone. In every city, people are invited to join for a loop, whether in Cork with family and friends, or in Barcelona with running clubs. “We’ve had like loads of people, people we know, people we don’t know, reach out and say, ‘we really want to run a lap’,” Dineen says. “That’s one big thing for us — getting people to come out and run with us because it just makes the whole thing a bit more palatable.”

The message from veteran ultra runners and physios has been simple, but repeated: keep the head down, stay in by the wall.

But what will carry them through it is bigger than themselves. Two Cork friends, running for those they lost, running for those still fighting.

Seven ultramarathons, seven days, seven cities. And the hope of a world where families like theirs will not have to tell the same story again.

Follow their journey: Instagram @runforresearch777 and runforresearch.ie.