Louth's 900 marathon Collette nominated for Most Inspiring Person Award

This year, Collette O'Hagan, a truly inspirational 74-year-old from Dundalk amazingly completed her 900th marathon. Colette has now been nominated for the Most Inspiring Person of the Year Award at the Outsider Awards. The annual Outsider Awards celebrates all of the achievements, milestones and contributions that have taken place in the Irish outdoor community over the past year.

Collette started running marathons in the 1990s, when Ireland only held two marathons a year, in Dublin and Belfast. She’d been ill for a while and her husband took her out running as part of her recovery. She started with a women’s mini marathon, then the Dublin City Marathon and since then she’s never looked back.

More recently, she started running multiple marathons each year having met members of the 100 marathon club. 

“I was infected by their enthusiasm and so began a journey which was to take me to many countries, running the six majors (Tokyo, New York, Boston, Chicago, Berlin and London) and several 24hr events, including one in Belfast, where I won gold in my age category,” she says.

She has also fostered children throughout her life, inspired by a childhood of looking after her siblings, while her parents worked on a farm. 

“The idea to foster children came quite easily to me,” says Collette, who also worked in Romanian orphanages in the early 1990s. 

“When you foster, that child becomes part of your family until they can return to their family. Every child deserves a chance in life but not every child gets the chance.” She believes running helps her immensely in this role as it frees her mind.

Colette said she was “honoured and privileged” to be nominated for the award. 

“Standing in with such giants of inspirational athletes is very humbling.

“Best of luck to all athletes, very inspiring stories among them.

“Please vote for the athlete of your choice, all votes are really appreciated.”

 The annual awards ceremony will take place on the evening of Wednesday 21 February 2024 in the Sugar Club, Dublin.