1,000 marathon woman from Dundalk has no plans to stop

This story appeared in the Louth Life magazine earlier this year

Collette O'Hagan was in her early forties before she ran her first marathon, at a time when there was still relatively few women running. Now, with well over 1,000 marathons under her belt, she has no intention of stopping anytime soon.

“When I started running initially, I didn't like it at all. I just thought it was so tough, and to be honest it still is tough.

“I get so much enjoyment out of it now, whereas before, when you start off first, you're just pushing yourself, Now I'm at the stage where I do less stressful running and just run for the enjoyment now.”

It was her husband, Larry, who first encouraged her to give running a try. “He was playing squash at the time, in the early 90s. He used to do a wee jog up and down the Shore Road for training for the squash. He said to me 'sure come on out and try it'.”

“I was very unfit. This was so hard. But fair play to him, he kept at it and I kept going out.”

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Eventually Collette started training for the women's mini-marathon in Dublin.

“The first time I ever did the women's mini-marathon, I finished it and I felt great. I thought to myself, 'you know what, there's no finish line. You go on now and train yourself to do Dublin'.

“In those days there was very few women running. I got this pamphlet out of the Irish running magazine, for the beginners, what you had to do every week to train for the Dublin City Marathon.”

Once she completed the Dublin marathon, there was no going back. “There was only two marathons in Ireland then, Belfast and Dublin. So I did them religiously.”

“Then, Larry says to me, 'why don't you go abroad to run?'”

“And where did I pick only Boston, of all places. It was amazing. I absolutely love Boston. I ended up doing 12 Boston marathons because I loved it so much.”
It's just in the past number of years however that Collette really started to build up the numbers. “The most I would have done maybe was ten in a year. I went over to the UK and met this group, the 100 Marathon Group, that's how I started doing all these.

“And I just kept clocking them up every year. And in 2023 I had 900 marathons done and I thought, sure I'll do the 1,000 next year in Dublin.

“When the 1,000 marathon came up, I could not believe the media attention that I got. I was overwhelmed. It was fantastic. I kept thinking to myself, 'I'm just an ordinary Joe Soap runner, I'm only out on the road every day', and this kind of stuff.

“The Credit Union were backing me, they were my sponsors, so every marathon I did I had a little photograph – this is marathon number whatever out of 1,000.”

To any woman looking to get into running, or would like to get back into it, trying to get the time to do can be the hardest part. “I always say to people, 'if you want to do something, you'll find a way'.

“So if that woman wants to, she'll find a way. Even if she can only get out and do ten minutes or 15 minutes. I would advise her to go out.”

People say to me when are you going to finish? My body will tell me when I've enough. For me to stop now would be the worst thing ever. As you get older you can't bank any fitness.”