Nollaig NiMhathuna from Mullingar was chosen to represent Westmeath in this year’s Dublin City Marathon in the 2012 SPAR Spartan Challenge and is now halfway through the race series designed to prepare her for the Dublin Marathon on October 29.
Nollaig completed the Fingal 10km race on Sunday July 22 in 55 minutes building on her five mile race time in Phoenix Park on Sunday July 1 which she completed in 49 minutes.
The next race that Nollaig and the 26 strong team of Spartans will take on is the Frank Duffy 10 mile race in Phoenix Park on August 25 followed by the Dublin Half Marathon on September 15.
The 26 marathon nbovices are being guided in their preparation by fitness guru Karl Henry (Operation Transformation ) and nutrition expert Paula Mee who are spearheading the campaign. They have also been put through a Chi-running workshop by former Olympian and triple marathon winner Catherina McKiernan.
Those who wish to follow Nollaig’s progress, training runs, and blog updates can do so via the website www.spartan.spar.ie or by visiting SPAR’s Facebook page.
The website also includes motivational, fitness, and nutrition videos from the expert panel and will be updated weekly with new content so that anyone can follow the programme.
The Spartan judged to have most fully embraced all aspects of the challenge will win a trip for two to New York to spectate at the New York City marathon on November 4.
