It is a fundraiser with a difference. On Saturday morning in Clondalkin, 10 people from the Round Towers club will run – either a marathon or half marathon – around the perimeter of the Monastery Road pitch.
Money raised from the initiative will go towards an all-weather multi-purpose warm up/training area at the venue.
One of the chosen 10 is senior footballer Mick Hallows, who has given distinguished service as a senior footballer for much of the past couple of decades.
Hallows’ laughs when it is suggested that he is a glutton for punishment. “I am, it was probably borne out of the fact that a few of us had been training in the club for the marathon – can we leverage that rather than having to start again,” he replies.
“I’m still playing senior football, but it is towards the twilight, we will say. I got into the distance running, but I don’t think anything will be quite like this, just the monotony of it. I thought it might capture the imagination in terms of fundraising rather than your traditional marathon.”
Naturally fit with an interest in endurance running, Hallows’ hasn’t tailored his training for Saturday’s venue. “To be honest, I’m odd enough in that when I start something, I’ll just finish it, the unknown is a good thing for me,” he responds.
“Ten of us are doing it, some of them have done a half marathon around the pitch, some of them have done 10 and 12K, the most I’ve ran around the pitch is probably 5K.
“I just think I’d rather not know what is coming on the day. I run a fair bit, but I’d rather scenic runs around parks or canals. So, I’ve put off the mental side of it. I know it is going to be tough, but I don’t want to be practising the toughness.”
The distance isn’t an issue for Hallows, having recently completed his second Dublin marathon. “The way the split season has gone, it probably lends itself to be able to do something,” he explains.
“We used to be playing competitive games in November and December, sometimes, whereas now we are finishing maybe in September. It means you’ve a longer downtime. I’ve always been into running, but only the marathon distance in the last two years or so.”
Altering his approach compared to Gaelic Football is a challenge Hallows has most certainly embraced. “It is definitely counter intuitive to Gaelic Football as in if I was 24 I wouldn’t be advising or doing this, if I had a good few years of club football ahead of me,” he remarks.
“It is a different energy system. It is a bit of a cliché, but you can nearly train yourself to be one geared, whereas Gaelic Football now is all about explosiveness.
“When we did runs as a team, I’d always be near the top of the group, whether it was pre-season training, I’ve always been aerobically decent. I probably put off any sort of distance running because it would have been earlier in the club career.
“Now, it is coming towards the end, I’ve said what is the harm, I need some sort of succession plan in my head, something to keep me going.”
Mick Hallows remains a key figure for Round Towers’ senior footballers.
Planning and plotting for the future is beneficial, but the fact that various sections of the club are heavily involved is a source of optimism. “Ten of us in total are doing it, initially I looked at who in the club had trained for the marathon,” Hallows says.
“There is a bit of risk, you want people with a base of fitness. It is only in the last two months or so that we decided this. We’ve a very strong ladies section in Round Towers, I wanted to ensure we had at least one from the section, so Natalie is our representative from the ladies side.
“We’ve someone from the senior hurlers, junior footballers, we’ve the main teams ticked off. What we looked at next was parents of juvenile players, we’ve got four parents, who are actively involved.
“We’ve 10 in total, eight are doing the full marathon distance, and two are doing a half marathon distance each, it is actually because we’ve our AGM on that day too, one is treasurer and one is chair, they were under time pressure.”
The venture is attracting plenty of talk in the area, and Hallows is hoping that a supportive crowd will gather in Clondalkin to lend moral and financial support. “It has garnered lots of what are you doing or are you mad?,” he says.
“Everyone has lots of questions, so they are all good things that people are inquisitive. It can generate a bit of craic on the day. We will have a gazebo there, and we’ve built a spreadsheet and PowerPoint, so that if you come up at any point in the day, they’ll be counting the laps for each person. So, you can see where is Mick or Natalie, how many laps have they done or what they have left? It will be interactive a bit because you wouldn’t have the traditional tracking you’d have in a Dublin marathon. We’ve tried to fold that in.
“Our Towers Óg is on in the morning, for example. That is our nursery, that starts at 10, we’re starting at nine.
“We didn’t want to cancel the Towers Óg, we wanted to get ahead of it so they can see what is going on. The parents will be having a coffee and hopefully we will rattle a few money drums while we are there.”
Hallows appreciates what the club provides. As a player and parent, he is fully aware of the relevance of ensuring the next generation is adequately catered for. “I’m at the end of my journey, I’ve two young boys, the eldest lad started in the Towers Óg nursery,” he says.
“When you look at the size of Clondalkin, we’ve one club. Tallaght is a similar size and it has five or six clubs. So, capacity at some stage becomes an issue. We have a good grass pitch, but you can’t use that all year round.
“We have an Astro that is about half the size of a normal pitch. This area that the Astro is going in at is a warm up area that is sandy and pot holed. It isn’t really great with no floodlights, but it is big enough to train another two or three juvenile teams on or if you’re waiting to use the main pitch, you could do your warm up and a few ball skills before you go on to the pitch.
“It is just about, without having to buy new land or look for new places, it is an extra area for kids to warm up or play in. Capacity is a bit of an issue.
“You’ve new estates between Clondalkin and Lucan with hundreds of houses. We’re not in the business of turning kids away, we just need to up the facilities to match the population, that is part of it, too.”
The fundraising marathon will help develop facilities in the progressive Round Towers club.
For further information or to make a donation click here.
