A WEST Belfast man has raised nearly £5,500 for a mental health charity after completing four marathons on four consecutive days. Christopher Wilkinson took part in the Donegal Quadrathon last month to raise money for West Wellbeing, who have recently been forced to reduce their vital services by 60 per cent due to funding cuts. Reflecting on the ultra challenge, where he was hit with “every type of Donegal weather”, Chris – who works for SAG Credit Union in Andersonstown – said the ultimate goal of raising money for such a worthwhile charity helped him through the eight months of training and those four gruelling days of pounding the roads of Donegal. “The first run started from Moville up the Inishowen Peninsula to Malin, that was the first day,” said Chris. “The second day was up around Malin Head and back to Malin Town; the third was from Malin down to Buncrana and the third was from Buncrana across the peninsula again up through the Redcastle and back to Moville. “There were 30-40 people doing the full marathons and that was called the Warrior and then there were people doing half marathons, so you would have got to a point when you were trucking on and doing your full marathon and then half-marathoners who were as fresh as a daisy were bombing past you. There were also ones out walking it too. It’s a big event down there and all the locals know about it and there’s a real sense of camaraderie and when you’re running past they give you a beep and a wave which kind of keeps you going.” Having run several marathons in the past Chris said he was looking out for an ultra event to take part in when he came across the Quadrathon challenge. “I was wanting to raise money for a worthwhile charity, so to raise money and to get people to dig a little bit deeper I wanted to do something that little bit extra and I just stumbled upon the Quadrathon challenge and I love the Inishowen Peninsula so I thought this was the chance to do something special with all that scenery. When I started looking at my dates and my training and where I was eight months out from the event, I thought this gives me enough time to knuckle down and get the miles in to build towards it."
