BY MATTHEW WILSON
DONEGAL’S Caitriona Jennings achieved a remarkable feat last November, shattering the 100-mile world record at the Tunnel Hill 100 Mile event in Illinois.
The Letterkenny AC athlete currently holds the national record over 50km, which she secured at the Donadea 50k last February, as well as the record over 100km.
She added the 100-mile world record to this collection last November en route to a fourth place overall finish in the United States and it’s still one that fills her with pride looking back.
“Even looking back now, the memory of it is still very special. I’m just so happy that everything came together perfectly on the day and it seemed to go really well.
“Obviously the result was brilliant, something that I’m really proud of and I’m still happy when I look back at it.”
The record over 100-mile was previously held by Camille Herron, achieving the record time of 12:42:40 at the same event eight years prior.
Jennings managed to carve over five minutes of Herron’s time, crossing the line in 12:37:04 which highlights how well the Letterkenny AC athlete ran throughout the race.
Speaking to the Donegal News, the Letterkenny native expressed that it was a record that she was aware of heading into the event and one she was aiming for after going through a successful training regime.
“I decided that I was going to go for it and see. My training went really well in the lead up to it and I felt confident that I could run the pace for quite a distance but I had never ran anything over 60 miles. I wasn’t sure what would happen in the latter stages of the race but I was confident enough that I would give it a shot.
“I started off with it in mind and I was trying to run at a pace that would give me the opportunity to break it if everything went well. I was feeling good in the latter stages and it went better than I could’ve thought in the end.”
Last November’s Tunnel Hill 100 Mile was the longest distance that Jennings had ever run, with 60 miles being the longest she had previously endured in one go.
This is a huge jump in distance and one which would be the ultimate test of somebody’s strength, both physically and mentally.
With the knowledge that she would be running solo for substantial periods across the 100-mile event, the mental side of things was something that the Letterkenny native prepared for in the lead up to the race and it paid off for her on the day.
“I think the mental side of it played a huge part. You are with your own thoughts for a huge amount of time during that long run.
“I did try and prepare for that part in advance because I knew that I’d effectively be on my own for around 13 hours. I had to know what I would do or how I would react if things didn’t go well or something unexpected happened that I wasn’t prepared for.
“Thankfully there was very little that didn’t go to plan but when a couple of small things did crop up, I didn’t panic and that was probably partly the mental preparation as well.”
Caitriona Jennings has achieved so much in her athletic journey to date including representing Ireland at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and winning a bronze medal at the IAU 100 km World Championships.
However, she still possesses the determination and drive to test her limits and experience new challenges in her glittering career.
The 2012 Olympian stated that the venture into ultra running has helped her to discover extra motivation and subsequently has extended her athletic career.
“I feel that I’m really fortunate that I’m still running. I’ve been running for so many years now but I think ultra running has prolonged my career in a way.
“It’s given me a different perspective, different goals and it’s given me an opportunity to run longer than I would’ve thought. Even if I was still running marathons, I’m sure that my times would be getting slower so I’m not sure if I’d have the same drive.
“The ultra has given me this new outlet of testing myself and testing the limits which is really nice.”
Jennings will be back in action shortly when she travels to South Africa for the Comrades Ultra Marathon in June.
This’ll be her fifth consecutive visit to South Africa for the event, with her securing a top ten finish in her previous four attempts at the 90km race and she’s hoping to cross the line in a similar position again this time around.
“The Comrades Ultra Marathon is coming up now in June so I’m training for that at the moment. I think it’s nine weeks away so the time is creeping up fairly quickly. I’ll go down there and see if I can try and nab another top 10 finish which would be the goal.
“That’d be cool and I think it would be a nice way to round off my Comrades for now anyway.”