By Brian Moore
In 1983, I spent the summer break prior to my final year at UCD, working in a Hydroelectric Power Company in Leppiniemi, Finland, close to the Arctic Circle. I had a great time there with the Finns and the few other Internationals crazy enough to make the journey. Highlights included: Learning the rituals of Sauna: using the heat to open the pores; whacking each other with pine branches to inject pine scent into the pores; running naked into the cold lake water to close the newly pine scented pores, all the while making sure to avoid the Finns out fishing on the lake; Visiting Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) in the former Soviet Union on the way back home to Dublin.
If I knew now what I didn't know back then, I would have brought running shoes with me and enjoyed the forests, Lakes and almost 24-hour daylight even more! Of course, I would not have had Strava, Garmin, GPS, Bluetooth Earbuds or Spotify back then, but it would still have added an amazing extra dimension to my journey!
After graduating from UCD, I spent 6-months working in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and connected with a bunch of work colleagues running 10K's. Lots of Type-A personalities with an abundance of testosterone, I fitted right in! My first official 10K was clocked at 43' 34". As I remember it, my best ever 10K time was ~37', although a running friend from back then believes that this might be wishful thinking on my part! After coming back from Fort Lauderdale, I remember running a 7-mile run in Dublin ending on a winding road in the Phoenix Park. The road was colloquially known as the Khyber Pass? It’s actually Upper Glen Road which was turned into a cul-de-sac in 2022 to reduce through-traffic?
From 1985 through 1990 I lived in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, where I was a casual cyclist and an even more casual runner. However, in 1986 I organized my Company's response to "Sport Aid - Run The World" which raised money for Ethiopia, building on the success of Live Aid in 1985. We got the usual
excuses from some people, but I was genuinely pleased with the positive response from so many people in my company, Logica bv. As a result of which, Logica raised, by far, the most money of any Dutch company for this event! The event in The Netherlands was a 10K run around Den Haag (The Hague). Also, in 1987 I trained hard to be part of the Logica team that took part in the amateur version of the Liège-Bastogne-Liège one-day classic cycling race in Belgium. The race length was 146 KM, at the end of which were 4 steep climbs followed by the extremely steep La Côte de La Redoute. When the climbs came along, I was glad of all the pre-race training and was just about able to muster a broad smile when crossing the finish line! I was lucky enough to visit West and East Berlin in 1987 prior to the wall coming down and even luckier to be one of those who drove there in November 1989 to help knock it down! A pity I didn’t have a running obsession during those visits!
In 1990 I moved back to the USA with Logica with a 7-month stint in New York, followed by 6-month stints in Dallas, Chicago, Washington DC and Atlanta GA (all for high-pressure IT projects, not in any way as glamourous as it may sound), during which time I barely worked out at all! Years later I went back to DC for a weekend and made sure to finally run along the National Mall. The constant travelling was getting to me so when I finally ended up back in Fort Lauderdale, I realized I needed to start working out again. By this time Fort Lauderdale had a cycling velodrome, which I joined and started racing on immediately. I took up Road racing with the South Broward Wheelers to increase my stamina for the track. The irony being I preferred road racing but was more competitive on the track. A friend from the South Broward Wheelers was also the MC for the Friday Night Track race series. He had to be careful not to show bias, but always introduced me before each race as being from Dublin City, Ireland, which fired me up every time. Many of the national champions from South America and the Caribbean islands trained on that track. The national champion from Guyana would always just beat you by millimeters and freely offer advise afterwards, he was a total class act! The national champion from one of the Islands who was originally from Europe, would fly by you each time sneering derisively as he did. Funny thing was, when they competed against each other, the cyclist from Guyana would win each time and by a lot more than millimeters. In 1995 I joined the South Broward Wheelers on the 170-mile Ride Across Florida and the 100-mile Assault on Mount Mitchell in North Carolina. Although shorter, the Mount Mitchell event was much tougher.
In 1996 I moved to Connecticut and started bike racing in the Tri-State area. On a training ride in heavy rain in the fall of 1996, I fell going down-hill at speed, and, in doing so, broke my left hip. Rehab took 1 full year! 1-year to repeatedly relive the stupidity of riding in such heavy rain with gooey fall foliage littering the road!
My first daughter was born in 2000, and my second in 2004, which put an end to my bike racing!
In 2010 we moved to Zurich, Switzerland where I joined groups of ex-pats cycling around the many lakes and over alpine passes. The big solo biking challenge in Switzerland is to ride around Lake Zurich in under 2-hours. The first time I tried was on a Swiss Public holiday. I started from Richterswil and was on pace until I hit the center of Zurich, the holiday being May Day I was met by a red wave of Marxist, Leninist, Trotskyite, and Maoist protesters going in the opposite direction, which immediately put staid to my challenge. My second attempt was not good, my third attempt was hindered by incessant rain. Finally, on my fourth attempt, on 19-Aug-12, I completed the challenge in 1:56:52; to-date, one of my proudest personal sporting achievements. One weekend, we went to Lake Geneva. On the Saturday morning, I went running around a portion of the Lake solo, I repeated this on the Sunday morning, but this time my daughters ran with me. It was amazing to see the more positive response from other people out walking while running with my daughters as opposed to sols.
Moving back to New Jersey in 2013, I biked only from April-September, and kept fit by running, intermittently, in the winter. My town has a big Memorial Day 10K run, which I have run every year since 2013. In 2018 my youngest daughter ran the follow-on 5K run with me. Over half the people in the crowd cheered her on by name, as she ran alongside me, Mr. Anonymous! I also started running while on vacation, soon realizing the added dimension this gives to travelling. Highlights being: running along the Thames in London; running in Boston Common; running along The Bosporus in Istanbul; early morning running along the Antrim coast to justify the full Irish breakfast to follow and, naturally, break of dawn runs from the center of Dublin out to Howth along the coastal road.
In 2020, when COVID struck resulting in everyone working from home, I realized I needed an additional focus, which is when I started to run every other day. This is also when my daughters starting to push me to run a Marathon. Accordingly, my New Year's resolution in 2023 was to complete a Marathon. So, at the age of 61, I competed in my first Marathon, the Jersey City Marathon on Sunday, April 23, 2023. The conditions were awful. It was really cold with non-stop heavy rain for the first half of the race and was only marginally better for the second half. Options were to run through vast pools of water, with significant danger of hidden potholes, or run on very soft grass with the danger of ankle sprain. After 20-mile I was soaked and almost done, but my daughters ran with me from miles 21-23 loudly cheering me along, and I managed to finish in 3:42:39. The 2023 Jersey City Marathon was a qualifier for the 2024 Boston Marathon, and my time was good to qualify for my age group. Soon after, while in a Supermarket with my youngest daughter, a classmate of hers came over, shook my hand vigorously and said: "Mr. Moore, congratulations on qualifying for the Boston Marathon". I was so proud, especially as I had never met him before, he was not part of her friend group, and my daughter had obviously spoken of my exploits. That weekend I mentioned it to my other daughter, who turned to her sister and said: "Did he ask you out on a date afterwards". To which she responded: "Yes, he asked if I wanted to go see "The Barbie Movie"". I feel played and used! 😊
Ever since my first visit in 1998, I have always loved Istanbul. Back then I would say, I'll never run a Marathon, but if I were to, it would be Istanbul. Why? It's the only marathon in the World spanning two continents, Asia and Europe, and in doing so you get to run across the Bosphorus! Prior to competing in the Jersey City Marathon, I submitted an entry for the 2023 Istanbul Marathon even though I did not satisfy the entry requirements. Where they asked for proof of previous Marathon runs, I submitted proof of 10 KM runs along the Bosphorus and in Bodrum and 24 KM training runs in Dublin and New Jersey. Someone obviously smiled at my guile and approved my entry! So, I competed on November 5, 2023. It started with running across the Inter-Continental bridge which was absolutely amazing. Unfortunately, I got serious back pain and stiffness after the first 10 KM and struggled home in 4:48:50. At least I finished it! I immediately stated planning to run the London, Berlin and Dublin Marathons in 2024.
However, 2024 was a disastrous year for me. I got a tough cancer diagnosis on January 3rd, requiring significant radiation treatment; fortunately, it had not metastasized, so I was spared chemotherapy. In addition, I was diagnosed with severe arthritis and meniscus tear in my right knee.
Most of 2024 was spent recovering from the radiation treatment and doing physical therapy on my knee. By September of 2024 I needed a break and escaped to Croatia. I took a chance by running a slow 10K along the coast in Split. Two days later I went hiking in Plitvice Lakes National Park and ended up with a noticeable limp. That's when I felt I would likely never be able to run again. When I got back to New Jersey a few days later I noticed, by chance, that I could almost fully extend my right knee for the first time in 2024. I started back slowly, but got back to the point where I was able to run every other day! My knee is still not perfect, it likely never will be, and my times have been negatively impacted. In addition, my first few running steps can look and feel awkward, but to-date I've been able to run 16 KM every other day in 2025. Over the last 6-weekends I have completed 5 runs of 24 KM and 1 run of 33 KM. Why? Because I’m hoping to complete my first hometown Marathon, on Oct. 26th, 2025. After the hassles of 2024, this would supersede “Lake Zurich in under 2-hours” as my proudest personal sporting achievement!