Tony Mangan - A year on

pistol_75 · 25-10-2011 3:45pm #1

Tony Mangan started his run around the world a year ago today with the Dublin Marathon. He is currently in Nicaragua with approx 13,000km completed in the last year.

He hopes to finish with the Dublin marathon in 2013. Surely this has to be the most gruelling challenge undertaken ever by an Irish Runner?

Link to his blog below.

http://www.theworldjog.com

groovyg · 25-10-2011 4:10pm

I've been following it since he left ...he has some great stories.

plodder · 26-10-2011 8:38am

It's an extraordinary adventure, and not so much about the running. It's the fact that he's doing it on a shoe-string and basically throws himself at the mercy and generosity of the people he meets.

ElectraX · 26-10-2011 1:39pm

He certainly will have no shortage of crazy stories by the end of this. Where to after that though

Can'timagine it would be easy to just settle back into routine life after running round the world for three years!!:p

gerard65 · 13-11-2011 2:36pm

Is it beginning to get a bit too tough now?. Definate change in tone over the last few weeks. Seems to be very tired.

robinph · 13-11-2011 9:14pm

ElectraX wrote: »

He certainly will have no shortage of crazy stories by the end of this. Where to after that thoughCan'timagine it would be easy to just settle back into routine life after running round the world for three years!!:p

He'll have to write a book, and then be executive director of a film. Who will play him though?

shels4ever · 13-11-2011 9:21pm

gerard65 wrote: »

Is it beginning to get a bit too tough now?. Definate change in tone over the last few weeks. Seems to be very tired.

Got that feeling too, I wonder at what point the "dream" of running around the world, just becomes a bit of nightmare.

TFBubendorfer · 14-11-2011 11:09am

shels4ever wrote: »

Got that feeling too, I wonder at what point the "dream" of running around the world, just becomes a bit of nightmare.

I don't think so. On such a long trip you always have some highs and some lows. It's inevitable. Tony Mangan is better equipped to deal with the lows than just about anyone else.

Enduro · 23-11-2011 1:32am

Tony just sent this to me and asked if I would post it on boards for him...

HI ALL,
I HAVE JUST BEEN OFFERED A POSSIBILITY OF A SUPPORT VEHICLE OWNER/DRIVEN BY A SOUTH AMERICAN. HE HAS ALL THE PAPERWORK IN ORDER. HE HAS A LOT OF EXPERIENCE IN THIS KIND OF THING HAVING WORKED ON PREVIOUS EXPEDITIONS. IT COULD MAKE OR BREAK THIS TRIP

ANY CHANCE IRISH PEOPLE COULD START LOBBYING IRISH RUNNER MAGAZINE TO START A KIND OF CAMPAIGN TO TRY TO GET SOME SPONSORS ON BOARD, ATHLETICS IRELAND, THE IRISH LOTTO, ANY CORPORATE CONTACTS TO HELP COME UP WITH THE ALL IN FEE OF 1,500US$ A MONTH FOR 4 TO 5 MONTHS.
FOREIGN PEOPLE NEVER CEASE TO BE AMAZED THAT I HAVE NO HELP BACK HOME.!
THANKS
TONY

So if anyone has any ideas / contacts for raising some sponsorship for Tony's run he could do with the help.

RandyMann · 23-11-2011 1:39pm

I had a quick look at his blog and was wondering is he doing this for a personal goal or is it charity driven or something else?

RandyMann · 23-11-2011 1:44pm

RandyMann wrote: »

I had a quick look at his blog and was wondering is he doing this for a personal goal or is it charity driven or something else?

Correction, just found the charity link which is Aware

runningcoach · 01-06-2012 2:49pm

Judging by his latest post Tony is crying out for support - anyone in a postion to help / assist him in anyway ?

http://www.theworldjog.com/blog/

Kurt Godel · 01-06-2012 3:32pm

runningcoach wrote: »

Judging by his latest post Tony is crying out for support - anyone in a postion to help / assist him in anyway ?

http://www.theworldjog.com/blog/

It's a justified rant he has there. There is little discussion of epic feats like this in Irish media, people seem to prefer novelty items, and perhaps they all get tarred with the same brush. There was a Newstalk piece on the Women's mini-marathon today, which quickly segued into an interview with some lad who runs marathons backwards. Cue lots of laughter, before Chinese/right side of brain/pop-physiology took over to justify this "feat". The main forum page here has a long thread of nonsense discussion about gender issues, and little about this man who is running around the world...

We should be trying to organise a fundraising run to support Tony's run, there's a large enough Ultrarunning community here. I'll help organise something, if there would be any interest in taking part?

shels4ever · 01-06-2012 3:35pm

Kurt Godel wrote: »

It's a justified rant he has there. There is little discussion of epic feats like this in Irish media, people seem to prefer novelty items, and perhaps they all get tarred with the same brush. There was a Newstalk piece on the Women's mini-marathon today, which quickly segued into an interview with some lad who runs marathons backwards. Cue lots of laughter, before Chinese/right side of brain/pop-physiology took over to justify this "feat". The main forum page here has a long thread of nonsense discussion about gender issues, and little about this man who is running around the world...

We should be trying to organise a fundraising run to support Tony's run, there's a large enough Ultrarunning community here. I'll help organise something, if there would be any interest in taking part?

I'd agree, I've talked to some people before on this and some views were , its his dream to run around the world so shouldnt need funding, why pay for someone hobby and dream.
I'd did agree with these views to be honest until a while ago and my view has shifted slightly. It's an amazing thing to be doing and if there was an event i'd prob take part.

Kurt Godel · 01-06-2012 3:43pm

shels4ever wrote: »

I'd agree, I've talked to some people before on this and some views were , its his dream to run around the world so shouldnt need funding, why pay for someone hobby and dream.
I'd did agree with these views to be honest until a while ago and my view has shifted slightly. It's an amazing thing to be doing and if there was an event i'd prob take part.

Yeah I started off thinking fair play to him, but why pay for someone's hobby, so gave any donations to his Aware link. But as time goes on, I've realised I'm getting an awful lot out of interest in the blog and following his run, and have donated (small) amounts to him. From what I understand is even these small amounts make a big difference to his day/days/week. Imagine if you had run 60-70k in a day, you'd be starving! And pretty thankful if someone had donated €10 to pay for a meal that evening.

dna_leri · 01-06-2012 4:10pm

Help me out here, I'm still at the "why pay for someone's hobby and dream" stage.

shels4ever · 01-06-2012 4:15pm

dna_leri wrote: »

Help me out here, I'm still at the "why pay for someone's hobby and dream" stage.

Nothing wrong with that stage

Kurt Godel · 01-06-2012 4:16pm

dna_leri wrote: »

Help me out here, I'm still at the "why pay for someone's hobby and dream" stage.

The blog is an excellent read, and I'd like to continue following it. If it wasn't such a gripping read, I wouldn't pay anything, there's plenty of others looking for funding for hobbies or dreams.

shels4ever · 01-06-2012 4:20pm

Kurt Godel wrote: »

The blog is an excellent read, and I'd like to continue following it. If it wasn't such a gripping read, I wouldn't pay anything, there's plenty of others looking for funding for hobbies or dreams.

Yep, i've had 2-3 people this year looking for money to climb mount kilimanjaro and take part in the great ethiopian run. They arent putting them self through mush hardship to do these events and the charity aspect is only on part. Its basically a paid holidy that some % goes to charity.
Tony is putting himself through a huge amount and giving up so much to do this, even if it is his dream the sacrifice is huge. unless he has a huge book deal already which I seriously doubt.

Enduro · 01-06-2012 4:22pm

dna_leri wrote: »

Help me out here, I'm still at the "why pay for someone's hobby and dream" stage.

To be part of it!

It's an awesome undertaking. Tony is an incredable guy. He sets standards of both running feats and running ethics that are unequalled by anyone else I've known. I get great satisfaction in knowing that I've played even a small part in helping.

He is so right about the lack of coverage. Dean Karnazes was in Ireland last week and got loads of coverage (self-publicity) for himself and his latest book. Dean isn't half the runner that Tony is, but yet you hear people in the media (and indeed sometimes here on boards) fawning all over him believing his self publicity. And yet we have Tony Mangan, the real deal, one of our own. And he is mostly ignored by the media. The Sunday Times, in fairness, did do a great article on him a month or two ago.

jeffontour · 01-06-2012 4:50pm

Enduro wrote: »

Dean isn't half the runner that Tony is, but yet you hear people in the media

Karnazes is a better marketeer than Tony. He's better than the vast majority of the ultra running community at it, although Salamon are doing a good job lately on the trail scene. If Karnazes was managing the run for Tony you'd be sure it'd be well financed/publicised.

I am not sure that Tony would be comfortable with mass coverage of the level Karnazes attracts. My understanding is this trip is a very personal life ambition, that needs outside help that he'd maybe hoped it wouldn't. So is he in a tricky situation in that he needs the publicity to make things more comfortable for him, but really doesn't want the intrusion? That's my completely uninformed take on it anyhow.

Anyway, if other than donating directly to Tony if there's something we might do I'd be more than happy to help in whatever way I could. But I'm not a marketeer so all I can offer are oddjobman type skills.

Enduro · 01-06-2012 10:12pm

jeffontour wrote: »

Karnazes is a better marketeer than Tony. He's better than the vast majority of the ultra running community at it, although Salamon are doing a good job lately on the trail scene. If Karnazes was managing the run for Tony you'd be sure it'd be well financed/publicised.

Dean is a better self-publicist than Tony without doubt, and is indeed a better self-publicist than the vast majority of the ultra community. Most of the ultra running community let their running do their talking... Dean doesn't have the raw talent for that, so he has a marketing machine do the talking instead. I very much doubt that Dean would ever manage Tony, or anyone else of any ability, as Dean has never shown any ability to manage and publicise anything but himself. There are one or two very good marketeers in the ultra running world, but you'll find that more often than not it is the sport that they are marketing rather than themselves.

jeffontour wrote: »

I am not sure that Tony would be comfortable with mass coverage of the level Karnazes attracts. My understanding is this trip is a very personal life ambition, that needs outside help that he'd maybe hoped it wouldn't. So is he in a tricky situation in that he needs the publicity to make things more comfortable for him, but really doesn't want the intrusion? That's my completely uninformed take on it anyhow.

In fairness, very few people would be happy to get the mass coverage that Dean gets knowing how many runners of so much better ability there are out there. I'm pretty sure that Tony would be delighted about any coverage he gets, if nothing else than for the fact that its getting more coverage for genuine ultra-running. And of course it can only be of benefit to him in keeping the show on the road.

Tony has had a huge amount of outside help, both during the run and in the long lead up to it. Your understanding is incorrect. In the end he is the one doing the running... that's the bit that no-one else can do for him, and that's the bit he is going to do 100% for himself... but of course he needed large amounts of help to get to the position to undertake it, and to continue it. He has listed a huge amount of assistance and advice he has got along the way in his blog. Some of the most significant assistance has not been directly mentioned on the blog, but its been and continues to be there.

jeffontour wrote: »

Anyway, if other than donating directly to Tony if there's something we might do I'd be more than happy to help in whatever way I could. But I'm not a marketeer so all I can offer are oddjobman type skills.

Send him an email and let him know. Any offer of help would be appreciated I'm sure.

pc11 · 01-06-2012 10:35pm

I normally don't support the Kilimanjaro junkets and whatnot but I feel Tony's trip is totally different. Reading his blog just now made me feel like he needed support so I was happy to donate something.

My take is I'd like to see this achievement happen so I'd like to support it. Lots of muppets will trek Kilimanjaro, whether I help or not, but no-one else will do a world jog. Frankly, comparing the 2 is pretty silly IMO, they're not the same thing at all.

Pisco Sour · 01-06-2012 11:14pm

Fair play to him, but I'm struggling to see why people should fund him. When I went travelling around the world (granted I wasn't running) I saved long and hard for it and didnt borrow a penny off a soul. I funded my own hobby. Why shouldn't he do the same?

Kurt Godel · 01-06-2012 11:31pm

04072511 wrote: »

Fair play to him, but I'm struggling to see why people should fund him. When I went travelling around the world (granted I wasn't running) I saved long and hard for it and didnt borrow a penny off a soul. I funded my own hobby. Why shouldn't he do the same?

He needn't do the same because there is nothing grand or epic in your solipsistic analogy. Did anyone find your travels inspirational? There's a pretty big difference between backpacking for a few years, and running 30-40k every day until you circumnavigate the globe. You're comparing a few lads hiking up the Hellfire with a few beers and sambo's, with someone climbing Everest solo.

I have given a few small amounts because I see value in what he is doing, there's no special need for you to be convinced to do the same.

Pisco Sour · 02-06-2012 12:10am

Kurt Godel wrote: »

He needn't do the same because there is nothing grand or epic in your solipsistic analogy. Did anyone find your travels inspirational? There's a pretty big difference between backpacking for a few years, and running 30-40k every day until you circumnavigate the globe. You're comparing a few lads hiking up the Hellfire with a few beers and sambo's, with someone climbing Everest solo.

I have given a few small amounts because I see value in what he is doing, there's no special need for you to be convinced to do the same.

That's fair enough. There's absolutely nothing stopping somebody giving him financial support if he/she wants to do so. I think it would be wrong if he was to do some sort of fundraising campaign to fund this trip, but from what I have gathered this is not the case with Mangan.

Pisco Sour · 02-06-2012 12:04pm

Just read his recent blog. Christ that's some oul rant!

It's not an easy situation for sure. Surely Ultra Running Ireland should be doing more to promote his round the world jog. They are the people most interested in his endeavors so they should be the ones really championing this. They should be getting this out there among the media, and they should be the ones chasing the sponsors.

Maybe one thing that needs to be done is for Mangan and Ultra Running Ireland to give the Irish public a reason to be interested. To make it much more than a plea for help to fund a personal hobby (which may not be the case, but it comes across like that to me anyway). I don't have any answers myself and it is not an area of great interest to me (though I am impressed) but if there is a way of making the public more involved and feel a part of the experience then that will help. Could Ultra Running Ireland not lobby to get his blog published once a week in one of the national newspapers? Could they not chase sponsors and offer something in return? I obviously have no answers to these questions, but those are questions for people involved in Ultra Running to answer.

One thing if for sure though, the idea of lottery funding is off the wall. I know he didnt mention it, but somebody in the comments after did. There will be some Irish athletes going to London with very little to no funding, so I don't see why the ISC will be giving money they dont have to Mangan.

Am interested to read his Bolivia experience. He'll find it tough there. No doubt about it. I struggled to walk up at 4500m. I jogged for about 5 seconds on the salt flats and was out of breath. Much respect.

plodder · 02-06-2012 2:30pm

On the media thing, I think what might suit would be a weekly radio show, (not necessarily a sport show), where they'd call him up on Skype for a chat and find out what he's been up to for the last week. Maybe not every week, but even occasionally, or once a month. I find it hard to believe that there isn't a radio presenter somewhere in the country that wouldn't be interested in doing that. It'd give him the bit of publicity that he needs.

Pisco Sour · 02-06-2012 2:35pm

plodder wrote: »

On the media thing, I think what might suit would be a weekly radio show, (not necessarily a sport show), where they'd call him up on Skype for a chat and find out what he's been up to for the last week. Maybe not every week, but even occasionally, or once a month. I find it hard to believe that there isn't a radio presenter somewhere in the country that wouldn't be interested in doing that. It'd give him the bit of publicity that he needs.

He needs to sell what he is doing. Making it less about the personal journey, less about the jog, and a bit more about the travel and the crazy weird things he has seen (South America is an incredible continent) could attract outside interest. If he and whoever helps him packages this journey as a round the world travel on foot, experiencing new cultures, seeing amazing sites etc, it will gather much more interest than the concept of a guy running around the world for personal glory. Christ, if he had approached the right people from the start this could have been made into a TV documentary!

He doesn't have a born right to be admired by the Irish public. He needs to make it appealing. He needs to really sell it. This of course is assuming he is after media attention in which case is he really doing this for personal inner satisfaction only or is he craving adulation? Maybe I'm picking up on his blog wrong but it was unnecessarily bitter and a little harsh on people and Ireland in general.

Best of luck to him anyway. I've no doubt he's a good guy, and I certainly respect what he is doing. I cant speak for others but I for one certainly dont begrudge him. Quite the opposite in fact. I think he's stone mad (meant in the nicest way possible).

plodder · 02-06-2012 2:44pm

04072511 wrote: »

He needs to sell what he is doing. Making it less about the personal journey, less about the jog, and a bit more about the travel and the crazy weird things he has seen (South America is an incredible continent) could attract outside interest. If he and whoever helps him packages this journey as a round the world travel on foot, experiencing new cultures, seeing amazing sites etc, it will gather much more interest than the concept of a guy running around the world for personal glory.

He doesn't have a born right to be admired by the Irish public. He needs to make it appealing. He needs to really sell it. This of course is assuming he is after media attention in which case is he really doing this for personal inner satisfaction only or is he craving adulation? Maybe I'm picking up on his blog wrong but it was unnecessarily bitter and a little harsh on people and Ireland in general.

Best of luck to him anyway.

TBH. If you read the blog it is all about the places and people he meets. His problem though is that he doesn't seem to have anyone back home who can take care of packaging/selling it the right way. The blog is great but it's a bit disorganised. He needs someone to take care of editing it, and presenting it properly. But, I agree the begrudgery thing is wrong. That's only going to annoy people.

Pisco Sour · 02-06-2012 2:46pm

plodder wrote: »

TBH. If you read the blog it is all about the places and people he meets. His problem though is that he doesn't seem to have anyone back home who can take care of packaging/selling it the right way. The blog is great but it's a bit disorganised. He needs someone to take care of editing it, and presenting it properly. But, I agree the begrudgery thing is wrong. That's only going to annoy people.

What sort of planning went into this venture? Did he approach people beforehand? Did he do a budget of expected finances over the coming 3 years? Did he assess the key risks involved and what contingency plans did he have in place? Did he put any time into marketing and promotions? Sounds like poor business planning IMO.

Tony Mangan - A year on

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