The 2017 crew

Mallusk Harriers is a running club based in Mallusk, Newtownabbey. Although the ’24 in 24′ concept is slightly mad, Alan’s clubmates are only too glad to support him with the idea. The guys have trained hard, are determined and remain focussed on raising money for Action Cancer. They would like the local community to get behind the event and show the runners their support by sponsoring them for Action Cancer.

Alan “Nap Time” Ladd

Alan is the brains behind the crazy venture. He chose the charity partner Action Cancer in memory of his mother Catherine who died from cancer aged 59 in August 2014. The gaps between runs will be ideal for Alan who famously took a 20 minute nap in the 2015 Belfast Marathon.
Age: 34
Started running: 2003
Marathon PB: 3:25
No. of marathons: 3 + 1 Ultra
Longest distance: 39.3 miles
No. of parkruns: 109

Trivia: Since the birth of his second son Caleb, Alan has rarely had 20 minutes of uninterrupted sleep.

Marty “Marathon Man” McCready

Marty is the man that pushed Alan to make this challenge a reality. He has done almost as many marathons as the rest of the crew put together, including 1 in a bear suit. Marty’s notoriously bad jokes and ‘interesting’ facts may spur the rest of the team on faster to avoid running with him.
Age: 47
Started running: 2004
Marathon PB: 3:38
No. of marathons: 17 + 1 Ultra
Longest distance: 39.3 miles
No. of parkruns: 148

Trivia: Marty did not feature in the beheading scene of Ned Stark in Game of Thrones.

Alastair “Spike” Houldsworth

Alastair is an accomplished fencer who is fairly new to running. He recently completed his first marathon in an impressive 3:23, although we think he could have shaved 20 minutes off this if he had run in a straight line.
Age: 32
Started running: 2015
Marathon PB: 3:23
No. of marathons: 1
Longest distance: 26.2 miles
No. of parkruns: 6

Trivia: Alastair and Alan both hail from West Yorkshire which is statistically the only place in the world to suffer worse weather than Northern Ireland.

Danny “Shiny Shoes” Donaldson

Danny runs any race any distance and holds the marathon PB for the Mallusk Harriers. Until recently he held nearly all the records in the club. He has been accepted to be coached by a well known runner to break the 3 hour marathon mark at Dublin in October.
Age: 26
Started running: 2014
Marathon PB: 3:02
No. of marathons: 5 + 1 Ultra
Longest distance: 39.3 miles
No. of parkruns: 115

Trivia: Danny will be played by an actor on the day so his new coach will not be able to identify him in the pictures.

Jonny “Dr Do Little” Ladd

So named for being able to do long runs and qualify as a doctor with little or no training, Jonny completed a 100K run to raise money for the charity ‘Vision Romania’ in 2013. He will be flying over from Scotland to make sure his brother doesn’t sleep on the job.
Age: 29
Started running: 2006
Marathon PB: 4:20
No. of marathons: 2 + 1 Ultra
Longest distance: 100 kilometres
No. of parkruns: 8

Trivia: Jonny’s qualifications include a Doctorate, a BA in music, 5 As at A level, 10 GCSEs and a 200m swimming certificate.

Micky “Mountain Goat” McAuley

Micky was the first of the Mallusk Harriers to do a ‘sneaky’ ultra marathon and is famous for doing crazy mountain races. He is a bit of a metal head and has threatened to unleash *insert random metal band* at 2am to keep everyone awake during the challenge.
Age: 39
Started running: 2015
Marathon PB: 3:50
No. of marathons: 5 + 2 Ultras
Longest distance: 39.3 miles
No. of parkruns: 6

Trivia: Micky and Alan’s bands played a gig together before they ever met. No one knows when or where this happened, but it happened!

Neil “Chatty Cathy” Campbell

Neil is Mr Enthusiasm and is sure to keep the guys’ spirits high throughout. A very strong runner who has had to train a lot to get slow enough for this challenge. He’s also been offered a lot of sponsorship money to do at least one silent parkrun.
Age: 43
Started running: 2013
Marathon PB: 3:24
No. of marathons: 3 + 1 Ultra
Longest distance: 39.3 miles
No. of parkruns: 42

Trivia: Average words per minute: 91. Inside leg measurement: 91.

Paddy “Shortcut” McGuckin

Paddy is a parkrun enthusiast who is also adept at longer distances. This slightly unfair nickname originates from a charity race where Paddy genuinely got lost and inadvertently took a shortcut much to the dismay of some competitive runners.
Age: 41
Started running: 2004
Marathon PB: 3:26
No. of marathons: 8
Longest distance: 26.2 miles
No. of parkruns: 138

Trivia: Also has a 25 mile PB of 3:26.

Paul “Shuttle Service” Skillen

One of the Mr Nice guys of Mallusk Harriers, Paul is forever supporting the runners at the club in official and unofficial capacities. He was last year’s club captain although in a mix up at the end of year awards he was narrowly pipped by Marty to receive recognition of his job for the year.
Age: 41
Started running: 2013
Marathon PB: 4:21
No. of marathons: 4
Longest distance: 26.2 miles
No. of parkruns: 82

Trivia: Unofficially, Paul clocked up 52.7 miles at Connemarathon by completing his own half marathon and ‘shuttling’ back and forth to bring the rest of the club’s runners home.