Video: “How MS inspired my own Forrest Gump story”

Before being diagnosed with MS in 2017, Colin Goodman never went running. He’s now about to embark on an epic challenge, running the length of Ireland over nine days. NR Times spoke to him before he hit the road. 

Colin will be running the length of Ireland starting in the south at Mizen Head on Saturday (July 30th) and working his way up north over nine days; raising funds for the MS Society and his local MS centre.

He describes his MS diagnosis as a wakeup call to address poor lifestyle habits and, five years on from receiving the news, he is now much more health conscious than previously.

“I didn’t run before I was diagnosed,” he says. “But since then I’ve started running, and started looking after myself, looking after my sleep and looking after my lifestyle. So it’s completely turned my life on its head for me, and I say this lightly, in a really good way.”

On the challenges Colin expects to encounter during his run, he says: “With MS, every day you don’t know what’s next. Tomorrow I’ll maybe wake up and feel a bit groggy.

“I don’t notice my side effects or issues, or [sometimes] don’t feel personally like I have MS. So I just keep doing the right thing, and keep running [but] I don’t know how this run is going to affect me.”

Colin has experience of marathon running, but nothing quite like nine ultra-marathons back-to-back – which is effectively what he is taking on.

“I’m used to doing marathons, having finished four, and I’m pretty happy with that. But from four marathons to nine ultras in a row is a bit of a jump. I know it’s going to be a lot of pain and I know there’s going to be a lot of tiredness, but that just comes with doing this the stupid amount of miles back-to-back.”

Colin has currently raised over £7,000 for MS causes and has received huge additional support, including from hotels offering him free stays along the way and fellow runners offering to join him on the route.

“People are coming to run with me; it’s absolutely like a Forrest Gump story! It’s just phenomenal to see everyone who’s coming to support me.”

You can support Colin’s journey via the links below.

Colin’s JustGiving page: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/m2m4ms

Where to get updates from Colin’s run: https://www.facebook.com/Mizen2Malin4MS