Shane Finn, the fitness mad Kerry man who ran 24 marathons in 24 days

"Run 50k a day for three days and bike 250k a day for three days. That’s six days. Do that six times and that gets me from California to New York."

Shane Finn’s matter-of-fact response when asked just how he plans to cross the US in just 36 days to raise money for Spina Bifida Hydrocephalus Ireland has Irish Country Living exhausted just from doing the maths.

But having run 12 marathons in 12 days – and 24 in 24 – for the charity to date, the west Kerry man is dreaming big (and, clearly, in dozens) for his next challenge.

All while building his business, WK Fitness, and his name as a motivational speaker at just 25 years of age.

Dingle man Shane Finn undertook a mammoth 24 marathons in 24 days in aid of Spina Bifida Hydrocephalus Ireland (SBHI). \ Valerie O’Sullivan

We meet the young entrepreneur in the “mega-gym” he co-owns in Dingle – just a fling of a kettle bell from the mart – at 11am, but he has almost a day’s work done, with his alarm going off every morning at 5.35am.

It’s a work ethic he attributes to his father Timmy, who is a plasterer, and his mother Josie, who left teaching to open her own business, Curtain Call.

My mom would make all the products – the curtains and the blinds – and my dad would be plastering from eight in the morning till six in the evening, and then my dad would come home and have his dinner and he’d go out fitting curtains. That’s how I was brought up and I suppose I’m just glad that I held on to that.

He admits that in school he felt like he was “on a conveyor belt” and while he got a place in university to study environmental science, he knew after a few weeks that third-level life was not for him.

“I’m just glad that I made the decision to drop out because I see a lot of young people now who just do a college course to do a course and they basically end up wasting four years of their life, which is incredibly sad.

"Then they come out of college and they’re a bit lost,” he reflects. “I suppose I was kind of lost for a while, but I found my way.”

Lightblub moment

His lightbulb moment came thanks to sport. After his Leaving Cert, Shane had taken part in the Dingle Marathon and found a passion for long-distance running, which helped him develop in confidence.

“That would have been one thing I really would have struggled with when I was younger,” he explains.

“It kind of gave me a sense of direction, I guess it gave me a path.”

Shane began to study health and fitness, with a vision of moving to New York.

A few weeks before he was due to fly, however, he bumped into Mark Evans, who was also working in fitness and planning a move to Galway.

It was Mark who first suggested they run a short bootcamp together to make some extra money. Investing €275 between them and “borrowing” the key for the local hall, they advertised their first class. “And over 60 people turned up,” recalls Shane.

“About two weeks before, we were scheduled to go our different ways. We went to a café in town and we just sat down and we went from moving away to – in the space of 48 hours – setting up our own business.”

Breaking barriers

WK Fitness (the WK stands for West Kerry) officially opened in January 2013 in a small unit by the marina, with a modest €3,000 loan from Shane’s father to buy spin bikes.

“The agreement was we’d pay him back in about six months; we paid him back in a couple of weeks,” recalls Shane. “Then we bought a couple of more bikes ... and that place quickly became too small.”

Their only other option, however, was the former bowling alley: a space of 7,000 sq ft. With a third partner, Christopher Thomas, they eventually secured a loan of €110,000 to kit out a “mega-gym”, though not without making sacrifices.

“I sold my car and had to move home,” says Shane. “That’s what we had to do to get to where we wanted to go.”

Shane Finn pictured while training for his 24-marathon challenge.

He admits many people questioned their decision to open such a large-scale operation in a rural area.

“The population of Dingle is about 1,700,” he agrees. “You’d see facilities like this above in Dublin or Cork.”

However, their approach is to appeal to as wide a range of people as possible, from professional athletes and Kerry footballers to mothers’ groups and the active retired.

“Whether your goal is to lose five pounds or go to Tokyo in 2020, we’re going to try our best to help you get there.”

24 marathons in 24 days

But if you think that running his own business was enough of a challenge, think again.

By running marathons in Dingle and New York, Shane raised over €13,000 for Spina Bifida Hydrocephalus Ireland; a charity close to his heart as his cousin, Mary Evans, uses their services.

A further €33,000 followed in 2014 after running 12 marathons in 12 days from Dublin to Dingle. (He got the idea after his car broke down and his father joked that he could run home.)

The idea to run 24 marathons in 24 days from Donegal to Dingle with the aim of raising €100,000 was chosen to represent just how hard a day – or 24 hours – can be for a person with spina bifida and their family.

Shane spent the majority of 2016 and the first half of 2017 training for the challenge, including building the mental resilience he would need to draw from on the toughest days.

I had to be out there in January and February, on my own, up and down the Connor Pass, running it up and down twice, getting up afterwards and cycling up and down it.

Indeed, Shane admits there were days during the 24-day challenge he would wake aching from “my shoulders down to my ankles” with blistered feet and a sick stomach; “but the minute I put my shoes on and started running, I’d be a completely different person”.

Needless to say, arriving in Dingle was the highlight of the journey, which raised over €140,000. Shane, who is now an ambassador for the charity alongside Packie Bonner, explains that this money will be spent on providing respite hours for families as well as paying for service users to attend the SHINE summer camp and independence week.

Run the USA

And obviously, he is not finished yet, as he works towards crossing America in 36 days in 2019 – a challenge he admits carries a higher risk of failure.

“There’s so many things that can go wrong,” says Shane, who believes his greatest challenge will be running and cycling through the Nevada desert and up the mountain ranges of Utah.

“I find the fear of failure kind of exciting, to be honest,” he continues. “I respect the challenges, but I still think I’m going to do it no matter how difficult it’s going to be. There are going to be brutal days out there, but it’s something I’m excited about.”

At present, Shane is seeking support to help with costs such as renting an RV for the crew. In the meantime, he is also working on a number of other projects, and providing motivational talks to businesses, sportspeople and schools.

“Anytime I speak in a school I just see myself – like a young guy or a young girl – sitting there, completely lost, but you also have the whole world at your feet. So it’s a really awkward position to be in; but it’s absolutely fascinating at the same time.”

Shane Finn certainly has the world at his feet right now. And he’s ready to run it.

For more information, see www.shanefinn.com.

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