When Caitríona Jennings first moved from Donegal to Dublin in 2006, she joined up with the TT Racers training group, based in Trinity College, coached by former Irish 800 metres international Terry McConnon.
McConnon still considers himself a track-coach specialist, and while his training group soon drifted more towards marathon running, he first entered Jennings into an 800m race on the track.
“Caitríona still says that was one of the hardest races she ever did,” says McConnon. “But I knew from very soon after she was ideal for the longer stuff, she has an amazing engine, and some capacity for pain.
“She’s willing to go beyond the pain barrier and on and on. When most people would give up, she doesn’t. She also has a great capacity to recover.”
RM Block
Fast forward almost 20 years and at the Tunnel Hill 100 Mile last Saturday, a US ultrarunning event staged in Illinois, Jennings broke the world record for 100 miles, winning the women’s race in an astonishing 12 hours, 37 minutes and four seconds.
Jennings turned 45 in June, and ran the Olympic marathon for Ireland in London back in 2012. She only started the ultrarunning distances in 2019, and after living and working in Hong Kong for almost five years, she returned home earlier this year with fresh plans to tackle the 100-mile distance while still under McConnon’s guidance.
The longest continuous run Jennings had completed before last Saturday was 60 miles, although for McConnon, part of the secret to ultrarunning success is to still train as if racing the shorter distances.
“One of the last sessions she did before Tunnel Hill was 8x800m,” he says. “Her longest runs would be three or four hours, because otherwise she’ll just break down. We know that, so it’s about managing the body, but we were learning as we went along.
“I’m not a big advocate of ‘junk miles’, but when it comes to the very long stuff, it has to be done. But if you’re doing intervals at 6-minute mile pace, it’s easier to run 7.30-pace.”
Jennings had already established a series of Irish records over shorter ultrarunning distances, but produced a remarkably consistent run, despite warming conditions, to break the previous world record of 12:42:40 set by the US’s Camille Herron at the same event in 2017. Jennings also finished fourth best overall, her 12:37:04 almost four hours ahead of the next best woman on the day – and now the fastest 100-mile time by any Irish athlete.
“I just kept telling myself to be patient at the start,” Jennings said afterwards, her husband Martin McCoy also providing crucial food-and-drink backup on the day. “Because it’s such a long race, you have to really hold back and run slower than you would think you would anticipate when you’re usually racing.”
Running in her club colours of Letterkenny AC, Jennings averaged 7:34 per mile (4:42 per km) across the 100-mile distance (160.9km). After 80 miles, or about 10 hours of racing, her pace only slightly slowed, and she remained under world record pace the entire way.
Her first dabble into ultrarunning was at the 2019 Comrades Marathon, the 88km race between Durban and Pietermaritzburg, the world’s oldest ultra-marathon. Her time of 6:24:12 was good enough for third best woman overall, leaving her hungry for plenty more.
“The ultra starts off slower than the marathon, so you’re running at training pace for a lot of it,” she said at the time. “It takes longer to get to the point where you’re struggling, but once it starts, the pain is definitely worse. I potentially have a bit of a talent for the ultra, so I suppose I should embrace it, give it a proper crack.”
Her marathon best of 2:36:17 was set in April 2012, qualifying her for London 2012, although her effort there was severely restricted by a stress fracture suffered in the build-up to the event, and she hobbled home some 45 minutes outside of her best.
“After London I stopped running completely really, because I had to,” she said in 2018. “I ended up having a stress fracture in both legs, but no regrets about it either. I’m very proud that I finished in London and honestly didn’t know how it would go.
“But I’ve always felt as well I had something to prove after London. After the way it went on the day, I just wanted to prove that wasn’t the athlete I was, that there’s more there than that. Still a bit of unfinished business I suppose.”
She came back to win the Belfast marathon in 2017, her sister Sinéad also competing in rowing for Ireland at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
Earlier this year, Jennings broke the Irish 50km record at the Donadea 50km National Championships with a winning time of 3:16:33, and she also holds the Irish 100km record of 7:43:01, set in 2021. She also won the 2022 50km European Championship.
Her ultrarunning training is also juggled around her full-time career in aircraft trading with Aviation Capital Group (ACG) in Dublin, and she runs to and from work from her home in Sandycove.
“Saturday and Sunday are her two big days,” says McConnon. “The long runs, starting out with 10 miles, with a bit of a tempo in the middle, then another 8-10 miles to finish. Then going out and replicating it on tired legs on the Sunday.”
Her next target is another Comrades Marathon, next June: “She has four top-10 finishes already, and if you get a fifth they retire your number,” says McConnan. “That will be another a big thing on her CV.”
