Friends running, cycling length of Sri Lanka for charity

BY EMMA CONNOLLY

A YOUNG man from Ballydehob is running the length of Sri Lanka to raise money for a children’s charity in the Asian country.

Chris Rickard (29) set off on October 30th from Point Pedro, the northernmost point of Sri Lanka, and has encountered blistering 30 degree heat and torrential monsoons, along with snakes and crocodiles on his 580km journey south.

He’s being helped by his friends Willow Cleary (27), also from Ballydehob and Jay Mann (29) from Skibbereen who are cycling the route in support. All three are past pupils of Schull Community School and have self-funded the trip.

‘We all wanted to go travelling and I wanted to give myself some sort of a challenge. We eventually decided on Sri Lanka, somewhere none of us had travelled before and came up with the idea of doing a challenge to raise money for a local charity,’ explained Chris.

‘We came across the Rainbow Centre which is a small charity that provides sanctuary, support and education to street children and children who suffer abuse and neglect offering them a lifeline to a better future. The charity appealed to me as it employs local staff on sensible salaries and all the admin staff, ceo, director etc work on a voluntary basis. We are aiming to raise enough money to buy them a new bus, €5,000, to transport children to and from school and broaden their catchment area.’

He was already a keen runner having competed in several triathlons (his team won the last Schull Triathlon in the relay category) and marathons including Cork and Munich.

‘I also started running ultra-marathon distances by myself and I train and compete in Mixed Martial Arts and Brazilian jiu-jitsu at Studio Galera in Bandon and West Cork Kickboxing Club in Skibbereen.’

There’s been plenty of stand-out moment so far, says Chris, who celebrated his 29th birthday on the trip.

‘The first day we set off very eagerly in the midday heat aiming to run 60km. At about 50km I was suffering early signs of heat exhaustion, headache, nausea etc and we found ourselves in an isolated location in the middle of the jungle. We found refuge in an old bus shelter where we rested a few hours until dawn. During the night we surrounded by howling dogs and bitten by mosquitos. In the morning we got up and ran another 25km to the next village where we rented a room from a local family and rested up until the evening when we set off to complete a marathon to the next stop on our route.

‘Another night we had found a hotel on the map and ran about 50km to reach it. Unfortunately, on arrival, the hotel did not exist and we found ourselves stranded in the middle of nowhere late at night! After wandering a few more kms we came across a Buddhist monastery and they very kindly made us tea, fed us biscuits and put us up for the night.’

The trio have also been warned to be on the lookout for wild elephants, but fortunately haven’t encountered any yet.

Chris hopes to finish by Sunday, November 12th at Dondra Head Lighthouse, the country’s most southerly point, if he can keep running 50km a day and take no rest
days as planned, meaning the trip will have taken around two weeks.

• To donate, search ‘running and Sri Lanka’ on Just Giving.