A Laois man by the name of Jeff Butler and Cactus the dog have made international headlines due to their part in one of the world’s most difficult races.
The 42 year old from Upper Rossmore in Killeshin came in first for Ireland and 153rd overall out of 978 participants in a five marathons in six days in the Sahara Desert.
Jeff and the adorable Cactus completed the Marathon des Sables, a six-day, 140.7 mile ultramarathon, which is approximately the distance of six regular marathons.
This was all done in the excruciating heat, wind, sand dunes and dry valleys of the Sahara in southern Morocco.
The New York Times picked up on the incredible story of Cactus, who is seen in the picture below resting with the Killeshin man.
Jeff spoke to LaoisToday about preparations, how it felt to compete in those extraordinarily harsh conditions.
“It’s unlike any other marathons I had done before. I just started off trying to do as much research as possible on the route and the terrain.”
Jeff’s preparations for the marathon series comprised of 20km runs on Mondays, Wednesday and Sundays, a 30/35km hike in the Wicklow mountains on Saturdays, gym and speed work on Tuesdays and speed work on Thursdays.
“The toughest thing physically was running of soft, beach-like sand in the 40 degree Celsius heat where the sun was constantly beaming down,” said the Killeshin and Triathy club man.
Despite his incredible achievement, Jeff remains incredibly modest about being the first Irish person to cross the finish line.
“There was no kind of competition as to who would be the first from Ireland to finish. We all camped together and there was great camaraderie within the camp. We all just wanted to finish and there was great satisfaction when we did cross the line,” said Jeff.
Jeff, who only returned home on Monday night, already has more plans for marathons in the future.
“I think I’m going to do the Dublin marathon as it’s a great marathon and doing a half marathon with my wife Lorraine. I don’t think I’m allowed do anything crazy now,” he laughed.
As for how it feels to be hitting the headlines with Cactus the Dog? “I’m riding on Cactus’s coattails,” laughed Jeff.
Jeré Longman was the reporter who encapsulated the adorable and, as it turns out, incredibly hardy, Cactus and his 85 mile journey across the desert for the New York Times.
“Cactus skipped Sunday’s first stage, but ran nearly 15 miles on Monday, then completed the full 23 miles of Tuesday’s stage and the entire 47.4-mile stage on Wednesday, showing great resilience and a skittering ability to navigate the dunes.
“While the nearly 800 human runners were given 31 hours to complete Wednesday’s ultralong stage, Cactus needed only about 11 hours 15 minutes, some of it in a sandstorm, which would have put him 76th in the stage results. Then he ran a couple of extra miles to cool down,” said Longman.
For any animal lovers out there worrying about how Cactus has ran all this in the desert, he has been seen by doctors who report that he has no blisters or any signs of hardship.
What is important to Cactus is that he loves to get rubdowns in the morning before the race stages start and enjoys the companionship of all the runners in the camp.
We at LaoisToday offer our heartiest congratulations to Jeff and Cactus on their terrific achievement.
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