Student run from Cork to Galway and makes history

By Ellen O’Regan

17-year-old Flobater Fares made history yesterday, as he became the youngest person to run 200km from Cork to Galway.  

After being waved off by his classmates at North Monastery Secondary School in Cork on Wednesday morning, fifth year student Flobater covered the long road to Galway in just under 60 hours.   

As well as breaking records, Flobater is also using the run to raise money for the Irish Cancer Society.

“It feels unreal. I’ve been training for this for eight weeks, just to have it done feels unreal. It was tough, it was painful, it was really painful, but I just tried to stick to enjoying the run,” he said, moments after hitting the 200km mark outside Galway Shopping Centre.

This was not Flobater’s first ultra-run, having already ran 100km from Cork to Limerick last year at the age of 16.

“Having done 100km from Cork to Limerick before, I was kind of alright, but it was after I hit 150km on this run that I started feeling the pain,” he said.

When Flobater isn’t running the roads of Ireland, he is on the Irish MMA team, having competed at the 2019 MMA World Championships, and hopes to bring home a gold medal when he competes again in Turkey in July.

“Running isn’t even my main sport! I’m only doing this on the side, this is only a bit of fun for me,” he said.

When asked what his plans are for the future, Flobater shows no signs of stopping at 200km.

“Let’s just say, 2022? 300km. This is the first place I’m saying it, because I was actually going to announce it later but, this is an exclusive here, 300km in 2022,” he said.

You can donate to Flobater’s run here.