An Olds firefighter is in the final stages of training to run a full marathon (42.2 kilometres) in firefighter gear in Calgary on May 29.
Noel D'arcy, 30, has been a firefighter for about a year.
He got the idea after reading that a firefighter in his home country of Ireland had run a marathon in firefighter gear and had set a record. He hopes to break that record and at the same time, raise money for muscular dystrophy.
Although D'arcy will be running in firefighter gear, he won't be wearing the breathing apparatus (the big oxygen bottle we see on firefighters' backs) nor the gloves, because he says that's not necessary to set the record.
The record right now is three hours 41 minutes and 10 seconds.
“I'm going to attempt 3:30, so I'm hoping to get 10 minutes under (it) if possible,” D'arcy says. “I may squeak in 10 seconds under it. It's hard to say on the day how things will go, right? Probably my mind will want to just sprint, but the gear will say, ‘no.'
“When I was speaking with the race director in Calgary, I asked if it's ever been attempted in the Calgary Marathon and she said, ‘no, it's the first time.'”
It appears D'arcy has the experience to do it.
D'arcy has run six marathons and four ultramarathons before, including the Canadian Death Race, a 125-kilometre mountain run in Grand Cache, which he competed in last year.
“It wasn't pretty, but I got the job done,” he says.
He has run the Calgary Marathon three times before, but never in full firefighter gear.
D'arcy, an electrician, has been training for the event since about the beginning of the year. He has been running an average of 70 to 80 kilometres a week.
One thing that worries him is how hot it might be in Calgary on May 29. The race starts at 7 a.m.
“If all goes to plan and I do it in the amount of time I need to do it in, I shouldn't be hitting any of the afternoon heat,” he says. If I start at 7 (a.m.) and I do it in the amount of time I plan to be done, I should be done by 10:30. Hopefully it's not too warm by then.”
So far, the biggest problem for D'arcy as he trains has been the firefighter boots. They're simply not meant to be worn while running a marathon.
As he has run, they've created chafing issues on his heels. At one point he said, his calves were “absolutely shot” as a result of that issue.
D'arcy's wife Brianne says he eventually solved those problems, at least to a degree.
“He's wearing two pairs of socks and duct-taped his boots. He's got anti-chafing stuff he's putting on his feet as well,” she says.
“In this run I'll be wearing actually runner's compression socks and hopefully they can minimize any chafing that might occur,” Darcy says.
D'arcy picks a different charity to raise money for every year. He thought it would be fitting to choose muscular dystrophy this year because it's one that fire departments traditionally back. Also, it fits with his decision to run in firefighter gear.
“Through my research of it, people with muscular dystrophy, their heads want to do one thing but their body says ‘no.' It kind of represents a little bit what I'm doing; like my body's going to want to do one thing but my gear's going to say something else,” D'arcy says.
“So I'm kind of comparing it to that. I'm sure what I'm doing – like the pain I'll go through -- will probably be nothing compared to what these people go through on a daily basis.”
Although he's run marathons – and ultramarthons -- before, D'arcy admits running one in firefighter gear will likely pose a challenge.
“That Death Race I ran in regular running gear. So it's going to be interesting to compare what a marathon is like in fire gear, compared to running a Death Race in normal running gear,” he says. D'arcy's wife Brianne supports him in this endeavour.
“She kind of sees me going to different extremes every year. Like last year, she was really apprehensive about me doing the Death Race, but she supported me in it and actually kind of got me through it by helping me with nutrition and stuff like that,” he says.
“He's crazy. It's a massive undertaking. There's a lot of training that's gone into it,” Brianne says.
She plans to help him out during the race.
“I'm just going to be his support team,” she says. “I usually do the half marathon for the Calgary Marathon, but just in case something happens, I want to be by my phone.”
Brianne says they're hoping to organize a couple of events to raise more money for muscular dystrophy before the marathon takes place.
D'arcy says the Olds Fire Department has been very supportive as well.
“They're really encouraging me with it and they're helping me out any way they can,” D'arcy says.
For example, he says, the department worked on getting special firefighter boots for him that would cut down or perhaps even eliminate the chafing problems.
As part of his training and to help out another charity, D'arcy is one of the Olds firefighters who climbed the stairs in the Bow building in Calgary – also in firefighter gear -- to raise money for Wellspring Calgary, a non-profit organization that supports people living with cancer. [email protected]
"When I was speaking with the race director in Calgary I asked if it's ever been attempted in the Calgary Marathon and she said, 'no, it's the first time.'"NOEL D'ARCY OLDS FIREFIGHTER
