"I was also working, so it was probably just five weeks of 'Yeah, I'm happy with that' training."
Robert Pope ran the width of the island of Ireland in less than 24 hours. Photo / Google Maps
Ultra running has experienced a wave of popularity over the past few years, according to Pope, partly because of social media visibility.
"On social you'll often see people doing these crazy bonkers runs," he said.
However, he added that there were a lot of unseen failures.
"Nobody ever posts anything about failure anywhere. You see a lot of people posting and if they have failed at something they're like 'I'm absolutely gutted because I didn't succeed', but they did succeed because they gave everything they had to get there."
Similar to when he crossed the US, Pope took a relaxed approach to race day in Ireland and grabbed a drink with his four-man support team near the start line at Galway's Spanish Arch.
Then, at 10.31pm on Saturday, he dipped a foot into the Atlantic Ocean and began running towards Dublin; a journey that would take the average person far longer than 24 or possibly even 48 hours by foot.
Pope said time moved quickly in the beginning but fatigue and nausea set in after just two hours and he considered throwing in the towel.
"I just said to the guys, 'I don't think this is me over-reacting, but I think I'm going to have to quit'."
Quick update. Not a great one. Legs are flying. Guts are dying. Seeing what happens in next hour. Most unexpected. This early anyway. Most unwelcome. 🤮🤢
"One fella, he'd driven down about 45 minutes, having heard about it and he brought us down a bunch of bananas," Pope told BBC.
"And my body just went 'yes, you want one of them, have one of them'."
Running through Cloghan, a town in County Offaly, one local shop employee offered him some free cereal bars.
Then, for the final 16km into Dublin, Pope had an unexpected new friend called Tony join him for the last leg.
"I'm in a hole at this point and Tony comes along and asks, 'Do you mind if I run with you?' and I was just like 'yeah, but I really need to concentrate now'."
Incredibly, Pope decided to add on another 1.6km - an old school mile - to get to Dublin's Samuel Beckett bridge where the River Liffey meets the Irish Sea. It was here he officially completed the run and celebrated in the most Irish of ways with a pint of Guinness.
As for how Pope passed the time, he listened to U2's entire discography in chronological order to celebrate the birthday of the Edge - the band's guitarist.
Since there is no official record of other runners completing the feat, Pope's certain he is the first person to run across Ireland in less than a day.
Although, he admitted that "some gnarled old club runner from Cork could have done it once in January".
Pope managed to raise £2,094 (almost NZ$4000) through a support page, which is still running.
