Cork man Alex O’Shea triumphs at Swedish Arctic Ultramarathon

Cork firefighter Alex O’Shea is celebrating after his victory at the Swedish Arctic Ultramarathon.

Finishing first overall out of 39 participants, Alex cleared the finish line scoring a two-hour advantage over other competitors, with a finishing time of 32 hours and 31 minutes.

The Arctic Ultramarathon is a 230km, five-day event, that requires participants to run across Swedish Lapland, living off vac-pack foods and camping overnight in below-freezing conditions.

Delighted

Speaking to The Echo, the Ballineen man said that he is “delighted” to have won the ninth edition of the cold-weather race.

“From day one, I made the right decisions, knowing when to push hard and when to hold back to prevent injury,” he said.

“I think age and experience prevailed over youthful enthusiasm in that environment.

“It was an amazing experience. It will take a while to sink in, what a privilege it was to take part in this event.

“What’s next is birthday cake in a few weeks, I’m 50 in April, but I definitely would like to do another cold event,” he added.

Heartwarming

Alex was welcomed home from the Arctic Circle by his family at Cork Airport on Sunday, and he shared a heartwarming photo of his wife and children to social media at the airport with a homemade sign saying: “Welcome Home Ultra Dad”.

Detailing his scoring, Alex said that each participant was graded in stages, with him finishing second on stage one, first on stage two, first on stage three, joint first on stage four, and joint second on stage five, which resulted in his overall win by two hours.

Ahead of the Arctic Ultramarathon, Alex admitted to The Echo that the race was going to be a “hard slog”.

To prepare for the event, Alex drew on expertise from a range of cold-weather athletes before setting off on this journey, particularly seeking advice from people who go skiing, snowboarding, and mountaineering.

“You’re trying to pull the best from all their knowledge. I had one person that I spoke to, who had done this race before, say to me that if you run the Cork Marathon in three hours, you’re likely to come over here and do the same distance in three times that. You could be looking at nine hours in a day.”

Alex has previously completed and won numerous titles over his 10-year running career, including a Guinness World Record for the fastest marathon run wearing a full firefighters suit, which he achieved at the Cork City Marathon in 2014, as well as representing Ireland at the 24-hour European Championships in 2018, and the World 24-Hour Championships in 2019.