A WICKLOW man running 50 marathons in 50 days is relying on tubs of Nutella and doughnuts for breakfast to keep him going.
Dmytro Moyseyev, 28, is set to run his final 50th marathon on Sunday, all in aid of the Irish Cancer Society.
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And the constant running of over 42km daily means he needs to bulk up, and has to eat between 6,000 to 10,500 calories a day during his marathon mission.
He told The Irish Sun: “I’ve had to resort to some very inventive ways to gain calories.
“I’d be sitting down with tubs of Nutella, going at it. A bucket of peanut butter, going at it.
“Having like a box of doughnuts for breakfast, that kind of stuff.”
He admitted it’s a challenge to eat thousands of calories in a few hours.
He said: “It’s not necessarily the best way, or the healthiest way, of getting the calories in.
“But when you have to get that many calories and have like a six hour window, you have to improvise and do your best.”
He added: “You think oh my god, you can eat Nutella every day by spoon. It’s going to be amazing.
“But three weeks and it gets very, very boring, very, very quickly.”
Dmytro previously took on Project 555, an ultra-endurance challenge, spanning 570 kilometres from Mizen Head to Malin Head, across the entire island of Ireland.
He said: “I like a challenge. That was both physically and mentally challenging. And I somewhat got hooked on the idea of long endurance challenges.”
The 28-year-old covered an average of 111 kilometres daily over 138 hours total – it equates to almost three marathons per day.
Dmytro admitted he was never a runner but when Covid hit he discovered his passion.
Pretty soon into the 50 day challenge, he released it would be a struggle.
TAKING ON THE CHALLENGE
Starting out, Dmytro struggled with pain in his legs and Achilles.
He said: “Day four and five, I was worried that was the end of me running, not just for the challenge, but running altogether. The pain was quite severe.”
But the Wicklow man was determined to continue.
Dmytro recalled: “Come week two I felt so much better and I could run faster.
“But the faster you run the more time you need to recover. And because of that I aggravated my hip in week two.”
By day 19, the freezing weather and long days were taking a toll.
He said: “At that stage my knee was gone. My hip was gone. I was sick. And my achilles just went as well.”
Treacherous weather forced the Phoenix Park to close, so Dmytro had to find other spaces to complete his marathons.
He said: “Given the constant stress on the feet for the first few weeks my toes were covered in blisters.
“At one stage, I had to cut a bit of my big toe just to make sure there’s no infection there.”
DAY BY DAY
While Dmytro did question his goal at times, he remained focused taking it day by day.
He said: “The way I approached this entire thing was ‘I can just do one more day’.
“‘l just do that one day and I can look at the other marathons after that. Just do one at a time.”
He is set to finish the last 42km in the Phoenix Park this Sunday.
Dmytro said: “This one [Sunday run] is going to be special.
“So the big one was Project 555 [ultramarathon] in October, which was the length of Ireland, from Mizen to Malin Head, over the course of 5 days. So for that one, I had a 20 week training period.
“For 50|50 I only had a two week prep.
“It was actually kind of bizarre because when I started thinking of that [Project 555] challenge I’d never run a single ultramarathon before, so I didn’t know what I’d be able to do.
“Then during the course of the challenge, I ran 570 kilometres in the course of five days. So I very much surprised myself on what I can physically do.
“Hence why I was comfortable going into this challenge.”
FINISH LINE
He only had a two week training period for the final challenge but threw “right into it”.
Dmytro has spent the past week running marathons every day from 8am to 1pm.
He added: “I just want to say a huge thank you to all the people who support me.”
This Sunday a group of runners will take on the last 4 km with him, from the Phoenix Park to the lululemon store on Grafton Street, and cheer him on as he crosses that finish line.
He has already raised over €5000 for the Irish Cancer Society and anyone wanting to do so can do it on his GoFundMe.
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