Two incredible Donegal women run 618km over 3 provinces, 8 counties and raised over €30k for three deserving charities

Two women have completed a 618km run across three provinces and eight counties and in doing so have raised over €30,000 for three deserving charities.
Julie McMullin and Loretta Cullen took on the challenge to support three special charities in memory of their mothers. Both women lost their mothers to cancer so they decided that the proceeds from their challenge would go to The Donegal Hospice, The Northwest Hospice and the Irish Cancer Society.

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The two women who reside in south Donegal are well acquainted with tough sporting challenges.
Julie said that they are delighted to have completed the challenge and “absolutely thrilled” to have exceeded their €30,000 target.

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Julie said that there were times when they were just blown away by the support.
“When we passed through Ballyshannon on Saturday we were blown away by it, really - myself and Loretta weren’t aware of the attention it was getting,” she said adding that Ballybofey was similar.
Julie said that she and her friend had not been tuning into social media. Their aim was to rise in the morning and run until 10pm that night.

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They had no idea how many people were following their run or how much attention it had garnered on social media platforms.
The journey brought its own challenges, Loretta battled stomach and breathing issues while on Saturday Julie felt she had hit rock bottom.
“For me, the most difficult part was on Saturday night, I felt I had a really bad two hours. I just felt like I couldn’t go on. I just had no energy and I just don’t know, hit rock bottom, I suppose really. That is bound to happen, so I was lucky it only happened once to me,” she said.
Julie said that you employ different strategies to beat the feeling and listening to the radio through earphones helped her.

They reach the finish line 

“It wasn’t easy you know, it really wasn’t easy,” Julie said of the 618km run.
However, Sunday morning was a new day and the two women knew that they would finish their challenge that day.
Shortly after 10pm they completed their journey among family, friends, crew members and supporters.