‘Have Tyre, Will Travel: Brian Bell, Ultra Runner’, a one-hour radio documentary was broadcast at 12noon on Monday 1st June 2020 on LMFM.
Brian Bell has experienced the world in a way that many of us could never even imagine. From the Amazon jungle to the top of the Himalayas and from the Arctic to the Sahara desert, he has taken part in some of the world’s toughest challenges. Taking up ‘Ultra Running’ a little later in life, he has successfully completed challenges in all four Ultra Running environments; Hot (Sahara Desert), Cold (Arctic), Altitude (Himalayas) and Jungle (Amazon).
Already a familiar face to many running across the Cooley Mountains while dragging a tyre strapped to his back, this 1-hour radio documentary explores the man behind ultra-challenges, as we accompany Brian on training sessions and races and seek to understand the motivations of a man who is determined to be anything but ordinary, while examining the effects these challenges can have on the body with the assistance of Michael McCorry, Lecturer in Human Performance from Dundalk Institute of Technology.
Despite having already achieved so much in the ultra-running and endurance arena, Brian is not resting on his laurels and while the Gran Trail Couramayeur in Italy and the and UTMB in the Alps have both been cancelled this summer, Brian is staying closer to home with the 50K Seven Sisters Skyline Race in Donegal in August and the 200K Kerry Way Ultra Marathon in September, a single-stage self-sufficient race.
The documentary was funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television Licence Fee.
