Kevin Leahy, 36 of Killarney, Ireland had just finished running the ultra race of his life, the 2022 Montane Yukon Ultra Marathon in Whitehorse. The race began Feb. 3 at approximately 10:40 a.m. at Shipyards park in Whitehorse and ended Friday. Leahy finished the race in second place behind fat biker Jessie Gladish, but first among those on foot.

The Star spoke with Leahy last Friday following the race.

“I was happy. Very tired legs, and emotionally tired, but overall happy, delighted to be finished and delighted to have been the first foot racer across the line,” stated Leahy.

“I didn’t really let my pace down throughout the race so I ended up being 18 hours ahead of the next finishers. I was happy with that, considering the race was only six days.

“I pulled out pretty quickly. I would say in three or four kilometres I was clear of all but one guy who was doing the 100 mile,” he added.

Leahy had run the Yukon Ultra 100 before in 2020. He usually runs 100 mile races, mostly in Ireland.

“I’ve done a little bit of adventure racing as well. It’s a multi-discipline sport. Hiking, kayaking, and running.”

Leahy felt pretty good after the race.

“My knees took a bit of a hammering – like my patella tendon – my knee was quite sore. But my feet held up pretty good. So not bad.

“The next day I was kinda walking pretty much straightaway. I thought I’d be sore for a few days, but give it two or three days, I think I’ll be back to normal.”

As for how he was feeling last Friday, “good ... probably a bit of a hangover, but it’s self-inflicted.”

Now it’s rest and recovery for Leahy.

“I get a massage, do some light running next week I think ... but pretty much ‘r and r’, because I’ve got another race in Sweden in three weeks. So this is kind of, recover from this as quick as possible, let the body take over and go again.

Mentally, it’s about the same.

“I’m just trying to do nothing. I’ll have to go back and do a little work – I’ve got two businesses in Ireland ... so I can go and get that done and just take a little break, and in a about a week, week and a half, start building back up again for the next challenge in store.”

Leahy has run a hostel/coffee shop, the Black Sheep Hostel, in his home town of Killarney for five years.

What did you think of your race?

“Overall, great. Totally enjoyed it. I had a negative period after about 25 hours ... but once I got through that, I kind of flipped it, and I really enjoyed the rest of it. There was times that it was long, and it took me long to get to checkpoints, but overall it was a great experience. Gave me a bit of a hunger to come back and do the 430 one and go further north, because we almost got to Mandanna Lake, and we were getting into the mountains, and the scenery was just amazing. So I still have a hunger to go all the way to Dawson some time.”

Leahy explained the negative period.

“I hadn’t slept yet and the snow ... I suppose I got a bit overwhelmed by the size of the challenge I’d set myself. Not just one 500 km race, but two 500 km races. Sleep depravation, the snow and my pace breaking snow ... so a few things kind of compounded on me.

“You either crumble and drop out of the race, or you flip it around and you keep going. You persist. So I had to battle with myself to get through that, but once i did that, I was very happy and kind of overcome the negative thoughts that had been going through my head. I knew from then on, I was going to be good,” he recalled.

Leahy had to battle to keep going.

“Controlling what’s going on in the head ... which voice to listen to. Don’t listen to the negatives. Just focus on the facts, and the facts were I was winning the race. I was ahead of all the 100-milers. I was physically still strong and I couldn’t snore forever, so I said just focus on the facts and just do the simple things. Look after my body and eat and stuff like that. I got through that period and slept and once I did that I was good to go.”

He had to push the other race into the back of his mind.

“That was part of my refocus. Like, ok, ‘don’t be thinking’ about the 1,000 kilometres, just focus on getting to the next checkpoint, break it down into bite-sized chunks. When I was doing the negative thing, I was thinking too much about how much I had to go, but when I was able to put it back, and think about smaller steps, then it got easier.”

Leahy was surprised by the effect the snow had on the race.

“The snow was harder than what I thought. I hadn’t thought snow would make life so difficult ... that was an oversight I suppose.

“Cause of the softness and just pushing though it. It shouldn’t have been a surprise, but I suppose it felt like it was.”

He had snowshoes, but “I didn’t put them on. I didn’t think it was deep enough. On hindsight, some people did have them on. I should have put them on to try them, but I didn’t.”

When asked if he would try them next time, Leahy replied, “If there’s a couple inches of snow, just put them on for a couple of kilometres, see if it’s ‘ok, is this the depth that I should wear them or is it not?’”

Leahy wasn’t expecting it to be that warm.

“No. That made the pulling harder. The snow was softer.”

Leahy wasn’t alone on his journey. “Larry the Leprechaun” a stuffed toy, was with him every step of the way.

“Larry had a great time. He didn’t help at all. He often tried to jump out of the pulk (sled) and get dragged along the snow. But overall I think he had a good time. He enjoyed some beers with us last night as well.”

There is, of course, a story behind Larry.

“I’ve been to the Yukon three times and got to know Dona (Novecosky), who owns the hostel, very well. So on the second time I was coming over, I picked up Larry – a little souvenir from Ireland – just over for her. And then she said he wanted to do the race, so I brought him on the 100 mile run I did last time and now of course he was going to come with me this time.”

You’d think Leahy would have wanted to sleep for a week after the race, but that was not the case.

“Just went for some beers with Adrian (McCarthy, an Irish documentary film maker who is following Leahy around). It can be hard to unwind. You got a lot of adrenalin going through ... I slept for like an hour and half, and got up and talked to my family and friends and had a few beers in the Dirty Northern.”

Everyone at home was pretty happy for Leahy.

“Yeah, there was big celebrations at home.

“I suppose you are representing Ireland. When you finish it, you’ve got an Irish flag – you are representing Ireland. It’s nice to be doing something positive, like Aodh (O Currain), the other Irish guy, came in just a couple days ago, so ... Ireland won the ‘nations cup’ in the Arctic (Ultra). We didn’t know each other, but I have a funny feeling we’ll go on a lot of adventures together.”

“We’re talking about a crazy idea that you can kayak from Greenland up to the Arctic, and across the Arctic,” he added.

“With this endurance stuff, it’s a mindset. We both have the right mindset to ... be able to handle something like that and you can practice kayaking. You can just train for it. Once you’ve got the mindset, you know you can do these things, you can do anything. And we’re both up for a mad adventure.”

As far as how he’s feeling about participating in the Lapland Arctic Ultra in Överkalix, Sweden on March 6, “I feel OK about it. I’m confident enough I’ll make the start line and see how I go from there, but at the moment, I think I’ve got my head around it and confident enough. I’m not stressing about it at all.”