Evan Scully has worked with over 100 Olympians, with an impressive tally of 33 medals, and the Navan-based running coach and therapist recently set out to break his own marathon personal best in Paris.
Working off an 18-week training block, Scully was looking to break three hours for the first time, and in fact, was looking to complete the gruelling course in sub 2hrs 50mins.
However, with just over four kilometres remaining, the Paris course hit some unwelcome gradient, and two kilometers further closer to the finish, another hill confirmed that he would not be hitting his target - eventually coming home in just under 2hrs 52mins.
And yet, Scully, who has worked with Olympic 1500m champion, Taoufik Makhloufi from Algeria, the Nike Oregan Project, and Olympic medalists from Kenya, Ethiopia, Tunisa, USA, and Britain knocked 18 minutes off his personal best and secured a European record in the process.
Scully was born with cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease effects the lungs and digestive system as well as several other organs, and his parents were told that he was unlikely to live past ten years old.
Now approaching his 37th birthday, five years older than the Irish life expectancy, Scully's recent lung function test was the highest it has ever been.
"My first marathon, I got to 23 miles, and I didn’t run out of fuel or I didn’t hit a wall, I ran out of salt," said Scully, speaking on the RTÉ Running Podcast.
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"And for anyone who doesn’t know what cystic fibrosis is, it’s a salt regulation problem, but people know it as a lung disease – which it is – but at a cellular level, it is salt regulation. So I don’t retain any salt.
"So this is where Precision Fuel came in whether they have really strong electrolytes, so if you are a heavy salt sweater, they can tailor it for you," added Scully, who secured the European CF record with his Paris time.
"I used that for this build up and this marathon but also this new medication for CF (Kaftrio) helps as well, because that controls salt regulation.
"My lung function, two weeks ago, was the highest it has ever been. Statistically. in Ireland the life expectancy is 32, and I’m 37 next month, but it’s going up and up, and that is down to a few things, like the running that I do, but also the Kaftrio over the last two years."
"I think you’re looking at about €140,000 per person," added Scully, in relation to the costs of the Kaftrio treatment.
"This drug is taking people off transplant lists so its going to cost way more than €140,000 per person for someone [to stay] in hospital on so much drugs with so many IVs."
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