Hello and welcome to week nine of the Irishman Running Abroad Half Marathon Challenge.

Sonia Sullivan is in RTE at the moment recording her commentary for the marathon at the European Championships.

So a bit of an unusual episode this week in that we'll start with Ashtling and Neil, our team captains on the line and we'll welcome

Sonia onto the live line shortly. We've some big news from Ashing. She's been navigating

something truly extraordinary and terrible, but happily there is a good ending to it. So let's get to it.

It's this week's episode of an Irish man running abroad.

Sullivan testing the Portuguese. You know, I like to be fit and healthy, so the best way I know is to just get out there and run.

Running was an outlet for me to, I guess, feel good about myself and take out some of the angers that were going on in my life.

Neil and Ashling are two squad captains.

As we go into week nine, doesn't it feel like the maddest journey?

Doesn't week one feel like an eternity ago?

Oh yeah. Ashling, you've, do you want to explain one feel like an eternity ago.

Oh, yeah.

Ashling, do you want to explain to people what you've been dealing with in the last little while?

Yeah, yeah, there is me swat enough around to do my 14K and sunny west of France and all of that and then I got the dreaded phone call from home where you know

something's wrong and you know you'll get the whole like I got this ash call back and I'm like oh

I'm on holidays so there's something wrong and dad had a heart attack and I jumped on the first

airplane and left spirits andits and flew home.

Thankfully, Ryanair did a cheap flight in a couple of hours and I got home.

And yeah, and we had a week in and out of ICU and all the rest of it, not sure if he's going to make it.

And thank God, because we had a defibrillator on our home that saved his life, he's going to be,

he's going to have a long journey, but he's going to be fine. And I'm staying here with my

...