Niall Breslin launches Marathon Mind on Where Is My Mind? podcast

Niall Breslin is launching a unique and ambitious project on the Where Is My Mind? podcast that will document the journey of four individuals as they train for one of the most testing of all endurance events, a marathon.

In 2021, alongside a team of passionate professionals, Niall will be coaching, training and mentoring four individuals to complete a 26.2-mile marathon. The aim of the series is to train the mind to make the body strong, not the other way around – and to invite listeners to join on their own journey, too.

Previously, Niall undertook a similar challenge through the hit RTÉ TV show Ironmind, told those stories, and had a massive national impact on the conversation around mental health and emotional well-being. He is now revitalising this format and taking it to a deeper level for a podcast audience, with personal stories and journeys at the centre.

Marathon Mind will bring together four individuals, each with their own unique challenges in life, to go on a nine-month journey to complete 26.2 miles of mental, emotional and physical endurance.

Niall will be with them for every step, including the marathon itself. Over the nine months he’ll be helped by an incredible team of focused and driven individuals, including Olympians and world champions. They’ll be supporting the individuals taking part every step of the way to work towards getting them across that finish line.

The Marathon Mind expert team consists of chartered psychologist Louize Carroll, mindfulness coach Niall Breslin, world champion and marathon coach Rob Heffernan, strength and conditioning and physiotherapy coach Colin Griffin, sports agent and athlete liaison Derry McVeigh, head of performance sport at the Irish Institute of Sport, dietician, Sharon Madigan, and behavioural neuroscientist and chartered psychologist Dr. Michael Keane.

After a lengthy selection process with over 800 applicants, the team of experts have selected four individuals with powerful personal stories.

Niall is making this full psychological, spiritual, and physical programme available on the Where Is My Mind? podcast, exclusively on Spotify, so that listeners can start their own journey too.

The marathon event itself will take place in November, with full details to be announced on the podcast and Niall’s social media over the coming weeks. Follow the Marathon Mind journey on social media at 'marathonmindofficial' on Instagram.

Speaking about using the podcasting platform for this project, Niall said: “I am constantly looking at ways of using the podcast platform in other ways, like using it in conjunction with multi-platform approaches… It’s the most exciting, dynamic and powerful medium in the world today in my eyes but I think we are only scratching the surface.

“Marathon Mind will be a challenge for me physically, but also a personal challenge in bringing my own podcast to another level of ambition not yet seen in Irish podcasting.”

This is an exciting new project for the Where Is My Mind? podcast, which has seen Niall and his guests explore different coping skills for the ever-changing, always-on, head-melty world we’re now living in, from nature to laughter to tattooing to brain surgery. The podcast won creative podcast of the year at the British Podcast Awards in July 2020.