Paddy O'Leary

Paddy O’Leary is a trail and ultra runner, cancer biologist, community leader, film producer and former international lacrosse player living in San Francisco, California. He was born and raised on a dairy farm in southeastern Ireland, where he spent his youth playing team sports, riding horses and running around the local hills, and often being the nerdiest lad in his school. During his college years, he had a successful international lacrosse career which included captaining the Ireland national lacrosse team to a European Championships final and silver medal in 2012. Paddy moved from Dublin to San Francisco for a postdoctoral research position at UCSF in 2013, and it was here that his sporting life took quite an interesting turn.

In San Francisco, he discovered the closely knit Bay Area trail running community and took up trail running in 2015. Paddy quickly found his role in the community as a co-leader for free fitness group, The November Project, which he led for 4 years, solidifying his passion for community involvement and increasing accessibility in athletics. He found almost immediate success in trail running after discovering the sport—winning his first race as a relative unknown, and establishing himself as an elite ultra runner. He joined The North Face team in late 2016 as not only an elite trail runner but as a leader of their former collaborators, the November Project. Since then, he has raced across five continents for The North Face and the Ireland national team (his second sport representing his country), placing in some of the most competitive trail races in the world across the Ultra-Trail World Tour, Skyrunning Series and the WMRA Mountain Running World Cup. Paddy is known on and off the trails for his cheerful Irish banter, those sparkling blue eyes and his devotion to the trail community.

Paddy has held the Fastest Known Time at the 26 peak Wicklow Round, which is featured in his award-winning documentary film Coming Home - Ag Teacht Abhaile (link: https://vimeo.com/406878212). The film not only highlights his attempt at the Wicklow Round, but also his discovery of the passionate trail running community of Ireland. Through running, he has developed a love for storytelling through film. Working with his friends and collaborators at Dooster Film, their most recent project highlights the contrasting urban and natural spaces within San Francisco’s 49 square miles, Urban Oasis - A love letter to San Francisco (link: https://vimeo.com/721214409).

Balancing elite trail running with his full-time job in medical research, Paddy is a passionate advocate for better communication, outreach and storytelling across the sciences and his sport, whether that be about his work as a molecular biologist or advocating for protection of our wild spaces.

Accomplishments:

• 1st place, Tahoe Rim Trail 55K, 2015
• 1st place, Canyons 100K, 2016
• 5th place, The North Face Endurance Challenge 50 Mile Championships, San Francisco, 2017
• 3rd place, Chuckanut 50K, 2018
• 6th place, Lavaredo 120K, 2018
• Marathon personal best of 2h 20m 37s, 2018
• Former Wicklow Round FKT holder of 16h 27m 20s, 2019
• A hard fought 26 hour and 45th place at UTMB 170K, 2019
• 1st place, The North Face Endurance Challenge Chile 50K, 2019
• Top 10 finishes at the Hong Kong 100K and Ultra Trail Cape Town 100K, 2019
• 2nd place, WMRA Seven Sisters Skyline 30K, 2022
• 2nd place at the historic Dipsea Race, 2022
• 1st place, World Ride and Tie Championships, 2016. P.S. We do recommend that you Google this sport. Two people, one horse, 30+ miles of technical single tracks. Wild stuff!