Tom McGrath

Tom McGrath is an Irish-American ultra-runner born around 1950 in Ederney, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, who has run over 200,000 miles to raise money for charities. In 1977 he broke the world record for the fastest crossing of the United States on foot, taking 53 days and seven minutes, a record that lasted three years, and that run earned him the nickname The Irish Forrest Gump. For five consecutive years he ran 1,000 miles around New York's Central Park for charity. In May 1991 he received the Jefferson award sponsored by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis for representing New York State for charity services. He has owned and run The Black Sheep, a bar in midtown Manhattan, since the 1990s, and he carried the Olympic torch for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. As a young man he played in two under-21 All-Ireland finals in Gaelic football, in 1970 and 1971.