Paddy O'Leary

About

Paddy O'Leary is an Irish trail and ultra runner, cancer biologist, filmmaker, and community leader based in San Francisco, California. Born and raised on a dairy farm in Wexford, southeastern Ireland, he moved to San Francisco in 2013 for a postdoctoral research fellowship at UCSF, where he is now a senior research specialist in the laboratory of Alan Ashworth at the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. A former international lacrosse player who captained the Ireland national lacrosse team to a silver medal at the European Championships in 2012, O'Leary discovered trail running in 2015 after arriving in the Bay Area — and found elite-level success almost immediately despite his late start in the sport. A The North Face athlete, he set the Fastest Known Time on the 26-peak, approximately 100-kilometre Wicklow Round in his native Ireland in 2019, completing it in 16:27:20 and breaking the previous mark by over 40 minutes — an effort documented in his award-winning film Coming Home — Ag Teacht Abhaile. In 2023 he won the 112th Dipsea Race, one of the most historic and prestigious trail races in the United States. He has also posted top-10 results at the Lavaredo Ultra Trail by UTMB, the CCC at UTMB week, and The North Face 50 Mile, and ran a 2:20:42 road marathon.

Notable Wins

• — Wicklow Round FKT 2019 (16:27:20)
• — Dipsea Race 2023

Race History