The Background:

The concept of Race around Ireland was formed by Alan Heary of the Navan cycling club after he organised a team of complete novices to second place in Race Across America in 2008. The inaugural Race Around Ireland was scheduled for September and as stated in the website.

In September 2009 an ultra marathon cycle challenge will take place in Ireland which will test your endurance, strength and mental toughness. Whether you are an elite or leisure cyclist you are invited to take part in and attempt to finish the toughest, and most gruelling cycling event ever to be held in Ireland . The Race Around Ireland is a time trial consisting of 1350 miles of open roads, over some of Ireland ’s largest mountains taking in magnificent scenery and passing some of Ireland ’s most famous landmark

After asking a lot of people three adventurous souls put their hands up to join me. The first two riders above and Karl Twomey an old friend of mine based in London.

The Plan

A breakdown of the course was designed for the riders utilising their various strengths. Karl and Henry are lighter all-rounders whereas myself and Derek are largers non-climbers. We split the course into sections allowing plenty of rest for riders and support crew by keeping the camper van stationary for as long as possible by using the geography of the course to our advantage. We practised our night riding, hour interval time trial stints stints and accepted that we’d only use one car as we couldn’t get a bigger crew. It’s recommended to use two cars or supports as well as a camper van to allow quicker changeovers between riders. We analysed our nutrition and stretching regime to ensure the best possible recovery between stints and the plan was coming together.

The Build-Up.

Karl’s father Tony had been ill for the last couple of months coming up to the race but unfortunately a week before deteriorated very badly. Karl flew home early to be with him and confirmed on Monday two days before the start that he was unable to race. I was gutted for him my thoughts were with the family who I grew up just around the corner. I had called to the house a few weeks previously and Tony was all talk of this race with plenty of questions and advice. Karl told me to get cracking and sort out another rider (and a crew member as his brother Brian had been slated to do that).

Derek came up trumps with Johnny Woods of Pulse tri an old mate of his( a 10hr 40 Ironman) and I found Tags, an old work colleague of mine just back from Australia not yet back to work.
 
We met in Skerries the morning of the race and headed down for registration bike and vehicle check and race briefing and to meet Johnny. To be honest the whole stress of the previous few days had me pretty tired so I chilled for an hour in the afternoon but soon the adrenalin kicked in and despite Jason’s best efforts I would not just sit down and shut up.
 
The van headed off up to Newry with Henry and Derek where Paul and Tags decided they wouldn't go to the cinema as they'd probably get a chance another evening. How little they knew.....
 
First night

Back in Navan we headed off fourth (teams set off at five minute intervals) with yours truly leading off with a police escort and within a few miles caught the team ahead, Team Tailteann. Noel Tonge wasn't too happy to be caught so passed me back soon enough. I knew we had a lot of racing ahead so I sat back thinking of the hills around the Boyne Valley and Cooley mountains. They took a wrong turn coming out Tullyallen so we passed them and Johnny took over at Monasterboice. He immediately looked very comfortable and we realised he is very aggressive and strong on the bike.

Another changeover at Dundalk and the climb up Cooley began. The original plan had Karl climbing as he's strong up the hills but not knowing Johnny at all I didn't think it was fair to throw hills at him, immediately. The surface of the road up Clermont Cairn was atrocious and some of the gradient brutal. I had cramp in both legs and my breathing was gone within a couple of hundred metres. I could actually heard Jason and Clubber laughing at me because I was so comically bad. I then saw a few bodies in the distance and realised it was the marshalls. Thank God ,the top! If only. It still went on for what seemed like miles but probably was half a mile.

Cycling hard at night is horrible I find especially on climbs. You can't see more that 20 yards in front of you can't even see into the distance how far the climb goes on far. And of course descending is treacherous and you have to take it easy-ish. I got down the other side safely and powered through to Newry. Johnny got back on through to the Hillsborough Road lay-by where the lads waited. They already had an encounter with the PSNI warning them of unsavoury characters around lay-bys in general. The lycra clad men in the campervan didn't seem worried and a fairly decent changeover set them on their way to Limavady at around 12.30 with Derek first up.
 
First morning

They arrived at 6.00 hot on the heels of An Post and we set off at a hard but not crazy pace. Derek had actually passed them on the road near Belfast but they had got back in front. Coming over the Foyle bridge we saw them in the distance and after a changeover after Muff (yes of course we had to make the standard jokes) we were no more than a couple of minutes down. We adjusted the changeovers so Johnny who obviously felt bad for me after seeing my climbing ability thought if he was to get home offered to do the main climb of the section , the Gap of Mamore. He had never actually heard of it and knew nothing of it but Jason and Clubber said nothing and let him work away. Johnny attacked the climb on his TT  bike like a lunatic , his gearing was all wrong but he just went for it. The club car was struggling so we went ahead of him. At 25% in places the climb can only be described as brutal but Johnny just fought it like a demon. We swapped over about 10 miles later and then went to Letterkenny for the next changeover.

Henrry and Derek took over from Letterkenny to Sligo and the van went ahead to my cousins pub in Grange Co Sligo where Johnny sorted us out with a lovely chicken pasta dish. My appetite at this stage was till pretty normal and I demolished about three portions.
 
I knew the route out of Sligo so as Henry arrived I headed off up the Ballina Road oblivious to the carnage in Sligo. Derek's hamstring was gone and he was heading home. Jason quickly took hold of the situation and my beautifully constructed schedule for 4 riders was discarded and a new one devised. The new schedule meant each rider would be doing longer stints to allow a longer break between stints. Clubber wasn't really in a hurry to break the news of Dereks demise to me probably fearing my reaction so he left saying anything for a good while. To be fair to everyone there was no negative discussions (Thoughts you'd have to ask the rest of the lads) and all suggestions were positive. Paul who has no cycling experience offered many potential solutions but unfortunately all of them were against the rules and would have led to our disqualification.
 
The new plan was hatched and relayed to the car. Again Clubber instead of coming straight out and telling me just told me that perhaps I should eat a bit more. Sensing he was holding back and I asked to just tell me what was going on and he explained the Plan B. Henry was going solo from Ballinrobe to Clifden where I'd take over from 1 till half five back to Oranmore. Then Johnny and Henry would tackle the next stage to Limerick together when I'd then go solo through to Tralee. Sounded tough on me I thought but then I realised I'd be resting when they both did the Ring of Kerry section so I kept my mouth shut.
 
Myself and Johnny had a pretty non eventful stint from Sligo to Ballinrobe bar getting lost coming out of Westport. Johnny to be fair stayed very calm and after three or four false starts we got going again. We probably lost about five minutes here but overall the navigation was brilliant.
 
The other problem that I realised soon after here was that now the van had to transport the riders and support crew for the car to Clifden as opposed to resting in Galway. This meant that the four hour rest scheduled here was gone and that Paul wouldn't be getting a decent kip (more than an hour and a half until Cork). The support crew and especially drivers being fresh is really important for the whole team especially as we often sleep in the van when it’s on the move. Also when we received the bill for the damage to the van for a new mirror and indicator we realised really we were lucky enough in comparison to what it might have been.
 
Second night

On the way to Clifden I got word that Tony had passed away that afternoon so I had a think about all the times he came to watch us play rugby over the years and remembering what a great lover of sport he was especially of his native Kerry. I had mixed emotions but thought that if I was to swap positions with Karl I'd want him to go out and do as well as we could.  RIP Tony 

We set off at about one for what I reckoned would be one of my hardest stints of the race. The surface wasn't great in many places but there were plenty of sheep and horses roaming the roads for company. A few of them wanted to race and Colm and Clubber reckoned I should have got a draft off them. Going up Lettercraffoe towards Oughterard I felt good and Colm was giving me distances and gradients on a regular basis. As we got to the top the lads had found Journey "Don't Stop Believin’" on the radio and kindly sang it to me into the radio. At the top at about half three I then got cold very quickly. With no paper in the car we improvised and used a pizza box to put down my top and Colm used all his piloting experience to guide me down in the dark using the GPS to tell me what turns were coming. I was very tired at this stage and of course never copped on that the GPS would not show gravel or potholes. Two hours sleep in two days really kicked in but Colm pushed me the whole way to Galway despite me querying their directions and getting pretty narky with them. When we arrive in Oranmore apparently I was tumbling about and babbling but I cannot remember. I force fed myself and fell asleep for two hours.
 
In the meantime the camper van had actually only beaten us to Galway by half an hour as the main Clifden Galway road was closed. Tags had talked Paul down from trying to assault the poor guy who gave then that news. Most of us were struggling with the tiredness now and all seemed to be acting drunk.
 
Henry and John headed to Limerick via the Burren while the van went straight down the main road.
 
Second Day

Limerick on Friday morning was tough as Colm and Clubber both had to head back to Dublin. We always knew they were going but still knew we would miss their humour and expertise. Tags moved into the car to start a 25 hour stint driving and navigating and I headed for Tralee by myself. The two hours sleep and breakfast roll made me feel much stronger but more than that cycling during daylight felt great. A non eventful cycle had me there in three or so hours and John and Henry set off into the Ring of Kerry with six nasty climbs.
 
Myself and Jason headed for Kenmare for more sleep and food in the pub his brother Mark worked in. We were getting word from home that we were now in fourth but we didn't see any other teams on the road.
 

Third night

Tags rang to order some food and himself, Jason and I went up the Caha pass. Tags was looking forward to what he thought was a burger and chips but when he opened the bag he realised Jason had only time to buy him a whole cooked chicken. Despite his protestations he demolished the chicken and even taunted me as I neared the top of the climb. Heading down towards Glengariff I had a very narrow escape with a fox and then we moved to Mizen. As we arrived Noel Tonge of Team Tailteann came out to say hello and seemed pretty shocked we were keeping away from them. As we left Mizen for Tobermore we met their cyclist coming in so I put the hammer down as I didn't want to be passed on the road.

I passed a solo on the road. I would have stopped for a quick chat as I have huge admiration for these guys but I was really afraid of being caught and wanted to give Johnny as much of a gap as I could before we changed over. I still feel a bit guilty for blanking him. Whenever I found the going tough I thought of them and realised how lucky we had it as a team. The fact that only four of the twelve solos who started finished showed how tough a course it was. They did not seem to get a much of a chance to recover between climbs and this might be something Emmet and Alan will have to consider for next year.

Johnny took over for the long stint to Kinsale and when I saw Paul I decided it would be best to sit with him to keep him company to Kinsale. He seemed to be okay but a little manic about the eyes and he had really taken to pushing the van to its limits on the road ignoring whatever noise might be coming from the cabin as ladders bodies and tubs of High Five were bouncing around. The highlight of this journey for me was watching Paul who is generally pretty unruffable lose all reason over the merits of using a GPS versus a map. We had no map but did have a GPS so I reckoned my logic would win through. After a while of muttering and guttural Donegal grunts I shut up and we got there eventually.

Johnny had a tough stint during the night and admitted he nearly fell asleep on the bike a few times, unfortunately one of these times he hit a pothole, punctured and knocked his aero bars out of line. Jason and Tags got working on the bike but Team Tailteann went by about two minutes ahead .

Third morning

In Kinsale Dave Russell joined us and added energy and enthusiasm to the next few stints. Having the daylight and a new face in the car gave us all a great buzz and the fact we were now in a race meant all the competitive juices were flowing. Henry took on the Cork section by himself and in Cobh Tailteann were a few minutes up. I headed off and immediately went the wrong way up a horrible hill. Dave and Tags realised were wrong but I pig headedly went on and got back on the route on a mile or two before where we went off. We figured it out and headed off but I didn’t realise that the lads weren’t sure if we were on the right road. I guess now they were probably afraid to tell me we had gone off but as Dave said he was never happier to see a rail bridge a couple of miles later.

Again I mention the navigation but on the entire race was it top-notch, we only went off course about three times and lost no more than five minutes each time. The lads always admitted quickly if they thought they were wrong and had a great system for the route with constant communication between driver and navigator on distances and confirming each landmark. The time I went off course while I was pissed off there was no way I was going to take it out on them and the humour the whole way round was always good despite some really tough times.

As we headed towards Midleton we got a great boost as we met Tailteann coming back down the road in the car. They passed us back in the car but we knew they couldn’t be far ahead. Coming into Youghal I could see them coming onto the main road and the far side of Youghal Henry took over only a couple of minutes down.

Over the radio I tried to tell Henry not to kill himself as we needed him for the climbs in Mahon and later in Wicklow but as I stopped talking to him I said to the lads in the car to watch him hammer it up to the guy in front. Henry is from Dungarvan and knows the road really well so he passed them on the way into the town. So much for not going into the red! Once a racer always a racer.

Another changeover saw Johnny and Henry going out on the road and having a great tussle on the road passing and being passed by Tailteann. I went ahead in the van to New Ross where my brother Keith joined us and Tags eventually got out of the car. Limerick to New Ross for twenty five hours stuck in that car was an amazing feat of endurance especially if you had got the smell in there.

We were still ahead and we decided we needed to try and do shorter sharper stints to keep pace getting towards the mountains. But we were not on the ball at our changeover and Tailteann passed us, I’m not sure if Jack had a grin or grimace on his face but he was going very well. Johnny kept them fairly close and then when I went on after a good break Brian Hefferenan didn’t look like he was sure where he was going and so I went for it and passed him. Johnny took over going up Mount Leinster and a much slighter Brian went ahead of him but Johnny just said over the radios he was keeping him close and then hammer it on the descent. Having seen Johnny descend I knew he'd stay very close to Brian.

Unfortunately he had some mechanical issues on the way down and we and to stop for two or three minutes. We swapped over two more times with Johnny bringing us into Aughrim within five minutes of Tailteann before the four climbs in the Wicklow mountains. Henry did the bulk of the work on this section going up Aghavannagh, Shay Elliot and Glenmacnass but going towards the Sally Gap he got really cold so I took over and on the descents coming from Luggala to Enniskerry. Tags did the rally coordinates again on the descents in the dark and we were still only about ten minutes down.

Fourth night

Johnny and Henry left Enniskerry about ten minutes down on Tailteann with Henry slated to do the first twenty miles of hills and then Johnny taking over in west Dublin as he knew the roads.

Myself Paul and Jason headed for Kilcock hoping that Tailteann might have some navigation issues as this was our only realistic chance of catching them. After 1000 miles of thirty three per cent more cycling and the same percentage less rest all of us were running on empty. I realised that I hadn’t had any real food since Kenmare thirty hours earlier and had only slept for one hour. I had only had High Five drinks protein shakes and a bit of chocolate so forced down some spaghetti bolognaise. After ringing the lads we realised we were not going to catch Tailteann so I fell asleep for about half an hour.

I was up for the last stint but could not get myself together. Everyone else was out ready to go and I was just not able to get moving in the van. My motor skills were totally shot and couldn’t put my radio in my pocket or the headpiece wire in its hole. I asked Tags but he fared worse than me. The last stint was uneventful apart from missing the turn in Summerhill and Henry joined me on the bike for the last few minutes but Johnny was not able to force himself back on the bike, which wasn’t surprising.

When I crossed the finish line I actually didn’t feel much emotion which was different to Ironman which I really enjoyed and milked to its maximum. Maybe because it was night-time and my missus ad kids weren't there or maybe I was just totally spent.

I had a hug with all the guys including Tailteann and we did photos and had a look around the race headquarters where the lads there looked atrocious in particular Emmet whose eyes looked like they were about to explode in his head. A diet of solely Red Bull and Coke will do that! It was great to meet him as we went around the stations. At first I really did hate him (Cooley) and the course he designed with his Dad but as it went on I looked forward to seeing him as we got closer to home he gave us great encouragement.

The Aftermath

Amazingly sleep did not come easy that night for me. I was unbearably cold despite layers of clothes and blankets and couldn’t stop shivering. I suppose this meant that I had put everything I had in on the road which is what I wanted to feel from this event. While at the time I was pissed off being down to three it never entered my mind that we would not finish. Paul and Eugene have admitted to me they really did not think we would get through with three but this was a private conversation between them and they never showed any sign of this concern to anyone else.

The event helped me learn a lot about myself with regard how much pain I can put myself how little food and sleep you need, I mean really need. Seven hours sleep in three days 25 hours on the bike for 470 miles and only about five what could be termed proper meals has made me realise you can really trash a body but it keeps on coming back for more. And of course while it is accepted that you have to reach a certain level of physical fitness really after a time it comes down to mental toughness. Dragging yourself onto the bike when it is the last thing you want to do due to the pain in your hands, back and arse knowing you are going to smack yourself again is a tough thing to do. I’ve always believed in the "If this was easy then everyone would do it" mantra and that kept me going on numerous occasions when I had to have a few stern words with myself.

However it was the first time since I played rugby that I realised how the pressure of being on a team makes you go harder than you might otherwise. When I saw the lads coming in off the bike looking like death, well Johnny anyway, it made me realise I couldn’t let them down, especially as it was my fault that they were there at all. The same applied to the support crew who I didn’t want to let down and I really did not want be passed on the road.

But the above being said we had some great fun and laughs. Tags calling Henry Nigel for the entire race and after a while us all doing it. Tags and Johnny having the same conversation five times in half an hour about the Italian solo rider pulling out. Hearing Colm and Clubber singing Journey on top of a mountain in the middle of the night in Connemara. Jason and his quote of "Noise is a form of Energy" quote to try and get me to shut up. Tags girlfriend Nicki being convinced Clubber and Tags were in the pub hammered when they rang because their words were so slurred due to sleep deprivation. Pauls quote of "Is that a sheep or a goat" on the Ring of Kerry. I’m sure the lads have their own moments and being in an extreme situation the humour is real example of having to be there to get it.

If Derek hadn’t gone I think we would have been comfortable in third (no offence Noel, Brian , Jack and Eoin) but not have pushed ourselves as much as we did. The competitive aspect of the last day really made it fly by and as I look back helped distract you from the pain. Would we have been able to get close to An Post or Prior Experience. I honestly don't think so. They had some cracking cyclists and were really well organised.

Would I do it again? Definitely as a racer or crew, but ideally with a bigger crew and another vehicle to facilitate quicker changeovers. The crew were worked too hard and we took too many chances when riders were left on the road during the day. If we punctured we would have lost time. I know some people have unfinished business with this race but I feel that for the racers and crew that finished gave it all on the road.

I’d also try to keep some element of control in the camper van with regard to storage and toilet facilities. By the end of the trip only people wearing nuclear bio-hazard suits should have been allowed enter it.

All the crew and racers have said they’d love to do it again and I suppose that’s the most important thing.
 
What was it like? I’ve been asked lots of times since it finished. The physical and mental suffering was awful but I loved it. It was harder than Ironman probably because it went on for so long. One of the Tailteann lads said Ironman was a walk in the park in comparison. One of the solos said it was harder than RAAM and while I haven't done stage racing the mental aspect of such solo time trialling would be very different. I swear the harder it got there just seemed to be a smile on Henry’s face that got bigger and bigger.

More than anything is a great sense of achievement and pride in myself and the whole team on really thriving on the adversity of the things that didn't go well for us in the lead up and during the race. Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves and getting the excuses ready we dug in and ground it out and we had a proper race. The sight of another cyclist ahead of you will always give you that little bit extra.

Two weeks later my second toes on both feet are still totally numb by back is really tight, I’m waking at least once a night trying to figure out where I am and when I’m due on the bike next and my wife tells me I’m talking in my sleep (which I rarely do) specifically trying to organise people onto the road for their next stint.

Well done to Alan Emmet Lorraine and all the crew for organising the race. And I want to thank the support crew and riders for taking a little chance of having an adventure and hopefully something none of us will forget for a long time.

Shaun

Swords Cycling Club