I woke up shivering. It turned out the spot we had chosen was quite exposed to wind which resulted in us getting nippy over the duration of our 5-hours sleep. We had given ourselves an extra 30 minutes to sleep and arose to scattered clouds and a cold wind and set off rather glumly it must be said. We just got on with the day’s riding ahead of us, with Jack struggling to wake up, but importantly with no immediate knee pains from the previous night’s incident. After a single heavy rain shower (only our second), the day opened into a cloudless day and as we would find out the next day, we would get quite sunburnt from the day. The wind that was blowing would be a head wind for the majority of the day with only a few sections where it would become a crosswind, but we had expected to encounter headwind for most of the race as we were cycling right into the prevailing wind direction, so there was no way it could be avoided over the duration of the race.
We came across a public toilet beside Easkey Castle, which I was quick to utilise, and we carried onto Ballina where we grabbed some breakfast and supplies and proceed to get on with the brunt of the day’s riding. While we did stop for larger meals where possible, we were continually snacking from the moment we left Dublin until the end of the race in Kinsale. As we were burning around 5,000 calories a day, even the larger meals (if they can be called that) we ate weren’t enough to keep us going. As a result, every 20 minutes or so, you would eat a snack, generally consisting of what the previous shop had offered. Managing what you eat is probably one of the most critical aspects of an ultra-endurance event, you can have a strong engine (legs), but if it isn’t fuelled (fed), you’re not going anywhere. And it’s not a simple case of just getting calories in. Over a single day-long ride, you can eat junk like coke and chocolate bars and get by, but over 10 days, you have to eat good-quality and nutritious food. So generally, I would stick to fruit, cereal bars, smoothies, egg-based sandwiches and rolls, and milk. I would also have Lucozade throughout the day, to keep my electrolytes up, and plenty of water, as much as you could get in. With this strategy, I never had any stomach issues throughout the race and never suffered any severe bonks.
We proceeded along the Céide Coast which was impressive, before turning inland towards Achill Island, Ireland’s largest Island which we would be circumnavigating, at one point we came across a sheep block, and had to wade our way through the woolly throng, before setting off through the Inagh Bog, straight into a headwind. Once we had gotten through the barren bog, we came back onto the coast and proceeded to cycle through village after village that were ghost towns. For whatever reason, whether it was holiday season, or an emigration problem, we struggled for a while to find anywhere to get some liquids. After eventually finding a shop on a major (for the area) crossroad, we came over a hill and we saw Achill Island before, making us believe we had made good progress. It turns out it wasn’t Achill Island, and we kept coming around peninsulas or hills and saying that must be Achill Island, only for it to not be. This got extremely frustrating after a while and somewhat demoralising, until we put it from our minds and just got on with it, we’d get there when we get there.
At about the 210km distance marker, Jack’s Knee Syndrome hit again with Jack being debilitated by it. It was 21:00 at that time so similar to the previous day, we said we’d aim for our 235km minimum and call it a day. Given we’d had headwinds all day, we weren’t too dismayed by this mileage and knew we had put in the effort. We came onto the Great Western Greenway, Ireland’s longest off-road cycling and walking pathway, and followed it around the Corraun Peninsula before crossing over a bridge and finally arriving at Achill Island. After 20km on the Island and Jack being worse for wear, we got a Dugort Beach and, after checking the weather which said there was heavy rain due in 30 minutes, we said we’d stop. We saw a campsite and had the bright idea of trying to get a free pitch if possible and playing the weary traveller card. There was a man at reception to whom we explained our predicament, and he said not a bother, just pitch up and we’ll settle up in the morning. Having not really got our angle, we explained that we’d be up and gone by 04:30 and that we would just go on and find a spot down the road, and at that point he got what we wanted and told us to pitch up beside the reception area. So we ended up with a nice little corner of manicured grass all to ourselves, oh the luxury.
Distance (km): 229.16
Elevation (m): 2,020
Moving Time (hh:mm:ss): 12:14:36
Elapsed Time (hh:mm:ss): 17:36:33
Moving Time Percentage: 75.63%
Average Speed (km/h): 18.7
Calories: 4,935
Average Heart Rate (bpm): 107
Strava Link: https://www.strava.com/activities/2437742074
