David Rock did the Belmullet to Dublin charity cycle last August - here is how he got on ...
Belmullet to Dublin 16 & 17 August 2008.
Left on Friday afternoon for the long drive west. Seen this guy which I can only describe as Brian from the Life of Brian
getting on the bus with a guitar. What am I letting myself in for says I. Before we took off he asked us all to pause and say a prayer
before we left. I Thought to my this reminds me of being dragged to Knock al them years ago, closely followed by the episode
of Fr.Ted with Graham Norton in the Caravan. After another 5 decades and an extended version of he’s got the whole world in his his hands
and the rain pouring down outside we reached Crossmolina our stopover point. From here had another 36 miles to
drive to the start on Saturday rain still belting down. The mood was’nt good I can assure you but I remained upbeat.
Belmullet to Strokestown 98 miles.
Thankfully as we departed Belmullet an hour behing schedule the rain eased off, The First 20 miles was overcast,
But we had a tail wind yipee.With a lot of surface water, but the roads we quiet and the scenery made it worthwhile.
Our first day was 98 miles with a stop evert 20 miles. The support was good,
a Ms. Doyle type filling us with mugs of tay and sandwiches. The levels were mixed.
I could’nt see some of these guys finishing if it were not for the improving weather conditions.
The roads were’nt bad at all. We took in Bellacorrick, Ballina were we had a police escort, Swinford and Ballaghadeeran,a
place I never heard of before, were there were volunteers along the way with buckets collecting and cheering us on.
we reach Strokestown at 6:00pm making up time and just before the sky’s opened up.
Had a good overnight, got in a few scoops in the Percy French Hotel,
who put on a lovely meal for us. Hung out in the bar for a while and got a great reception from the locals.
Strokestown To Good Counsel GAA Club, Drimnagh Dublin 85 miles
Took off at 9:30am Sunday morning on what turned out to be a dry day all day with the temperature riseing
as we rode our luck. Again we took 20 mile breaks at Longford, Covert, Kinnegad and Kil*censored* before reaching
Drimnagh bang on time at 5:30pm to a rousing reception.
As you can see this was by far from race pace stuff, but it was goo to get in the milage and help out a great cause.
and the good news is you can still contribute something as there is still some room on one of my sponsorship cards and I look forward to seeing you at DCT 08 this weekend
PiranhaTri
http://www.piranhatri.com/article.php/20080820130625369