Nearly there

It’s the last of the 14 days of Cycle Against Suicide, and my 13th day on the bike after missing one day out for work. We’ve come from Belfast to Malin Head to Mizen Head and back up the midlands spreading the message “Everyone feels shit sometimes and that’s ok. It’s also ok to tell someone” (alright, alright, the official version is “It’s ok not to feel ok, and it’s absolutely ok to ask for help”) 🙂

This year on the cycle I’ve felt more of an undercurrent of negativity than last year. That’s partly because of pretty nasty weather conditions, and I think partly due to organisational issues – there’s a lot of familiar faces missing. But even with that bit of negativity going on, the message is way too big, too positive and that steamrollers over everything.

When the long orange Cycle Against Suicide train rolls into town the local Continue reading “Nearly there” →

West Cork

  We stopped in Bantry after a very long day – 128km from Tralee to Kenmare to Bantry with around 1100m of climbing including a single, gradual 14km climb from Kenmare up through the Caha Pass. It was very cruel to give us two final and fairly serious short climbs at the very end in Bantry – one of them was 11 degrees! But the massive welcome we got coming through the town spurred us on up these – it was absolutely amazing with so many people cheering us on from the square when we arrived into the town centre proper.

Every person who gives us a clap or a cheer, every car driver that beeps as we pass, every truck driver that gives us a deep blast from the air horn, they make it so much easier Continue reading “West Cork” →

Halfway there

We’re in Tralee and halfway around our 1400km journey. Last night a few pints were had in Fels Point Hotel, and there was a pretty serious karaoke competition – serious in quality terms at least, it was a fun evening. 

I limited myself to 3 pints and a relatively early night because today is going to be tough. We have a very hilly spin down to Bandon, Co. Cork, include long uphill drags (one is 14km apparently). With a nasty headwind like yesterday that could be a tough slog. 

Yesterday was tough in some ways, in the morning I heard that Continue reading “Halfway there” →

Limerick

I got my bag back about 30 minutes after posting yesterday’s blog post! The system works: one of the crew noticed the bag in the morning and dropped it over to the night bag truck. I was very glad of it as I could put on long cycling trousers instead of the thin summer shorts – with that weather I needed them!

Even better, Anne-Marie and her brother, David, came up to cheer us on at the start. She brought a goodie bag for me in case I hadn’t my own bag back, awesome stuff. She’ll be joining us in Cork after finishing some exams and will be with us all the way up to Dublin 🙂

Yesterday was a dreary wet day, but a fairly easy spin from Birr to Limerick. I had some tricky mechanical issues that stopped me Continue reading “Limerick” →

Bilbo Bagless

As I mentioned yeterday, I was under time pressure in the morning. I arrive late into St Mel’s in Longford, the orange train was getting ready to leave the station. 

I had been wearing my big rucksack while pedalling furiously into town from the B&B, so I looked for Doreen’s day bag van to chuck it into. I saw a van with the CAS logo, the side door was open and there were a few bags in there so in went mine, and off I went to join the cyclists. 

8 hours later I discover my mistake: Continue reading “Bilbo Bagless” →