The weather was great, mostly dry, not too warm and with only a light breeze.  There was good banter on the bus on the way to the start even though it was only 5am. The smell of a fellow participants banana sandwiches at that hour combined with nerves made my stomach turn. The sun rose, and the starting horn blared and off we ran off the beach, up the road and  then on to the grassy rocky famine path 13km along Killary harbour up to the kayaks. The views were great but with a rough surface underfoot more attention was paid to the terrain than the surrounding views. I'd to stop to retrieve my shoe after leaving it behind in a bog hole disguised as an innocent puddle.

A quick if not damp 1.6km kayak crossing led to a stony slippery beach. Apparently a few people capsized their kayaks on the crossing - poor guys wet for the rest of the day.  The kayaks led to a bog run/stumble and 3.5km onwards to the bikes at Delphi. After fixing a last minute mechanical problem with my bike, I headed off on the bike section and it was great, passing up the side of the Shifreys and the big climb of the day. It wasn't that bad and the downhill that came after was great to take a break from pedalling, dodging some sheep, and a chance to drink and eat some sugar.

I passed a friend who was out supporting along the cycle. It was great to see him. He offered to tow me along in his car, but while I was tempted I thought that I might caught and disqualified (joking!). A bit off road cycling lead up to the base of Croagh Patrick and for some the hardest part of the day. With jelly legs I headed off to the top, asking someone who was on the way down 'was I nearly there yet' much to the disgust of a competitor behind me who preferred not to know that there was a couple of hundred more metres of upward slog on loose rock to go. A quick descent followed and back on the bikes and more off road. A short section of running carrying the bike led to a steep downhill, terrified going around the bends, swerving around pot holes and a dash across the main road and back to the quays 12km away in Westport.

There was a good crowd out supporting the race in Westport. I thought the final bit would never come, we had to cycle past the finish line, drop our bikes and then force our tired bodies to run 500m back to the finish line. That was definitely the 'wall', with the brain telling the legs to do one thing, and the legs not being too polite telling the brain where to go with its request. 4hrs and 43 minutes after starting in Galway I finally finished in Westport. Delighted with myself and never wanting to see lucozade again for a long long time.

Roll on next year...