I
never
thought I would actually achieve anything in this sport. Nobody
was more surprised than me when I broke the Irish Ironman
record, when I dipped under 10 hours in
Hawaii
and was the first veteran to finish at IM
UK this year. I was particularly
pleased with my 15th overall, finishing nearly half an hour ahead of the next person in my
age group.
The
little success I have enjoyed has been primarily down to the help
and support of my wife Eimear and also the generosity and advice
of my brother Fergus and a few other friends in the sport.
It’s
not a cheap sport and to be honest I have been doing it on a
shoestring. Even so I
have achieved a standard where I am very competitive at an age
group level internationally. Although
I qualified this year (2008) to race World Championships in
Hawaii
again, the expense of travelling prevented me from competing. My
ambition is to return to
Hawaii
in the near future and be in a position to compete for an
age-group podium spot and finish high up the general
classification.
My
running and cycling are strong and despite exiting the water in
the
UK
in 255th place, I cycled and ran my way to a top 15 finish. I
crossed the line as 5th amateur and 1st veteran, coming in ahead
of nearly 1,500 other athletes. Obviously
swimming is my weakness and if I am to return to
Hawaii
and be a deal more competitive it is something I will need to
improve on over the winter.
A
little bit of sponsorship would be great and would certainly help
me achieve my goals. I would be delighted to talk to anyone about
what I may be able to offer a potential sponsor in return.
Feel free to get in touch at
chaospress
@ eircom.net, phone
053 9238964 or 0876403559.
Below
are links to some newspaper articles, my Ironman results and some
race reports that Triathlon Ireland asked me to put together. The
reports might give anyone unfamiliar with this sport an idea of
what it is all about- be warned they are a little long, but then
again so is an Ironman and no, we do not pull trucks!
