Nissan Kilmacud Crokes / Breast Cancer Ireland M2M 2026 Donie's Blog Day 2

M2M 2026 Day 2.

I totally retract what I said last night "handy 160k cycle". I thought because we were heading up through the Midlands it would be much easier. Boy was i wrong....up at 6 30,organised all the gear and get dressed for the days cycling. Down for  breakfast at 7 then back to room to collect gear and load in our van,then go back in,find bike and get it outside ready for 8am departure. I'd also arranged for Blue group to have a meeting at 7 50 to go through the details for today,as it was our first time together as a complete group,wasn't going to have the same problems as yesterday  !! First disaster of today,2 were late and 1 was so late he held up the departure of Yellow group who were leaving after us and us,obviously. 

Eventually we headed out the road,up the Killarney bypass, which we knew,but then we took a turn i didn't know.....Holy feck...straight up a hill as steep as the start of the Caha Pass yesterday, only 100yds long so not too bad but hard on yesterday's tired legs and combined with the early start today. After a 50yd downhill there was another up and another up and another up which went on for 20km till we had to stop to give one of the lads his medication as he was really struggling. He improved greatly after the "drugs" and we moved on with more and more hills till we got to Newmarket at 48k for our first coffee stop which nobody told me was in some community centre at the top of the village,so when we got to the top we went into a garage for coffee and scones !!

I got a bit of a slagging because the centre was free and we paid for our coffee in the garage !! Later Bomber,Yellow group,told me there was a massive climb up to the centre so we were actually better off in the garage. From here we had another 30k to Charleville GAA club for lunch. Guess what ? More bloody hills !! 80k to there but a really, really tough mornings cycling and we still had 80k to go. Having said that our group were excellent at the single file rotation system which saved a lot of energy and time. Beautiful soup and sandwiches in Charleville GAA club,looked after us really well.

When we were getting ready to leave one of our group members held us up at the last minute, ran by me saying he forgot to administer his Shammy cream....for non cyclists reading this,Shammy cream is essential on a trip like this and has to be administered....how will I put this?....inside the cycling shorts !! After a minute he returned from behind the van and was smiling from ear to ear,I said you look like you enjoyed that....he said,oh yes,this time I remembered to remove my cycling glove !!

Yesterday he was in such a rush he forgot which resulted in a very gooey glove all afternoon and a very sticky right handlebar on his bike !! Not allowed tell you who it was....but he's from Clare !!

Anyway 2nd half of the journey was much flatter and really enjoyable, we organised 2 coffee/ice cream stops to break the journey, first was in Bruff in Limerick, we found a lovely little coffee shop and all 11 of us sat inside, soon we were joined by our 2 van men and had the best coffee of the trip so far !! Girls in the shop even asked us to pose for a photo outside the shop for their Instagram  !!

As we progressed one of the lads dropped back to me and asked if it would be possible to make a stop in a little village along the way called Dromina, as his mum (with alzheimers) came from there,which we duelly did,photo attached. 

Strong possibility we might get to a village called Ballycumber tomorrow, where my mum was from  !!

We had a few punctures today,turns out Pat Halpin may not have been as generous as we thought lending Kevin his bike....back tyre was full of holes !! All sorted now so we might be even quicker tomorrow  !!

Today we did 161km with over 1,400mtr of climbing,11 and a half hrs out on the road.

Tomorrow we're heading  up through the Midlands,hopefully it will be a bit flatter than today and finishing up in Carrick on Shannon ,around 165k. Don't think any of us could face anymore hills.

Don't want to put the  Mockers on myself but feeling really good, a 125k and a 160k ,considering most I did in 6months training was 95k. Amazing what your body can do if you really push it !!

Kev and I have a few incredible people in Blue group,might elaborate on it as we progress,later in the journey. Struggling to  keep the eyes open now. Mark was quiet as a mouse last night but I know what's going to happen, the more he struggles in the faster group, the more he'll snore the hotel room down !!

Can't wait,talk tomorrow. 

Regards Donie.