Three merry souls (Hilary, Jackie and I (Shea)) headed outbound from Dunboyne @ 7.30 last Sunday for the ‘centre of Ireland – Athlone’ with eager anticipation for the day ahead. We joint our fourth member of the F4L team (David) outside the hotel and we all set off for the start line. We agreed (Yes Alan & Mick, we do listen) to take it nice and gentle for the first 2/3 miles and try to keep together if possible. The first 5/6 miles flew by; comments (lies) and support from locals, ‘it’s only a slight drag’ ‘you’re nearly there’ kept us going along with the very generous supply of water, cake, fruit and sweets throughout the race. Initially we spent a considerable amount of time educating Jackie on country life, Jackie’s knowledge related to what she seen on Sky Atlantic which heavily influenced her view. While we explained the different breeds of cattle (Friesian, Charolais (pronounced Charlie’s according to Hilary), Limousin, etc.), Jackie spent most of her time avoiding the country fertilizer on the roads with her new pink runners while also whining about the different farmyard smells. Hilary on the other hand, loved the hills and by Jesus was there hills, we would find Hilary at the top of each doing jumping jacks and shouting ‘come on’ while we crawled up. By the time we got to mile 16, it became quite obvious to David and me that we were the weaker sex here; we felt that we were on Davey Fitzgerald’s team for Ireland fittest family except we had two Davey’s (Hilary & Jackie) on our team, pushing us on. Coaches may state that fitness is the key, however we (David & I) are inclined to disagree and feel that ‘fear’ will make you do anything. While Jackie and Hilary waited for us to the end, they took this time to freshen up (another Bobbi Brown moment…) to ensure that they looked great (which they certainly did, it only took three takes to get that photo) and we all crossed the line together.
Ignorance is bliss, if we had known how hilly (always upwards) we may have taught twice about this event, but in the end we were all delighted that we came, saw and climbed leaving us in better shape for the final assault on the 26th Oct.
