Its been a while since our last post, but people have been training away and doing their best to attend the club sessions. The schedule hasn’t changed so with the longer evenings creeping in we look forward to seeing some new faces and some of the old faces that must have been in hibernation! The daffodils are out so that’s a sure sign that we should be in full swing!

If you have paid your membership and have not received an email from Darren Dunne with the schedule, please let me (Mary) know and ill ensure he has you on his magic list!

If anyone is interested in ordering gear please let me know. See if you can try on someone else’s to ensure you get the size right. They come from Portugal and the tend to be on the small side!

If you see a committee member over the next week or three can you give them your Kilkee entry money please. The accommodation search is still on!

The NTS is live on the Triathlon Ireland website. If any club member would like to enter please make sure you have someone to fill your spot on the marshal list.

https://www.triathlonireland.com/Events/Race-Calendar/

Below is a list of upcoming local runs for people to aim for. There will be plenty of action to choose from over the coming months with the roads within and outside of the county alive with various races.

24th Feb – Templemore 4 Mile

14th April – Killea 10 Mile & 5km

17th April – Loughmore 7.5km

22nd April – Borrisoleigh Mile

24th April – Cahir Run4Fun race

1st May – Dundrum 5km

5th May – Limerick Half Marathon

10th May – More Abbey Milers 4 Mile (Galbally)

12th May – Clonmel 10km

17th May – Poulmucka 5 Mile

21st May Templemore 5km

23rd May – Fethard 4 Mile

24th May – Touraneena 5km

31st May – Ballyskenach 5km

31st May – Carrick-on-Suir  Mile

3rd June – Moyne 10km

8th June – Clonmel 5km

14th June – Michael Cahill 5km (Ballingarry)

20th June – Dave Fogarty 4 Mile (Thurles)

23rd June NENAGH

25th June – Borrisoleigh 5km

3rd July – Dundrum 10km

6th July – Cahir Half Marathon

12th July – Clerihan 5 Mile

19th July – Canon Hayes 5km (Tipp Town)

26th July – Piltown 10km

28th July – Ballynonty 10 Mile

1st Aug – Clogheen 5km

25th Aug – Boston Scientific Half Marathon (Clonmel)

30th Aug – Moycarkey Coolcroo Road Races

We’re back!!! And with a bang hopefully….. So if you haven’t ventured out since Christmas then you could ease yourself back this weekend before the official start date of Monday Jan 14th.

There will be a cycle tomorrow morning at 9am from the leisure centre. There will also be a hill run up Coum on Sunday morning at 10am. Meet at the yellow bridge at 9:40 if you don’t know where to drive to.

Then the real torture officially starts on Monday. The usual plan applies, see below.

HOTW:

Please let me (Mary) know if you plan on doing Hell of the West this year on June 29th and if you require accommodation. I need to know ASAP.

Gear:

If anyone requires gear let me know. A payment will be required at time of order.

Ring of Clare:

There are a few people signed up for the Ring of Clare on July 27th if anyone else wants to sign up. There are limited spaces. Google it and it will bring you to the link.

CBS run:

The annual CBS 10k and 5 K run takes place on Sunday January 27th at 11am. Registration is at 10am.

Membership:

We are into our second training semester so if you have managed to sneak through the first semester with none please make sure to cover yourself by logging onto Triathlon Ireland and signing up.

Spinning:

John will send out the much anticipated text looking for names for the next round of Tuesday spinning sessions. It will be the same as the last time where registered members will be accepted on a first come first served basis. He loves creating a bit of suspense!

Wishing all our club members a very Happy Christmas and a swim/run/cycle filled new year!

For anyone who cant sit still and face another box of roses there is a 5k and 10k run on St.Stephens Day in the Silvermines organised by the GAA club and NJ’s fitness group. Both cost €10 and €20 per family. All proceeds go to support “Run for Josie” in association with Seamus Hennessey effort to raise €200,000 for Pieta House in memory of his mother Josie. Please try enter online in advance using the link below, to allow for smooth operation on the day.

VENUE- Silvermines gaa complex Dolla.

TIMINGS- Sign waiver 10-10.20am. 5k/10k  start 10.30am. There will also be an option to walk/jog any distance you desire on the track. Cost -donation of your choice.

https://clubifyapp.com/public/products/398/purchases/new

On Christmas Day there is the annual Christmas Day run in the CBS at 11am. Its a 3 mile road run open to walkers and cyclists! There will be a bucket collection for Nenagh Day Care Centre with spot prizes available.

Then on New Years Day Duharra Camogie Club have a 5K run/walk at 11am with registration at 10:15am.

Official club training starts back on January 14th. Enjoy the break!

Only one week until we get to tell Santy what our wish list is! Make sure to be in Una’s for 9pm next Saturday to be first in line! Clever has kindly offered pre-Unas drinks and nibbles so please let him know if you will be attending his house.

We only have 2 weeks of training left before turkey day so make sure to get out while you physically can! And don’t forget the savings you put away for membership! Thank you to everyone who has paid already.

Dublin City Marathon

For anyone interested in doing the Dublin city marathon next year Nenagh triathlon club will be running a training plan program. The plan will be a 16 week program following a 4 hour marathon pace. This will be suitable for anyone planning on running a time between 3hr 40min and 4hr 20min. If you have never ran this distance before and are wondering how to gauge if this plan is suitable for you, you would need to be able to run a 10k comfortably in 55 minutes.

The plan will consist of between 4 and 5 runs a week with the long run on Sunday mornings. The Sunday run will be between 10 and 20 miles. The weekday runs will be between 6 and 9 miles. The reason why we are giving so much notice is because entry for DCM is filling up fast. Last year it sold out in June but as this is the 40th anniversary it is expected to sell out in the early part of the New Year.

If you are interested in doing this event next year all you need to do now is register and attend the club running sessions. They will give you a good base for when the real training starts. If anyone wants to know more information about the plans for the marathon training just ask John Meagher at any of the club runs.

Masters Gala

The masters have their Gala on Tuesday at 8pm. This was great fun last year so please try and support it. With 50 and 100m sprints the pain will be over quickly!

Still looking for the Christmas ready body?? Then you have 4 weeks of running the roads, swimming lengths and cycling hills to get it! Speaking of said silly season, the club Christmas party is booked for December 15th. The venue is Una’s, specifically the kitchen, from 9 till 11 with finger food included. There is word of pre-drinks in Millersbrook but you need to contact the club social secretary for the secret password to gain entry!

The usual schedule continues until the break. Monday run at 7pm meeting on Dromin Rd where we do a few loops of the 3K so its suited for all abilities.

Tuesday has the morning swim at 6:30. That evening we still have spinning at 7 with a run off the bikes. All spin bikes are gone but you can bring your own bike and turbo. The masters swim is after that at 8.

Thursdays run at 7 on Dromin Rd is still on that 1k stretch.

Saturdays cycle is getting rave reviews, mainly restaurant and coffee shop reviews!! Worth a few torturous hills either way especially going by the brunches that are seen as a reward after the spin!

Sundays hill run up Coum has been supported by god as the weather has been picture perfect since it started. Well worth a trot up the hill on a clear sunny morning.

Membership: Thanks to everyone that has signed up for the club membership. For anyone that signs up as a couple please let me (Mary) know so I can manually add the second person. For the remainder of people who have yet to sign up, please make this a priority. We are over 6 weeks into training so its only fair to everyone that you are signed up and covered from an insurance perspective. Also, all our training sets are given to us by Darren, and now that he is a grown up, he isn’t free!

Dare I say it but…… its only 7 weeks until the man in red falls down our chimney! And I don’t mean a drunk Keith Butler! This means you could have 7 weeks of swimming, running and cycling if you are just new to the club or have been quietly watching our viber messages and facebook posts from afar! The weather has been more or less on our side so don’t let that scare you off.

Our runs continue to get good numbers on Mondays and Thursdays. Remember, these suit all levels as they involve loops on Mondays and then the 1k stretch on Dromin Rd on Thursdays.

I think people need louder alarms for the morning swims at 6:30am! Remember that the masters swim has changed to a Tuesday night at 8pm. Our spin and run session will remain on a Tuesday evening at 7pm. Keep an eye out on viber for updates about the second set of 5 weeks on this.

Saturday morning cycles have had a very important common denominator…… coffee stops! We do encourage everyone to give it a go. Even if you only stay with the main bunch for a little while, its something to improve on every week.

Party time: Our social secretary Clever Ryan will be in touch with the Christmas party date and location as soon as he has sourced his santa outfit! Get your wish list ready for his knee!

Membership: I don’t want to be hounding people but I cant stress the importance of membership enough. Not only is it for your safety but its for the clubs too. This insurance covers us all. We have a total of 9 members signed up. I know we usually have 10 times that so please try and allocate some of you Christmas bonus cheque to it!

Well Done: Huge well done to all our members who completed the Dublin City Marathon. There were whispers of an ambulance buggy and nurses kicking fellas out of the tent, but I’m sure that’s not true! If anyone knows of any local road races coming up let us know and we will try and get a group to go.

NTS: We have been approved for the North Tipp Sprint to host the Intervarsity National Championships on Saturday May 4th 2019 along side our normal sprint race. This will be great to get the NTS back on everyone’s “to-do” list and being on a bank holiday will make for a great weekend.

Best of luck to all our members who are taking part in Sundays Dublin City Marathon. There has been significant training put in over the last few months, not to mention the hearty breakfasts on a Sunday morning in Dromineer!

If you would like to track of the lads or ladies doing it click on the below link.

https://track.rtrt.me/e/TDL-DUBLINM-2018#/tracker

One of our bravest members, Majella Moyles, took on the challenge of walking the full Camino in 2011 and recently completed that journey this year. Below is her inspiring report that is worth a read with a glass of red!

Buen Camino

In September 2011 I started my Camino de Santiago. This is by tradition a pilgrim walk. There are a number of Caminos on mainland Europe. The most popular ones are in France, Spain and Portugal. I choose to do the French Way, which meant I started my walk in St. Jean Pied-de-Port, France. This route is 796km from St. Jean to Santiago de Compostela, Spain, plus a further 86km to Finisterre (for those who wish to finish out the Camino to the coast). The French Way route I believe is the most popular and therefore the busiest.

To put this report together, I feel it is necessary to cover all aspects of doing the Camino, from luggage to accommodation, from terrains to weather, and of course why I decided to do it. Also in this report I will focus on my last visit, which was the finishing section, from Leon to Finisterre.

So firstly I will start with my luggage. I choose to do this with a rucksack on my back. The size of my rucksack was no bigger than what Ryanair allow on as cabin luggage. Believe me, it was a challenge in itself to pack a bag to cover 12 days of walking. But I managed, because I had to. My luggage consisted of a pair of flip flops, 3 vest tops, 3 shorts, 1 fleece, 1 long sleeve top, 2 pairs of socks (each pair washed every day), 2 t-shirts, poncho, 1 mini skirt (could have left at home!), sleeping  bag, camping towel, toiletries and my hiking boots. My bag weighed approximately 8kgs every day. It suited me perfectly, rested well on my hips and shoulders. An alternative to carrying your luggage, is to get it picked up and dropped off at your next accommodation. This I would think involves a lot more organisation, and for a lot of reasons, it may be the only way for walkers to do the Camino.  Each to their own!!

One can only do the Camino from April to the end of October. I had covered sections of the Camino during September/October when the days are dry and hot (37 degrees on my last trip). I also covered a section back in April 2012 when it was so cold, windy and wet, that I can remember putting on my pyjamas under my clothes.

The most essential purchase before starting the Camino is the Pilgrim Passport. To receive your Certificate in Santiago you need to show the distance you have covered on the Camino. To do this, you have to get a stamp from each hostel you stay in. Most cafes also give stamps for your Pilgrim Passport. Then from the city of Sarria, it is obligatory to get 2 stamps per day. And believe me, when you go to the Pilgrim Office in Santiago (and queue for over 1.5hrs) to pick up your certificate, they will go through it, study the dates to see did you cover the full distance. Not an easy way to qualify for a Certificate but a lovely decorated piece of paper for a big achievement.

I started my days between 6 – 6.30am. My aim was to cover as many kilometres as I could before the sun would get high and really hot. For about 1.5 hours in the morning I would walk in the dark, with the torch on my mobile to guide me. If breakfast was being served in the hostel before I left, I’d have it, but the majority of time there was no breakfast. I normally had to walk 8kms before I would come across a café to have something to eat. I would have a few short stops during the day for food & beverages…fuel to keep me going. On this trip I covered over 40km’s a day for eight days, and the last two days, I covered 35km’s a day. It took me between 10 – 11 hours each day to cover this distance. I must add, that on my last day of walking, I came across a café only about 3 km’s into our walk. At this stage I was walking with my friend Goretti, she said there would be a café a few km’s on, as she thought she saw it in her book. We walked, and walked and walked. We learnt that morning that there was a sign back at the café we passed, it said ‘next café 15km’s’. We walked 18.5 km’s that morning before we had breakfast.

The terrain I walked varied from day to day. There were days I walked through what I could only describe as the wild west. They were dry dusty sandy roads. No trees to offer shade from the hot sun searing down, and no water fountains to top up my water bottles. Other terrains were the spongy, bouncy forest trails. These were my favourite. The ground was soft, the trees offered shade and I felt so much cooler. And just the smell of the forest itself was refreshing. Without fail, some part of the day I’d have to walk on roads themselves, tarmac and sometimes concrete ones. These terrains I found very hard on the soles of my feet. I think a combination of heat from the roads, the hot day itself and my heavy boots, didn’t help…..my feet would be crying out. Other days I climbed and descended through dried river beds. These could be tricky, with loose stones, and big boulder rocks, it was necessary to keep focused and safe. There were also stone pavements and cobble stone roads to cross. These were mostly evident in and around towns. As the towns were a welcoming distraction, I was able to put up with the stony terrains a lot better.

Now not everyone doing the Camino, does it on foot. You can choose to do it by bike or on horseback also. I didn’t meet anyone on horseback, but came across enough horse dung on a number of trails to know there were a number of people doing it this way. I did however come across a large number of cyclists. These all varied also. The tougher cyclists did the Camino on mountain bikes. You could meet them on forest trails, river beds or sandy roads. I admired them, as I knew it was so tough for them. Remember, they too were carrying their luggage on their bikes. Others did it on what I could make out were fold up bikes. Of course I only met these cyclists on the roads. These bikes were a lot lighter to use. Other cyclists did it the very easy way with a small engine on their bikes. They pedalled loosely but travelled at an easy fast enough pace. I did talk to a few cyclists along the way. Different groups covered different distances. I concluded the hard core cyclists covered a distance of 60 – 80km a day, whereas the road cyclists covered a max of 50km a day.

It is very common on the Camino to come across water fountains. These are normally within town or village centres, sometimes a few km’s out from a town, but not very often. It was necessary to always ensure I had water on me, and thankfully I never ran out of it. Mind you, the water might have been on the warm side, but at least I stayed hydrated.

The symbols of the Camino are the shell and the yellow arrow. The whole route from St Jean to Finisterre is marked out with shells on pillars, roadside signs, yellow arrows on paths & curbs, sides of houses and in towns you would see shells engraved into the path. These all guide and direct walkers to Santiago, and then to Finisterre. At about the 190 km mark, the Camino pillars started showing the count down in kilometres to Finisterre. The kilometres got very long all of a sudden.

My accommodation every night was in a hostel or albergue. The norm was to arrive at a hostel and pray there would be a free bed. When learning there was a free bed, it was then a quick prayer that I would be lucky enough to get a bottom bunk. You would think that by the time I’d reach a hostel after a long day walking that any kind of bed would do….not for me! All rooms were packed with bunk beds. Rooms could vary in size from sleeping 8 to 18. I choose not to pre-book my accommodation, as there may have been days I might walk further than planned or cut it short if necessary. Thankfully I was always lucky to get a bed, I heard from fellow walkers that on a few occasions they were unlucky to arrive at a hostel to be told no beds for them. The difference was, there was a few of them, but only one of me. Rooms were mixed, and so men and women shared.

Hostels could be private (fee) or municipal (donation). Fees would vary from €6 – €10 per night. For this fee you got a bed and a shower. I have to say the standard of hostels have improved hugely over the last 7 years. When I started this journey, I could honestly say that a lot of hostels were pretty grubby. Now you get a clean bottom sheet and pillow case for your bed upon arrival. These small simple luxuries were much appreciated.

Every night, we the pilgrim walkers had a pilgrim meal. This meal could be hosted by the hostel itself, or a café/restaurant near the hostel. This meal consisted of a starter, main course and dessert (normally there is a few choices for each course) plus a large glass of wine and water for €10 pp. Let me add, the wine was just divine….no chemicals added, and no sore head the next morning!

There were a big number of different nationalities on the Camino and ages varied from early twenties who were mostly young college students to grandparents in their late seventies. I met Australians, Americans, Canadians, Germans, Dutch, Danish, French, Italians, Russians, Chinese, Japanese, English, Hawaiians, Lithuanians, Chilean and Spanish people themselves. I heard about other Irish people from fellow walkers, but never met one on this leg. Those who travelled from Australia, America, and China etc. were doing the whole Camino in one trip. They were all spending at least 6 weeks in Spain.  On one of my walks I met a group of Japanese guys who told me they love Irish coffee, I explained to them how to make one and they were delighted as it is so simple.

(At Finisterre, Goretti and myself….Goretti started the Camino with me in 2011, we did different sections ourselves, but always said we’d finish it out together)

On Sunday 30^th Sept at exactly midday when the Cathedrals bells were ringing, I arrived at the square of the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. It was such a lovely and moving moment. As I said in my first paragraph, I choose to finish my Camino out to Finisterre, commonly known as The End of the World, so there were a few photos taken in front of the Cathedral and without delay we started walking towards Finisterre. It was noticeable on the last few days the temperatures dropped and a wind picked up. A very welcoming breeze. On Tuesday afternoon, I completed my Camino at Finisterre light house. I was exhausted, injured foot, sore feet and cut toes, but the pain was so worth the feeling of achievement when I stood beside the last pillar showing 0,000 km’s……I had made it.

Why did I decide to do the Camino?? I asked myself this very question one day while walking the Camino, and that same night, it was the question asked around the pilgrim meal. To be honest, seven years ago I took it on as a challenge. To walk over 880 km’s, what a distance to cover on foot, with a bag on my back. I had over 415 km’s still to walk to finish the Camino on this trip. However, this time, I didn’t take it on as a challenge to complete. I took it on, because I was able to. I was grateful every day to be strong, healthy and fit to walk it.

Roll on the next challenge…….

Membership is now live on Triathlon Ireland website so once you log into your account you select the “renew membership” option. Please make this a priority so none of us end up in court, or worse……. need treatment from Doctor Paul!!!

Swimming on a Wednesday night is now at 9pm and not 8pm. It will remain like this for the rest of October. Then in November it will change to Tuesday at 8pm and remain like that.