In July I'll be taking part in an ultra-cycling event called The Pan Celtic Race (https://www.instagram.com/pancelticraceseries/) It takes place every year but follows a different route each time - covering roads across the old Celtic nations. This year it's about 2,500 kilometers, starting and finishing in Wales, but weaving the majority of its route through the sunshine state: Ireland.

YOU CAN FOLLOW MY DOT HERE - https://dotwatcher.cc/race/pcr-2022

To put it into some kind of context, I've only ridden more than 300km three times. This race will require me to ride that every day for 8ish days, but while essentially sleeping rough, with a thickening case of trench foot and a fisherman's tan to rival Captain Ahab. 

Needless to say, the landscape is not flat and it ain't dry either. The race is non-stop, meaning that you sleep whenever you deem necessary and in whatever you deem tolerable - be that a dry patch under a bridge with some pigs, or in a 5-star hotel. Luckily there is a website called dotwatcher.cc which will display the GPS 'dot' of every rider, so, if you're at an extremely loose end, you can take a look and see which bog I might be drowning in on any given day of the race.

I ummed and aahed about whether to fundraise. The Everest and Trenchings weren't competitive: they were just solo pursuits that lent themselves - due to their horrific monotony and excess - to fundraising. But then I thought that while the Pan Celtic Race is definitively a race, I would far rather (in terms of suffering) do a double trenching than take part in this race.

I'll be doing it anyway, so if I can raise some money for an incredibly important charity, then I hope that's no bad thing. On a more selfish note, there were many many MANY times during those previous challenges when the sheer weight of responsibility and guilt from the volume of incredibly generous donations, meant that it was literally impossible for me to quit - when that was all I wanted to do. I hope for the same effect this time.

I've chosen to raise money for BEAT because it's a charity that addresses issues that have really affected my own family, and countless other friends and former classmates. Fortunately homelessness and being displaced across borders are not issues that have affected me and so I was raising money from a priviliged remove. Eating disorders are close to home and I'm looking forward to supporting BEAT's work however possible.

Whatever you can spare will be hugely appreciated, but having received some phone number-esque utilities bills recently I know it's not exactly a time of plenty. Thanks in advance and thanks for reading.

You can follow my Irish swim on Instagram @lmrk89 and my cycling writing at https://lizardlung.wordpress.com/

Follow my dot here - https://dotwatcher.cc/race/pcr-2022