04/07/2022 – Pan Celtic Race 2022

It’s been over 2 years since I returned from my trip around the world and a lot has changed.

We’ve gone through several lockdowns, a couple of jabs and now a cost of living crisis.

One thing hasn’t changed though, I still want to explore the world by bike and this time, it is in the form of a race. I was meant to do this race last year but had a crash in the weeks leading up to it.

This year the route starts in South Wales on Sunday the 10th of July, goes around the coast of Ireland and finishes in North Wales totalling 2,600km.

I am so physically unprepared for this event compared to how I felt leading in to the IndiPac in 2020 which in itself was a harder event as it was double the distance, but to be honest, I don’t really mind.

If I had managed to fit in a lot of training for it then perhaps I would look to it as a proper race and place some meaning behind the result, whereas now, I’m just looking forward to get out there, ride by bike for a week or so around the coast of Ireland.

The longest ride I have done this calendar year is 122km only riding more than 100km 3 times this year but again, I don’t mind.

I have taken lots of the kit that I used for my trip and added in a few bits of new things to create my set up for this event which I will go through once I’ve actually finalised it all.

To be honest I haven’t even checked out the route at all really, I just used Komoot to break it down into 7 segments and load them up onto my bike computer.

I really think there is something to be said for just going with it, you can definitely plan the fun out of something.

There will be online tracking of how I am getting on here: https://pancelticrace2022.maprogress.com/

I am rider 177 and strongly advise that you follow me as hopefully the feeling of a couple of sets of eyes will get me out of my sleeping bag when my alarm goes off rather than pressing snooze.

If anyone wants to check out my rides and stats for each day, I’ll be uploading them to Strava here: https://www.strava.com/athletes/13187168

I’ll do another update or two before the event once I sort more things out and will endeavour to daily blog during the race with how I’m feeling and some pictures as I think it’ll help both enjoy the race whilst I’m doing it but also to reflect on it afterwards.