Bump, Bike & Baby

by Moire O'Sullivan

I panic.

  ‘No, stop,’ I shout. ‘Don’t touch me!’

  The poor girl doesn’t know what to do or say as I complete a quick scan of my body. My right knee has landed right on a rock edge and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to stand on it. My left elbow is cut and bleeding from skidding along some loose gravel. My left toe hurts like hell. I must have whacked it against a stone and, what with the velocity I was descending, been projected into the air.

  ‘I’m fine,’ I say to the athlete standing over me, who has put her own race on hold to help me out.

  I try to get up, but stagger with my first step. All I was meant to do was finish this race, and now I’m not even sure that’s possible.

  I don’t know if it’s the fact that Fiona’s behind that makes me continue on. Or if I just want to prove to the girl, at whose feet I’ve just fallen, that I’m actually okay. In the end, I know that, if there is anything wrong with me, I have to get off the mountain anyway if I need emergency medical attention.

  By the time I reach Bike, my knee has become sufficiently numb to cycle. I run past the ambulance and mount my ride, then start to pedal off towards the Maum hills. It’s a long and lonely cycle along narrow, pot-holed roads. Soon enough, Fiona catches up with me.

  ‘Did you fall on the mountain?’ she immediately asks.

  My left elbow is stinging sharply after its skin was grated off on Croagh Patrick. A large gaping hole in my clothing reveals the damage the fall has done.

  ‘Ah, sure,’ I say. ‘Tis nothing. Keep her lit.’

  Fiona wishes me good luck, then cycles off. I figure that’s the last I’ll see of her today.

  All I need to do now is make it back to Westport intact, and hopefully defend this podium place. I nearly break my chain trying to get up the last steep incline on the bike course, and then work as hard as I can to get back into town.

  I reach the quays where we’re to drop our bikes before the final five-kilometre run back home. I look around to see Bike’s slot, only to catch a glimpse of Fiona dropping her own bike off.

  ‘No, that’s not possible,’ I think, before realising it’s a total stroke of luck.

  Before the race, I was dreading competing against Fiona again. She is such an amazing athlete who really pushes the pace. But, what with all the toing and froing between us this time around, I’ve actually really enjoyed this encounter. And because adventure racing has so many disciplines, with varied courses with each event, you are never too sure who is going to come home with the spoils on any given day. It makes it all the more exciting.

  ‘Well done,’ Fiona says to me as I pass her on the run in.

  ‘Well done, you!’ I say, willing the finish line closer with every step.

  In the end, the triathlete Dena Hogan wins Sea to Summit. I am runner-up, and Fiona is third. All three of us have come home under the previous course record. It was quite a battle to finish this year’s adventure-racing season.

  Completing Sea to Summit has also allowed me to reclaim the Irish National Adventure Race Series title for 2016. There is nothing like setting a goal and achieving it to make the hard work and sacrifice all worthwhile.

  As usual, Pete, Aran and Cahal are at the finish line complete with hugs and kisses.

  ‘Didn’t Mummy do well?’ Pete says to the boys. They both look tired and bored.

  ‘Come on,’ I say. ‘Let’s go home.’

  I take Aran by the hand, while Pete carries Cahal high up on his shoulders.

  Maybe Pete’s right. Maybe I have done well after all.

  Acknowledgements

  Where would I be without my husband, Pete? If it weren’t for him, this book quite simply wouldn’t exist. Thanks Pete for all your love, encouragement, support, and patience. You really are the best.

  This book would have been an entirely different story if not for the unfaltering support of my coach, Eamonn Tilley. ‘Happy days,’ as he’d say.

  My children wouldn’t be in such good health if it hadn’t been for the raft of doctors, midwifes, consultants, sonographers, nurses, and health workers that have cared for them both so well. To all of you, my family is totally grateful and forever indebted.

  Thanks too to all the women who feature in these pages, women I admire profoundly and from whom I have learned so much. I want to particularly thank Niamh O’Ceallaigh for allowing me to go ahead and write whatever I like; Susie Mitchell for her inspirational words in her own book, Pregnancy to Podium; Bridgeen Kavanagh for assuring me that children, training, and breastfeeding can mix; and Julie McGinn for putting up with my crazy kids on a daily basis.

  Thanks too to Fiona Meade, Emma Donlon, Laura O’Driscoll, and all the other girls for our great battles out on the hills. Special word for all my adventure racing buddies, Paul Mahon and Peter Cromie, who have helped and encouraged me in so many ways. Also to Ollie, Noel, and Harold for putting on all these amazing events around our beautiful island.

  Big shout out to Nathalie Houben and Cara McLoughlin who told and showed me that having children isn’t so bad after all.

  Thanks also to Beth McCluskey and Orla Baxter for lending us their lovely homes.

  Huge thanks too to all at Sandstone Press, especially my editor Kay Farrell, for spotting this book’s potential and for helping me to polish it up for publication. Thanks to Kate O’Mahony, Susie Mitchell, Avril Mahon, and Se Gorman for trawling through my first drafts and giving me loads of constructive feedback. Special mention also to Hilary Jenkinson and Margo Barry: it’s amazing what a bottle of red wine in Glenmalure Lodge can lead to!

  I want to also thank my own Mum and Dad for being wonderful grandparents, and for always being on call to babysit. Hope you enjoy the read.

  Thanks too to the makers of CBeebies and RTE Junior. Without you, I would never have had the peace and quiet required to write this story down.

  Finally, I would like to thank you the reader for getting to the end of this work. If you enjoyed it, I would really appreciate it if you spread the word: Tweet about it, post on Facebook, write a review on Amazon, or simply just tell your friends!