M2M - UPDATE FROM DAY 1

 

 

 

Long day....awake at 5, up at 5 45, big feed of porridge and even had time to feed Sid the cat. Collected by Pat just after 7 and headed for the club. Beautiful morning and by 7.15 all 30 of the lads had arrived. Up to the Village cafe where Mick Kinsella had tea/coffee and bacon sambos for everyone.....now I'm rightly stuffed !! 
Quick photocall and we all loaded on to the bus to Malin head. We stopped in Monaghan for coffee and a scone and then on to our final destination. We met up with the support team at a little pub 2 km from Malin head where the bikes had been unloaded and were ready for us to begin the journey.....but not before soup and a sandwich. It's now 2pm and all I've done is sit and eat all day, not sure if the bike will be able to hold me !!
Anyway up to Malin  the 30 of us headed and got a few photos taken and now finally ready to go. Just as we're about to head down the hill Pat Halpin announces he has a puncture....we hadn't even gone 2 yards !! The lads headed off and myself and Mark, Ronan, Fionnán and Kevin Coakley remained to fix the offending tube. 3 or 4 minutes later we're finally on our way..... 500yds down the road Pat pulls up AGAIN.... after the repair he had put the wheel on backways !! 2 more minutes delay and we finally get a chance to burn up some road.
After about 10km we caught up with the main bunch and headed on through Malin village. On the other side of the village Gerry Green(Bomber) gets a puncture !! So I'm thinking at a rate of one puncture every 10km we're gonna need 56 spare tubes !! We managed to get another 30km before Jerome got a buckled wheel.....now at this stage I'm actually getting hungry. After 50km we had a pitstop in Burnfoot having passed through Carndonagh and Buncrana. From here it was on through Burt and into Letterkenny,which thankfully passed incident free. Clanree hotel, pool, Jacuzzi, sauna and good food. The weather today was also glorious.....I'm finding it hard to make this look tough but maybe after 190km tomorrow it won't be so funny !!
Anyone who was on my contact list when we did this two years ago will recall there was a little bit of hassle between myself and my roomie Mark, over some snoring incidents. Now,we're back together again this time but Mark has got one of those little bamboo sticks that athletes put on their noses to increase airflow, so there won't be any snoring this time. He's downstairs at the moment but he's left the bambo stick on his pillow just for my reassurance.....beside his neatly folded light blue pyjamas with little red bikes on them !! 
Heading to Sligo and then to Mayo tomorrow.....can't wait.

Good night .... Donie