The Mournes

Today was a mammoth ride - 100 miles into the heart of the Mourne mountains, the highest peaks in Northern Ireland (you can see the peaks just in the background of the picture). Also the weather was beautiful, a scorching day in the mid twenties which is highly unusual for this wee part of the world.

Anyway onto the ride itself, fairly routine on the way to Newcastle but as you can imagine it started getting tastier when the climbing began. I coped fairly well despite the heat and didn't have any real problems. I tried to keep a steady pace and my usual rythm when climbing which served me well. The scenery was absolutely stunning - I advise if you ever visit Northern Ireland to either hike or cycle in this area, you will not be disappointed. One thing that bothered me though was that I wanted to see Silent Valley, to my surprise no cyclists were allowed it - disgraceful! I had cycled up to 50 miles at this point so you can imagine my dismay at being turned away at the barrier - silly really.

Anyway the run home followed the same route towards Ballynahinch, it was at this point that a bit of fatigue started to set in and I began to feel the temperature. When I arrived in Belfast I had no water left so was also quite dehydrated. Overall it was a great run and thoroughly enjoyable - it's great being off work on days such as this where you can get out and do these things.