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The next part of the race was a challenge as I was told to update the media
car or Michael (at race HQ) on my location so that they could give me a new
tracker, I couldn’t really get into a rhythm, and I couldn’t really stay focused
when I was told the media car had missed me. I got to Ardara, and it was
raining and night was falling. I went into a shop and asked how far the next
town, Glencolumbkille, was from here. It was 26km via the Glengesh pass
over the mountains. The shop keeper tried to convince me to stay in Ardara.
I should have listened. I thought it would only take me a little over an hour,
so I left. When I got to Glengesh, it was proper pissing it down and pitch black.
I got off to push the bike, and I couldn’t see how long the pass was. Near the
top I started getting freaked out by how human sheep can sound. Did you
know they cough like people? When I googled it I found loads of videos of
coughing sheep, so I wasn’t imagining it! Phew

I regretted pushing on and started looking for somewhere to sleep, but
because it was so dark I couldn’t really see anything that was off the road.
I started descending into Glencolumbkille and saw some lights in the distance.
Then my lights went off. Great. I could have gotten up and charged them on
my battery pack, but it was so wet I didn’t want to get the battery pack wet
and I was cold and just wanted to keep moving. The next 2 or 3 km I cycled
and walked in the dark. I saw a sign for a B&B, and they still had their
lights on. I rang the bell and a guy came to the door. They had no vacancies.
I asked if they had a shed or something I could sleep in. He looked at me
weirdly. I tried to explain that I had a bivi bag and all I needed was some
shelter from the rain. His wife was not happy about me sleeping in their shed,
so I moved on trying to find something else. Finally I found a school, with a
big roof. Yay! By the time I got into my bivi it was after 1am. I slept till 7 am.

Sunday was a rainy day. The cold and rain were good at pushing me to get
on with it because stopping meant I’d just get cold. But my tyre caused me
trouble. The boot had cracked and was puncturing my inner tube. I stopped
to fix it a few times – not fun in the pouring rain.

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