As a turning point, celebrating your 40th birthday is one of those key dates when many of us decide to do something different or life-changing. For Belfast-based Mark Rafferty, life-changing and changing lives has taken the form of a cycle challenge many would find daunting.
“I have always wanted to cycle the length of Ireland from Mizen to Malin however, most of the charity rides have historically taken place across 4 or 5 days. These are certainly big physical challenges but they have just never appealed to me, Mark said.
When you can say ‘I cycled the length of Ireland in one day’ and potentially raising 10 pence per mile, this for me at least is a challenge. With two young kids, getting the time to train for this attempt, and the actual time to do the cycle itself, is a challenge in its own right!
Which leads me on to my imminent birthday and a question posed by my wife – “what do you want to do for your 40th birthday?” This question opened up the opportunity to pose this one-day cycling attempt as my 40th birthday want. Over many years my wife has enjoyed many city-breaks to London, Berlin and Dublin, which happened to coincide with a marathon that I had trained for, so 40th birthday ask didn’t really come as that much of a surprise”.
Mark’s interest in cycling stemmed from his childhood growing up in Newcastle, where he and his friends were always out in Donard forest on mountain bikes, working every part-time job they could to get money to buy upgrades and new bikes. After this for a few years when they turned 18, a group would head to France mountain biking every summer.
“I guess bikes have been in my DNA, but it wasn’t until I started my full-time job that I bought my first road bike to commute to and from the office. Shortly after the cycle commutes, I joined the Shimna Wheelers to give group cycling a try and to better understand road cycling. At that stage I was buying my road cycling clothing from the middle aisle in Lidl!”
As time went on Mark’s knowledge and fitness began to build, initially dabbling with triathlon in his late twenty’s, coming from a swimming background, Mark was always one of the fitter runners on the football team. He then decided to try open road racing, quickly realising he was never going to be Bradley Wiggins or Mark Cavendish and so refocused on longer endurance group rides.
“I did continue to participate in the Newry Wheelers racing league until Covid came along. The Newry Wheelers league was and still is a fantastic series weekly across the summer months, with around an hour of good honest racing. Post-Covid I dropped cycling due to reoccurring hamstring injuries and instead focussed on trying to run a specific time in the marathon. It has only really been in the past 6 months that I have had an eye on this challenge having stepped on to the road bike again”.
Continuing,
“My wife Claire is a psychiatrist so this has given me an insight into the provision of mental health services within Northern Ireland. I am all too aware of the budgetary shortcomings and general provision of services from the Government, both locally and nationally.
And as I work in construction, I see the mental health issues within the sector and in particular, men’s mental health and the taboo of taking about it.
The attitude is often ‘keep the chin up, there are brighter days ahead’ when really people should be sitting down and talking it through. And if you look at men’s mental health in the broader context within Northern Ireland the figures and statistics are alarming.
Action Mental Health support for men’s mental health is offered through the services such as Action Mental Health’s Recovery & Employability alongside their counselling provision. Above all, I think it’s important to have a safe space where men can sit down and have a coffee and a chat. I often think of what my uncle said when he worked as a firefighter and post-traumatic incident how the crew would all go get breakfast or a coffee and sit down together, close the door and chat it through until everyone was ok with what had happened.
I feel it is disappointing that adequate funding isn’t there to better support mental health and that charities have to fill that gap. That’s why it’s so important to support Action Mental Health who are doing fantastic work at supporting mental health well-being in Northern Ireland and providing services supporting the community and ultimately, stopping people from reaching crisis point”.
Family and friends are supporting me along the way with planned stops; a 30-minute break at the Athlone campus of the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) where a gazebo for friends, family and supporters will be set up.
Mark has also reached out to other venues in Limerick and Enniskillen asking for the use of their carparks to refuel and is currently awaiting responses.
Across the route, ably supported by his family in a car travelling behind during hours of low light, for safety purposes and for mechanicals and water top-up, Mark has also had offers from friends who will join along the route to cycle a few miles with him. This is also open to anyone else who would like to come out and help support in whatever way they can.
When asked what plans he has after this challenge, Mark said,
“It is in my nature to always want more, or to go that bit further, and when one event finishes, I always have my eye on the next target and challenge! I would like to return to long distance triathlon, as I have some unfinished business there, and in the immediate
future, I will return to marathons to try close out a specific time I have been chasing since 2017!
The last word on the one-day cycle Mark has been revisiting his final fundraising and challenge targets. “The goal is fluid as the cycle challenge on the longest day in June fromsunrise to sunset is around the 19-hour mark, however that will be a big ask and I would need the training to go as planned and the weather conditions on the day to be favourable. I do think 20-22 hours is a more realistic time for completing the challenge. I had initially set a rough target of raising £10 per mile or £3,600 in total”.
