Tomás warms up for 12,000km Africa cycle
TOMÁS Mac an t-Saoir from Baile an Fheirtéaraigh spent all day Friday cycling in Fitzgerald’s Centra in Dingle but it was nothing compared to the cycle he has ahead of him in Africa later this year.
The 10am to 5pm ‘spinning’ (cycling on-the-spot) session in Fitzgerald’s didn’t knock much out of Tomás, who chatted comfortably to shoppers as he pedalled. He reckoned the charity event in aid of the Donal Walsh Foundation was a great way of meeting people.
The going will be a lot tougher when he cycles out of Cairo on November 2, bound for Cape Town at the far end of the African continent, but he’s prepared for that. He expects the 12,000km ‘solo and unsupported’ cycle to take five or six months, and there’s every chance of dangers along the way but Tomás isn’t too concerned.
“Getting into trouble is about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’m not going to worry about it… you could say the same about going to Dublin or Limerick – you only find trouble in pockets, most places are fine,” he says.
The trans-Africa cycle is also in aid of the Donal Walsh Foundation, an organisation Tomás admires for the work it does to raise awareness of issues concerning mental health and depression. He also feels that, with the cycle across Africa, “you never know who you might inspire”. It’s an outlook he has adopted from Donal Walsh - the Tralee teenager who spread a hugely positive message about mental health while he was dying of cancer.
Tomás faces into the cycle in Africa with the benefit of the experience he gained from cycling across the USA in 2016, but apart from that he isn’t pushing himself into a rigorous training schedule, and anyway he wants to leave time for friends, family and his girlfriend Eadaoin, who was by his side in Fitzgerald’s on Friday.
“It’s hard to fit everything in, especially during the summer,” he says; so instead he’s just keeping fit - although in Tomás’s case that means a higher level of fitness than most people ever attain.
To donate to Tomás’s Africa cycle look up www.idonate.ie/cyclingafrica on the internet. All contributions will be greatly appreciated.