On Sunday a big group of cyclists met as usual at the Parkway. The decision was made to split into two groups and I (Richard) was asked to gather the first group and head off on the Tipp road. There were eight of us on the cycle, all of whom I knew bar one guy none of us had ever seen before.
About five minutes into the cycle John Deegan came up beside me and asked, ‘’Who’s the big guy?’’
Now those of you that know me will understand that I don’t get asked this question too many times as the ‘’big guy’’ is normally me. But the stranger that had joined us for our leisure spin towered above me and at a guess would have to be 6’8’’ at least.
During the spin we all got to chat to him and found out his name is Alexander Kochetkov, he is from Lithuania and is in Limerick for the next three weeks or so. He had googled the club and found out about the spin on the Sunday. All of this sounds a bit ordinary I know but it came to light that he is training for a very specific challenge. For 100 different charities he is intending to complete 100 Ironman triathlons in one calendar year. That is two per week. His schedule is to do one every Saturday and Sunday starting in October 2017 and finishing a year later.
He is around for a bit and will be training with us over the next couple of weeks so do say hello and extend him a good LTC welcome. For those of you interested he has a Facebook page set up under 100ironmans on which he has extended his thanks to us for bringing him along on Sunday.
