 Time to talk don't it go ultra five five five this week the event of course starts very early on Friday morning and joining me to look ahead to the event is one of the leading Liddy competitors Lorraine malarkey from County Mono It's good to see you Lorraine. Thank you Well, Lorraine, this is some challenge ahead for you this weekend Yes, I've seen a hundred percent What what got you interested in taking on the five by five then Lorraine tell us Two years ago was the first I noticed it and that was a I remember following Ronan McLaughlin When he did it and I remember thinking to myself back then I was like I'm going to do something crazy like that someday and but never really said about when I would do it and this year I was Focusing more and getting home maybe to do the nationals, but unfortunately the nationals was postponed. So I I had said to Sean then because I know Sean very well and Out in Dubai himself and Irene and the boys and I just took an ocean and I was like, I'm just gonna do it and So that's kind of where we're at now Yeah, you said that you were gonna take on this crazy challenge every wee bit mad to be at this sort of endurance cycling race And don't you Lorraine a little bit. Yeah, but I don't say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger Yeah, well, give us maybe about a wee bit information on your background as to where you're at an endurance cycling because Out in Dubai as you mentioned and you know Sean You are the record holder for the seven Emirates, which is almost 500 kilometers But you've been involved in a lot of endurance racing to get you now to this point at the five five five Yeah, so the seven Emirates was what all it was October be two years now in October and Believe it or not, I decided to do that on the Monday and it started on the Friday night Before that I had only the biggest ride I had done was a hundred eighty-five care and Like I always do I don't really think about these things I just throw myself into them and I seen it on a Facebook post of some guys that were doing it they were doing it to raise money and I Messaged them and I just said can I join and they were like yeah go for it and I'll Never forget going up the road to Abu Dhabi where we were starting and they were talking about all the training that they've done And the long rides that they've done and all the practice that on I was sitting there starting to sweat going Oh dear well if I let myself in for but uh, yeah, so I Completed it now. I wasn't I wouldn't say it was it was easy. Um, but yeah I I got through it and I managed it a lot of it's mental to be honest. It's all in the head as well as the legs and then since that I Just back in April I am I rode 3500 kilometers for the month I rode every day to raise money for Cromland Street Children's Hospital where my nephew was last year and we finished that off with a 200 kilometer ride and then I About a week or so after that somebody that was on that ride messaged me and said how do you fancy doing a 400 kilometer night ride? And I remember thinking yeah, it's an e-double what we did. She that's nothing Then I got there and I was like, oh dear like this is like 400k And that's true the night into the morning because of the temperatures obviously but and so yeah in terms of endurance I think nothing of going out and doing four or five hours on the bike on my own and in the hills in Dubai Yeah, I just I just get on it and get on with it Yeah, you have been here done ago before because you've competed in the three day You've done the initial in 100, you know what the roads are like How does don't it go all then compare to like what you were doing and Don't he go is going to be Tough the road surface the hills You know, there's very few flat parts and and I know from riding up there before the roads even when they look flat the roads are very dead and We don't have as many hills in Dubai now We do have hills and we do have mountains and it takes a bit more of an effort to get there And I've done a bit of night training and recently to prepare me. So I think In terms of descending that night, I had a bit of practice of that a few weeks ago climbing and Yeah, just just all around. Yeah, I think I'm not sure the nice smooth surface of Dubai will Will stand to me But I was out there this morning and yeah, the road surface is definitely going to be the huge one because that rougher Road was always going to tire you out What are you looking forward to in this challenge and and what are you not looking forward to because Rolling off the tongue we've got stuff like my more gap and Glenn Gash and things like that today The well the thing that I'm looking forward to in comparison to the training that I've done recently is I only have to do each one of them once I am once I'm over each climb Then that's it done. And I think that's that's part of my mental game is just like Taking each section as it comes and just getting over it. So what am I the most looking forward? I'm most looking forward to rolling up on that ramp when I'm finished. Yeah What's your time you hoping to do then? and obviously My I wanted to obviously do sub 24, but I Haven't really I'm thinking definitely sub sub 22 Would be would be good. And but Time-wise a lot of it will come down to what we get in the day. Otherwise, and I was out Yesterday afternoon and it was quite windy, you know, it's really nice weather, but it's quite windy. So it'll depend on what we get on the day So let's let's say the last one's the better Well, that's an ideal world, but that never Particularly in Doney go does it? I'm talking to you now and you're Monaghan and you're gonna be making the trek up to Doney go on Thursday. So what do you do now? Lauren Yeah, today is all about preparation. I was out on the bike this morning and that will be my sort of last Longer ride and I'll do a short one tomorrow, but we'll just spin out the legs and plenty of yoga get stretched out and And then just the prep of bikes food Fuel all that sort of stuff. So gear and I'll have every piece of gear that I own will be packed I'm with me because you don't know what the weather's gonna throw at us and Being cold is not an option Said to my dad this morning is it cold out there and he goes nice lovely. It's really warm of humid. I was blue when I got back I Would you're normally used to temperature in the 30s, aren't you? Yeah, that was probably one of the difficult things I've seen about training for this in the recent probably the last month was The temperatures and humidity like it was really tough You couldn't do long rides unless you were doing it at night and and even at that one of the nights Sean had taken me out to the hills and It was lovely and there was a nice wind and about three o'clock in the morning It was like somebody just switched off the wind and humidity went through the roof No air was like somebody was smothering you Sweat just lash like you're just dripping and it's quite tough So in terms of getting that long long long mileage and it was it was probably one of the toughest things Was the heat so yeah, I'm going to struggle with the cold now when I'm back here And so I'm hoping for through talking about just going to be 23 30 degrees and I was like bring it on Yeah Finally just then when you go back to to Dubai How proud would you be to have a title of a 555 alongside your name with all those other accolades that you have no laryn Extremely proud and I think it's one of those things that Having a medal or something for The pain that you're going to go through The mental battles that you will have on the road. So it's not just about physical, but it's about mental and The memories that you'll have from that having a trophy or a medal to remember that will be very very special Well, let's we wish you the very best of luck. That's coming Friday and the 555 here on the government Thank you very much