Duo to undertake Iron Man challenge on ERGs for Whiteoaks Centre and iCARE

Oisin O’Flaherty and Conor Mulkearns, from Buncrana, will take on the gruelling challenge for two ‘very deserving’ local charities - iCARE and Whiteoaks Rehabilitation Centre.

Beginning at 6am in the morning on May 30,at Oisin’s gym ‘O’Flaherty Fitness and Performance’, they will each undertake the Iron Man challenge on the ERGs (rower, ski and bike.)

This will consist of a 2.4 mile ski, a 112 mile bicycle ride and a marathon 26.22 mile row - all over the one day.

They hope to be finished at around 8pm on the day.

The duo have already raised over E9,000 - well over their E6000 goal via their Go Fund Me page.

Oisin told the ‘Journal’ they were both ‘delighted’ with the money raised for the charities so far and told why they decided to undertake the challenge.

“A few of us had trained for a marathon on the rower and I was thinking about maybe doing something on the machines for charity when we finished that.

“Everything had been cancelled and I thought this was a good opportunity to do it now, because we probably wouldn’t get this chance to train so much for it any other time.

“We chose Whiteoaks and iCare because they are local charities who do great work and probably don’t get the recognition they deserve.”

Conor and Oisin decided to compete the challenge together so they could give each other encouragement and spur each other on.

“You definitely need someone else there with you to support you and will you on,” said Oisin.

The machines will be set a distance apart in line with the social distancing guidelines that remain in place.

The challenge will also be live streamed for anyone who wants to dip in and watch how they are getting on during the day.

If the COVID-19 guidelines have been somewhat relaxed at the end of the month, Oisin would like to open the doors of the gym and let people come in one or two at a time to watch them undertake the challenge.

“We’ll need all the encouragement we can!” he quipped..

Oisin and Conor, are both training hard for the challenge.

They are both grateful for every donation and Oisin remarked how it is great to see so many fundraisers locally at this time.

Anyone who wishes to donate can do so at https://www.gofundme.com/f/iron-man-on-the-ergs