Green miles to be traversed by masses making most of long weekend

The climb out of Dundrum is subtle at first, from the sweeping hairpin at Lamb Doyles, then unexpectedly twisting, up through Barnacullia – “top of the woods” – across the face of Three Rock Mountain, before ramping towards The Blue Light, and that first startling vista over the city, spread out below, in perfectly epic miniature.

Here, some of us chose to alight, walking the rest of the way, or if time allows, ducking inside the blue doorway, to breathe in the finest porter available outside of St James’s Gate, then breathing it out, across the openness of Killiney Hill and Dublin Bay and the painted outline of Howth Head.

Then it continues again, around Ballyedmonduff, shifting right at Cannon’s Corner, the road now just about wide enough to accommodate us, or else not wide enough at all. There, from the leafy shade of Taylor’s Folly, along the shoulder of Two Rock Mountain, it’s over the 1,000-foot contour line and that always teasingly open panoramic descent into Glencullen – “valley of the holly” – with its golden fleecing of gorse and places of sweet blooming rhapsody beyond the pines.

Until it comes to my stop, at Johnnie Fox’s crossroads, where it turns another sharp right, and continues on, finally scattering its last remaining passengers on the near desolation of Ballybrack Road, among the lonesome granite boulders and stray mountain sheep.

Escaping Dublin city

There may be better ways of escaping Dublin city, but none that come with the mere €3.30 bus fare of the 44b (albeit without burning a single calorie). It doesn’t always feature as part of my daily commute, and indeed the 44b comes with a dangerously tentative timetable even by the standards of Dublin Bus, and yet it always feels more like an adventure than a journey. And like all good journeys, the 44b – from the Dundrum Luas Stop to Glencullen – is not just about the destination: the only pity is that as a single-decker bus it doesn’t come with the upstairs view.

Now, we all have our own definition of the word “adventure” – and for many people that means paying a lot more than €3.30, as long as it comes with a goody bag and a finishers’ T-shirt. Truth is adventure is a big industry these days, and in our growing pursuit of heroic personal fitness, it’s less about going faster, higher or stronger anymore, and all about going further, or at least somewhere different. And at no time during the year does this sense of adventure reach a greater zenith than during the June Bank Holiday Weekend.

Over these next three days, and by the time many of you will even read this, masses of participants will have run, cycled, swam or indeed crawled through various exercises in adventure. Their motivation will be as varied as their age and their weight, and yet they’ll be mostly united by a similar sense of purpose: because for all the cheap thrills at our fingertips these days, most of us lead pretty dull lives, and bored by the daily commute, if not the daily routine, we crave something a little less ordinary.

This is why, and for the ninth year in succession, today’s TriAthy triathlon is a sell-out – all 2,000 places bought up several weeks ago, from the absolute beginners to some of the rising stars of the sport, including Westport’s Con Doherty, a former World Junior bronze medallist.

Also on is a new addition to those strangely attractive obstacle-course type events – the King Muck Adventure Challenge, in Monaghan, on the suitably named shores of Lough Muckno. This one is only 8km, although “by the time it’s completed,” according to the King Muck event website, “you will feel like you’ve been to hell and back”.

Then on Sunday there’s the Dingle Way Challenge, which promises a more gentle it not far longer 40km trek along Slea Head, Dunquin and Ballyferriter, with the shivering Blasket Islands as a constant backdrop. Monday then brings us back to some of the old popular adventures – with over 40,000 women making even the mini marathon distance feel like a very long way, especially if the sun is shining down on Dublin, while in Cork, another 9,000 will run the half or full or marathon relay distance (not forgetting several other marathons going on across the country this weekend, from Derry to Tullaroan.)

None of these adventures come cheap – or least not as cheap as €3.30 – although certainly a lot cheaper than the average monthly gym membership. And it’s no secret anymore that there’s only so much running anyone can do on the treadmill before they start to feel like rats in a cage, and only so much sweating they can take in the spinning class before realising the bike hasn’t actually gone anywhere.

This is also where the term “green gym” comes in – which if you haven’t heard before, is actually part of the Government strategy to strengthen Ireland’s position as a leading tourist destination. Last year, Failte Ireland reckoned there were 352 “adventure” events staged, and while there will always be fresh claims on the fastest growing sport in the world, this is a mass participation on a scale that hardly existed five years ago.

Powerful addition

With this green gym also comes the green euro which is now considered a powerful addition to any growing economy – especially one such as our own. That green euro will always be spent around places like Royal Co Down, but as it stretches into more adventurous territory and terrain, the challenge now is to ensure it doesn’t lose its value. It’s great that so many marathons and triathlons and those strangely attractive obstacle-course type events are now a major part of the June Bank Holiday Weekend, as long as they remain as good value for money as that €3.30 bus fare to Glencullen.