Sean Nolan GP 16th June

I watch the First half of the match and then headed toward Navan. I arrived and met Andrew Donnellan in the Car Park. As I went to Sign on I heard a cheer from the Rugby Club, Duffer had got the lads a penalty, which Harte missed.

I signed on and went to get changed and listened to the match on the radio. Then there was another penalty, the one that Keane converted to push the match to Extra time. The race was postponed until after the match. I went in and watched the extra time and everyone knows the rest. As I chatted to Sheamus Kennedy and looked out at the rain he said to me I do not feel like racing now I'm ony going to do 1 lap. Well as it turned out that's all we had to do.

There was one lap that consisted of 28 miles in the driving rain ahead of us. There were lads jumping right from the start including myself at some point. But as my heart rate rose to 180 I though to myself "steady ken, steady". I was not really feeling that good, my legs were aching on Saturday after my effort on Thursday night. I had also spent all day Saturday erecting a glasshouse that was like a Jigsaw puzzle with half of the parts not labelled. So when the drags started coming thick and fast all I was concerned with was hanging in. And that is exactly what I did all the way up the drags. Once we got over them I felt a lot better as my legs loosened up somewhat. However I just went with the moves rather than jumping myself. We rode in toward Navan with me at the front at some stages doing a little work.

At this point Jim Cassidy was up the road with a few others and An Usher rider and a Third Cat Noel Kelly were further up the road. They had been the ones that went fairly early. Jim and co were pulled as we went up the hill as Navan racecourse and down toward the finish. Then I saw the 1k marker and thought about jumping but concluded it was too early. I positioned myself near the front for the sprint, however I left the final effort too late as we approached the finish. I finished 8th in the bunch sprint and 10th overall just out of the prizes.