Ben Horan

Hi,

I have signed up to Tackle the Dragon, Ironman Wales this Sunday 22/9/24 to raise money for to research a cure for  Dementia and Alzheimer's. It s  3.8km swim 180km cycle, 42.2km run. This is 1 of the hardest Ironman races because of the tide and the big elevations on bike (2492m) and run. (410m)

‘1 in 2 of us will see our lives devasted by dementia either by developing it ourselves, caring for someone who has it or both’

For me it was my Grandad Peter Roche, he and my family suffered from dementia for 7 years. Many families suffer for long periods from this disease. There is a lot of research being done in the UK to try cure this disease which will be transferable to Ireland and the world. For every 4 cancer researchers there is 1 researcher working on dementia.

Concussions, Mental health, Motor neuron disease and Parkinson disease are massively correlated to this research. This is important especially for those in contact sport which involves many people I know (rugby players in particular). A cure to brain damage is the goal of this research.

Most will know I have had a bad mountain bike accident 12 weeks ago, this happened after I signed up to do this event. A broken collarbone, arm and finger has stopped me from training for most of the past 3 months. I have done some swimming 1km running 50km and cycling 100km in the past 2 weeks.

So after a good recovery and physio from Foster, I have decided to give this challenge a go as an Ironman attempt with minimal to no training. In the 2022 Ironman Cork I done average 12 hours training per week for 6 months and done it in 12 hours 56 mins. I have a good baseline of fitness but it will be interesting to see how Sunday goes without the typical training required for an Ironman.

Thank you for any donation big or small you can follow me on the ironman app. My goal is to get it done in under 17 hours. ( the cut off time)

Looking forward to the challenge,

Ben.