Vanessa relishes the challenge of tackling endurance sports

A native of Magheraveely, Vanessa’s interest in endurance sport was triggered when she moved to England, and having started out with a half marathon, she quickly became hooked, taking on Ironman triathlons in which she went on to represent GB at European and World Championships.

Competitive sport was never really on the agenda, though, when Vanessa was at school in Newtownbutler and then at the Collegiate in Enniskillen before studying at Queen’s University.

“During school and university I played netball, badminton and cycled sometimes, but only socially and not at any sort of competitive level.

“It was definitely more for fun, and as an enabler to be a bit fitter as I really enjoyed being outside and started to walk and hike a lot more.”

After graduating from Queen’s, Vanessa joined Marks and Spencer on their Food Technology graduate scheme in England where she is now the International Foods Technical Manager, and it was after this move that she started to take a serious interest in sport.

“I started properly getting involved in sport when I ran the Royal Parks half marathon in London for Macmillan along with a group from work.

“That was my first ever event and it was really hard, but I loved it as it was such a sense of achievement and that my training worked!

“At the same time, my husband and I were living in London and started to cycle as a way to get around and bought our first road bikes to join some of our friends cycling.

“This led to a cycling trip to Belgium and signing up to an Ironman 70.3 as a bit of a group challenge – that was the start of me fully getting involved in endurance sports and things progressed from there.

“When we signed up I could just about swim, but not with my head under the water or at any speed, so it was a huge learning curve right from the start,” she said.

Vanessa admits that the challenge of endurance sports is something that she enjoys, and then there is the opportunity to compete at unique locations, including at home in Fermanagh and in Donegal.

“I love the complexity of endurance sport and the type of training that is required.

‘Fallen into by accident’

“It’s something that I’ve completely fallen into by accident, mostly through cycling as you end up doing longer distances quite quickly, and it’s a brilliant way to explore and find new roads, routes and importantly the best coffee stops, whether that’s at home or abroad!

“I started with a 70.3 and then progressed to several Ironman triathlons, representing GB at the European and World Championships a few years ago.

“Since then I’ve chosen races which are unique because of the location, scenery or the type of race – endurance races tend to each be very unique, which makes them really exciting and completely different to each other.

“The Lakelander Gravel Grinder is a great example of that, where the chance to be able to gravel race on forestry tracks for nearly 100km does not exist in many places outside of America,” she explained.

A bad shoulder injury a couple of years ago has curtailed Vanessa’s triathlon ambitions, with her focus now on cycling events such as the Lakelander and the Donegal 555.

“I don’t think that I will go back to triathlons at the same level. I injured my shoulder quite badly in Patagonia two years ago, and so although I am starting to swim again I’m quite a way off.

“During Covid, I started to cycle much more and so that is now my main focus with events like the Donegal 555 and the Lakelander Gravel Grinder.

“I’ve also done a few races in England and have had some really good results both in real-life races, but also as part of the Wahoo LeCol esports team, so I’m looking forward to next year.

“I also do quite a lot of running and was due to run the New York Marathon both last year and this year, but unfortunately they have now had to postpone to 2022 due to Covid travel restrictions.

“I ran my first Ultra marathon recently at a place called Lulworth Cove, which is on the South West Coast Path in Dorset – it was brutal, with 2000m of climbing, but the views were stunning and I ended the season on a high with a first-place finish.”

So, what have been Vanessa’s main achievements in her career, to date? “I think completing every event is a huge achievement and so instead of one best I have a few, but for different reasons.

“In terms of podiums, I’ve won a few triathlons, bike races and a half marathon and had podiums on quite a few including a top 10 at the ETU Ironman Distance Championship, which included pros.

“But nothing beats crossing the finish line on your first Ironman with the months of training that goes in and the experience of it all.

“The hardest race I’ve done was the Alpe d’huez triathlon with the climbing involved and running up a ski resort at the end, with the Donegal 555 a close second.

‘An amazing race’

“For the 555, the distance wasn’t the biggest challenge, but the complete unknown – I had never done a bike race before or anything over 11 hours, so had no idea on strategy, nutrition etc, so I would do a few things differently next time, but it’s an amazing race and the amount of support on the back roads of Donegal was second to none.

“The Lakelander Gravel Grinder was probably one of the scariest – I’m very much a road cyclist, so making it back without any injuries or damage to the bike,although I did come off twice, was an achievement in itself, let alone being the first lady home!”

And she intends to compete back at home whenever possible.

“Yes, absolutely, my two big cycling races for this year were the Donegal 555 and the Lakelander Gravel Grinder.

“I hope cycling expands a lot over the next few years so that we have more races in Fermanagh – the roads are great for both training and racing.

“Where I live at the moment, the women’s cycling scene is really taking off with more and more women’s specific categories in road races which are extremely competitive, and it is creating a great momentum getting more ladies involved.”

So what are the plans for the coming months for Vanessa?

“Over the winter I’m going to be racing on Zwift as part of the Wahoo LeCol team and hopefully a few gravel races and trail runs after Christmas while I look for my big event for next year.

“I haven’t decided which one yet, as I’ll be doing the New York Marathon in November 2022, but it will definitely be cycling-related or perhaps a return to triathlon!”