- FULL NAME: Include cringey middle names please?!
Gabriel Martin Walsh
- BIRTHPLACE: And name other places you have lived
Galway, Australia, Tipperary, Australia, Tipperary, Argentina, Tipperary, Australia, Tipperary and now back in Galway. Busy few years living out of a bag, working six months in alternative hemispheres while I worked in the racehorse breeding industry. - WHEN DID YOU JOIN GTC AND WHY?
2013. I joined GTC, and the back story to joining is this.
I have two first cousins who have been involved in triathlon for years and were always trying to convince me to do a triathlon, but my excuses were as follows.I wasn’t really able to swim. I would have to take a break after a length in the pool and I would rarely go out of my depth in open water because I wasn’t able to tread water. I would just have to try to keep moving, which inevitably would mean that any swim I would do would be around 30 seconds long so that I would be able to take a rest.Due to the job I had at the time, I had very little time off as it was incredibly long hours, so there was no time to learn to swim or train.
But after I returned to Galway and was at said cousin’s wedding, on day two of his wedding weekend he said that now I had more time, I should do a triathlon. And lo and behold, they were organising a sprint triathlon in six weeks.
So, I entered there and then and gave myself six weeks to be able to swim the 750 metres in a lake in Westmeath.
I figured that swimming in a pool would be easier due to all the kicks off the wall, so I gave myself the challenge to be able to complete 1K in the pool without stopping before I’d be ready for the race. My coaching consisted of looking up YouTube videos on how to breathe on both sides and then putting them into practice in the pool. Each time I went for a swim, I increased the distance until I got up to 1K.
Six weeks later, I did the race and shocked myself with how well my first one went. From then on, I was hooked. And then I joined the club.
- OCCUPATION
Electrician/Engineer working in the Electrical Engineering R&D department for a global refrigeration company. - PREVIOUS SPORTS
Only ever played GAA growing up, unless you count a bit of soccer at lunchtimes in school until the principal would be doing his walkabout around the school. When he’d pass the pitch, we’d have to quickly pick up the ball and start soloing and hand passing the ball until he’d go back around the corner, and then we’d return to soccer again. - SWIM / BIKE / RUN: Which do you prefer and why?
Bike. I just love the freedom of a bike. As a kid growing up, I’d cycle on a BMX from Moycullen to Spiddal Beach, go for my 30-second swim and cycle home. Ahh, the freedom and adventure.
I still love to take off on my own, as I find it’s a great way to switch off and go back to your inner kid again. Hmm, I must get a BMX again. - FAVOURITE EVENT OR FAVOURITE PLACE TO TRAIN
In recent years, I got into gravel cycling and train with a great mix and interesting bunch of people. The cycles usually are on off-roads in forests and wind farms, where you are not in a peloton, but in a pack while cycling around. It makes it easier to have the chats and craic. It also makes you a stronger cyclist with better bike handling skills.
Gravel has taken me to some beautiful, isolated parts of Ireland and abroad. As for events that stand out, Dirty Reiver gravel race, on the border of England and Scotland, is one where a group of us travelled to a few years ago. That really sticks out due to its gruelling, testing course covering the most isolated mountain tracks I’ve seen, while in sub-zero temperatures. Probably one of the toughest, most rewarding events I’ve done. Around Ireland, I’ve done some real testing events, but the UK one stands out. Maybe that’s because it was my first one and I pushed hard, hard, hard all day for that one. - SPORTING CLAIM TO FAME: Name any sporting achievement you are most proud of
Probably the Galway Bay Swim in 2015. I would have considered myself a weak and new swimmer, so I was proud of finishing that. After that, I’ve done one Ironman and four marathons. With each of them, I was either injured starting or picked up an injury during them and kept going. Some might say I’m stubborn, but I’d say I’m just getting value for my entry fee. Ha-ha. - THREE MUSIC TRACKS THAT POWER YOUR TRAINING SESSIONS
I don’t listen to music while training. I just think it’s too much faff carrying extra things like an iPod or a phone. I like to stick on the runners or helmet and go for it. Sure, how would you be able to think with music in your ears? - YOUR ALL-TIME SPORTING HEROES AND WHY?
I wouldn’t really be someone who would idolise sporting figures growing up or call them my heroes, but I would recognise the greatness of athletes in their respective fields.
Growing up, I would have been watching Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche, Mick Kinane, Johnny Murtagh, Joanna Morgan, Nina and Paul Carberry, Barry Geraghty, Ruby Walsh, Rachael Blackmore, Joe Canning, Michael Donnellan, Pádraic Joyce and our very own Moycullen clubman who recently passed away, the great Paul Clancy. I would have played beside him, and it’s only then that you really see the difference between my level and the top, top level. - YOUR GTC HERO, AND WHY?
It has to be the great Pat Dirrane, RIP, who was taken from us much too soon. He was such an inspiration to train beside, and he was definitely one of the reasons why I love gravel cycling so much. I cycled with him for countless hours up in the wind farm, where we would be training for the gravel races that we had coming up. He was so dedicated to everything he did, that if one was only to do half of what he did, you would be doing okay. - GIVE US A FILM TITLE THAT SUMS UP YOUR APPROACH TO LIFE
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
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