A County Waterford based priest took part in the country's first Iron Man Triathlon to raise funds for his local church renovation. Fr Liam Power who is curate in Saint John's Parish in Waterford City took part in the event which was held in Galway city.
Speaking to the local media in Waterford, Fr Power who trained with the Waterford Triathlon club as part of his training for the event, said he was delighted to complete the course in 6 hours and 25 minutes.
According to Fr Liam, due to the weather conditions on the day the 1.9km swim was deemed to be too dangerous in the conditions and was shortened to 750m which was followed by a 90km cycle and a 21km run.
He said that, “the sea was very rough and the swim was difficult but overall the course was grand. Torrential rain during the cycle added to the tough conditions but it was a nice course and relatively flat. The run went fine, we had to do three laps of Salthill and on the last lap I got cramps and had to walk so that slowed me a bit but I was happy with my time.”
Fr Liam said that he trained for months for the event and was delighted to do it as it helped raise funds through sponsorship for Saint John's Church, which is in debt to the tune of €90,000 after renovations took place there recently.
He continued, “It was very exciting to be part of it and it was a great challenge. It was my first ever attempt and I was delighted to do it and get sponsorship to fundraise for the renovations. I got a terrific response from the parishioners in terms of sponsorship and I'm very grateful to them.”