Meet the member – David Gregg
Well David, how’s the form? How’s everything going for you?
Things are good, different, but good. Very busy with work, thank god and all the family are healthy and well. That’s all we can ask for in the current climate.
Tell us about how you got interested in Triathlon and how you came to join Pulse?
I started off doing adventure races and I did the Quest Glendalough and I was looking for something to push on from that, I met Brian Power through work and he told me all about Pulse TC and the training he was doing for Ironman. I was very impressed.
Tell us about your first race.
My first race was Athlone Sprint. I loved it, I hadn’t a clue what I was doing or where I had to go for T1, or what gear to bring with me but I had met John & Marian Goodall prior to the race and when I saw them, I latched onto to them like a toddler with their parents on their first day at school. I had only begun to swim a few months prior to that, so a 750m swim was daunting to say the least. It went well (I didn’t drown) so met for a drink afterwards in the sun and had the craic.
What’s your favourite race/distance to race?
To be honest I have only completed the Athlone sprint and at the end of that season I severed my Achilles playing astro football. This has taken me over 14 months to recover and an awful lot of physio but thanks to strength and conditioning in Westpark and my physio Aine Neill they have rebuilt me.
What’s your favourite Pulse memory so far?
Well, with injury and now covid, I haven’t had that many but I suppose the more I get to know people, the coffee and cake in the carpark out in Killiney after a swim is always good for a catch up.
What’s the best thing about being in a Triathlon club?
I suppose you are looking for like minded people. The coaches are great. When I first joined I could barely swim two lengths of the pool. One of the coaches took me aside and told me straight up if I wanted to swim for a triathlon I would need to swim 4 times a week to get up to speed. So I swam 6 days a week and eventually it clicked with me.
When you’re not swimming or pedalling or running, what keeps you busy?
I have three very energetic children and my boys love to mountain bike so between that and work it leaves the minimal amount of time for training.I have also been training for the ice-mile since last September. This requires you to swim a mile in water temperatures below 5 degrees. I was swimming out in the Clontarf baths with the Eastern Bay swim club thanks to a friend of mine Fergal Sommerville and I received my invitation only before Christmas and then it was cancelled in the first week in January.
Outside of Triathlon, what’s your favourite sporting memory or achievement (Doesn’t have to be your own!)?
Doing my first DCM. I had to train so hard for it. It was great fun and really tough. I blew up at the 20 mile mark but still completed it. I had my wife 6 months pregnant driving around the course checking on me, she was great. It’s the sense of accomplishment you get when you cross the finish line, it makes all the training worth while.
What’s the bucket list, once in a lifetime race you’d love to experience?
I would absolutely love to do the Norseman, who wouldn’t love to jump off the back of a ship in the middle of the night for a swim. If that wasn’t possible I was love to do the Patagonman Xtri.
What’s the next Triathlon goal you’d like to tick off?
I am doing a swim from Inis Meain to Inis Oirr which is a 5km swim in August all going well.I would love to do a 70.3 ironman, either in Cork or anywhere to come to think of it but first I would have to get a few Olympic distance triathlons under my belt first. With the race season the way it is an the moment, I would love to book a lot of races on triathlon Ireland and see how my body responds.
What’s your favorite book/movie/tv show? What do you like about them?
RUN! By Dean Karnazes is my favorite book especially when I was trail running before I joined pulse, it just shows you what a normal guy can do from starting to run to completing the most mentally challenging ultra marathons. Movie would be Saving Private Ryan, who doesn’t like a good war movie and my favorite TV show would be anything half decent on Netflix.
Who inspires you, be it in sports or in regular life?
In sports, it’s the always the underdogs which inspire me and in regular life in the current climate it would have to be the medical staff on the front line at the moment. Putting on the PPE and looking after all the patients.
Finally, what one nugget of advice would you give to a new member starting out on their Triathlon journey?
Don’t buy all the Pulse gear and get your name put onto it and then put on a lot of weight from an injury and never get to wear it. Only joking, as I’m relatively new myself to this whole thing, try and get out with the group cycles and group runs and get to know people and ask lots of questions. There is so much information to learn and there is always someone in the club that will have done it already.