Agegroup Multisport Podcast (Triathlon,Duathlon,Aquabike,Aquathlon) · AMP

Michael Donnelly GB Agegrouper

·1 hr 7 min·4 clips

Michael describes winning Ellesmere the morning his wife was in Clatterbridge, then going to Liverpool Hospital.

1. Agegroup Multisport Podcast features Michael Donnelly, known as Mickie, whose triathlon story is shaped by Northern Ireland, Runcorn, and recent family loss. 2. Michael is a paramedic by background, he works in an urgent care centre, and he has just finished a master's in advanced practice. 3. The episode asks how a late-start triathlete moved from local sprint races to GB age-group qualification while coping with grief. 4. Michael grew up in Fermanagh playing football, Gaelic football, and soccer, and he reached county squads at 16 or 17. 5. He studied sports studies and sports science, then kept playing football through university and back home in Northern Ireland. 6. After moving to Birmingham, he tried indoor climbing, MMA, and road cycling before triathlon arrived around age 29 or 30. 7. His first triathlon used a £400 road bike, triathlon shorts, a singlet, and a £20 No Fear shorty wetsuit from Sports Direct. 8. He says he trained largely alone because ambulance shifts made club sessions hard to keep. 9. Time trials near Pankridge and a Staffordshire club gave him more racing, but he still fitted sessions around day and night shifts. 10. Llandudno became a regular race for him, and he remembers the sea swim, the Orme, and making weekends away around events. 11. During lockdown he bought a turbo trainer before demand surged, then entered Alderford as a gift on his 40th birthday. 12. Alderford made him feel that sprint racing could become a serious target rather than a one-off outing. 13. He later noticed he was near the top of his age group in local UK Triathlon races, including Ellesmere and Notwich. 14. UK Triathlon's points league ended with Michael winning his age group, which pushed him to study his split times more closely. 15. He saw the run as the main weakness, so he spent a winter training 10K efforts in Delamere Forest and cut his 5K from about 22 minutes toward 18 or 19. 16. Southport tested him in a world-qualifying field, where the swim was crowded, physical, and against competitors he describes as including a London 2012 Olympian. 17. He says his bike was a road bike with clip-on bars, not a fitted time-trial bike, and he could see time being lost on the swim and the bike. 18. The episode is reflective and practical, with Richard Conway steering the conversation through results, rankings, bike fit, swimming, and race planning. 19. People doing age-group triathlon, sprint racers, and shift workers balancing training would likely relate most. 20. Listeners wanting pure race recaps without grief, ranking, or family context may skip it.

As heard by us

A June sprint win at Ellesmere sits beside hospital visits, guilt, and a hard reset in perspective.

The piece lands hardest when Michael Donnelly's June sprint win at Ellesmere is set against the harder stretch around it. His wife was in Clatterbridge for cancer treatment, he was there every day, and the guilt of leaving for the race hangs over the result.

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Why you'd press play

You want a triathlon story where a win and a hospital visit sit side by side.

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