On Sunday 20th July 2014 Newcastle AC Athlete Brendan Donnelly completed the Bolton Iron Man competition. An Iron Man event is a triathlon, involving a 2.4mile swim in open water followed by 112 mile bike ride and finished off by running a full marathon 26.2 miles.

Brendan who is now based in London, still makes regular appearances at local events, has spent the last 6 months in hard training for the event which included early morning swim’s in London’s Hyde Park, Serpentine lake with water temperatures often close to freezing, cycling trips from London over the Chiltern hills in Oxfordshire and training runs round London’s Parliament Hill Park famous for National Cross Country events. When home is Newcastle would take part in the H&D series and join with the Club on training runs in Donard, Tollymore and Castlewellan Forest Parks.
Nearly 2000 competitors started the Bolton Iron Man, with Brendan finishing in the top half with an overall time of 13 hours 30 minutes 39 seconds. Completing the swim in 1 hour 22minutes, the cycle in 7 hours and the final marathon run in 4 hours 55 minutes to become the first Newcastle AC member to complete a full Iron Man and also raised £1292.86 for Mcmillan Cancer Support.