Is the country gone mad? After a week of boozy excess in Galway it was sobering to see images on Sunday's news of the Dublin City Triathlon, which ended up a Duathlon due to the capital's poor water quality. (Nice to see someone else getting it for a change, isn't it?)

While Galway was busy putting on its glad rags, getting soaked, and drinking too much, the rest of the country was operating as normal, or so they tell me. But 'normal' seems to have changed.

Where once it was the preserve of Americans and hippies to go jogging and do yoga, now we're all supposed to be at it. If you're not playing tag rugby, you're training for a marathon, or a charity walk, or doing the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, which used to be reserved for nuns and people who were 'finding themselves'.

What's going on? Since when are we a nation of fervent triathletes? These days we have no time on our hands because of appointments with a cross-trainer, rather than with our favourite bar stool.

Is this an unnoticed by-product of the Celtic Tiger that has snuck past the guard dog that is the recession, or is it a product of the same recession?

Are we suddenly so strapped for cash that the only option is exercise? Or, after years of champagne and cappucinos, are we trying to offset the results of the fat-cat Celtic Tiger diet?

Because there's no doubt about it, sport is making a comeback. Every week this paper features another charity sporting challenge, or a tale of derring-do by an amateur sportsperson. We're beginning to be genuinely conscious of our fitness, and we're having fun improving it.

A report carried out by the ESRI last May, 'Sporting Lives: An Analysis of a Lifetime of Irish Sport', showed that young adults are playing significantly more sport than Irish people their age have ever done. The body noted a significant increase in adults participating in jogging, swimming, and golf, while soccer, basketball and rugby have also grown.

Meanwhile, one-off events such as marathons, charity runs and triathlons have never been so popular, while the Fit4Life programme has plenty of fans in Galway. This Saturday will see the annual Streets of Galway run taking place, and organisers say they were "overwhelmed" by the number of applications they received.

Of course, there's one part of the Irish psyche that hasn't changed. Whether, like last week, we're watching the race, or, like this week, we're running in it, we all reach the same post-finish line venue - the pub. But maybe now we deserve that pint.

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