Racing 795

All roads led to a sun-scorched Athy, Co. Kildare on Saturday last for what is now arguably the biggest day on the Irish Triathlon calendar.

Racing795’s largest contingent yet travelled the short distance to Athy, with high hopes of PBs after a good winter and spring training campaign. Martin Mimnagh, Jim Furlong, James Bodels, Tony Redmond and Barry Byrne were all tackling the Olympic Distance, whilst Siobhan Mimnagh and David Furlong were going in the shorter Sprint Distance event.

First up was Martin in the first (fast) wave making his debut with Racing795. A strong swim by Martin saw him out of the water and into to T1 in just over 23 mins. He put the head down then and 1 hr 10 mins later was back in for T2. An astounding 43 mins for the 10k resulted in a total time of 2:19:49 to put him in 167^th place overall. I hear a few seconds were added to the run due to a ‘Commando’ type roll in the stubble field. A powerful performance all round, with an improvement of 10 mins on his previous PB.

Next in were Jim, James and Tony. Jim had a strong swim in 25:38, with James around the 36 min mark and Tony 43 mins – the strong currents proving a handful for Tony. On to the bike then and Jim ground out a good 1:13 on the bike, with Tony feeling the heat on 1:34. Unfortunately disaster struck James as he punctured with 4k to go. Despite the insertion of some gunk into the dastardly tube, what went down just wouldn’t go up. Rumour has it that a PB was on the cards. Jim stormed home with a 10k of 47:16 to just dip under the magic 2:30 barrier at 2:29:32, and Tony getting in at 3:41:05. Another PB, this time for Jim, taking almost 15 minutes off his previous best.

Next in was Barry, making his Olympic distance debut. A strong swim by Barry had him into T1 at 25:28, and after his now customary lethargic T1 was away on the bike. 1 hr 19 later and back into T2 and on to 50 min for 10k for a finishing time of 2:38:47. A great performance in his first Olympic event, and so happy was he that he was rendered speechless afterwards (for about 2 hours).

Here’s the evidence – http://tiny.cc/Wo895

On to the Sprint event then, and first off was Siobhan, making history as Racing795’s first ever female triathlete. 750m, and a little over 10 mins later into T1, and on to a 47 min cycle for Siobhan. She powered home on the run (all that sneaky lunchtime training paying off) for a total time of 1:33:50. Next up was David and after just under 10 mins in the water exited for T1. A solid bike in 36:50 and a good run in 23:38 had David home in 1:13:38. More PBs all-round!

(Editor’s note – David F wrote this report and has been too modest re his performance – this was a very strong race for him, placing 24th in his age group in a field of over 150)

A great day was had in Athy, with everyone happy with their performances. Great to see a sizeable contingent of 795’ers doing the club proud at such a large event. Thanks also to Declan (?) King for the use of his yard for parking.

Results:

Filed under: Tri Race Reports |