Racing 795

[Report by Fran Burke, photo by Orla O’Muiri]

The excitement was building on the week leading up to Triathy, as it promised to be the biggest triathlete turnout in quite a while and all were looking forward to Racing795 and our distinctive jerseys popping up at this well attended and very well organised event.

I had my usual travel companion, but mercifully the journey to Athy is much shorter than Valentia! Due to local knowledge (I was right again PJ), we parked very close to transition after registration (A very well organised, no fuss setup i might add). Set up in transition under damp conditions. Again the transition was very professional and bike allocation takes all the hassle out of ..”Where is the best place to setup”. Along came the Furlongs and Orla O’Muiri (present in an official capacity with Triathlon Ireland). The rest of the crew followed suit, Fintan and Tracy, Paul Hutton, Adrian and Ann-Marie, Don.

I would safely say, it was the most miserable, cold wet morning spent on the side of a river and hats off to Tracy and Ann-Marie for sticking it out as support crew, carrying flip-flops, hats, duffel coats, fake tan and suncream . Joy was first to go in wave 3, Adrian in wave 5 followed by PJ, Fintan and Don in wave 6, David and I in wave 8 and Paul Hutton in wave 9. Unbelievably, it was warmer in the water than standing on the bank (and that’s with a wetsuit on). While the atmosphere was typically subdued as all apprehensive trathletes ponder on “how cold will the water be, etc”, once in, everyone livened up. Our wave headed up the Barrow to shouts of “Come on the aul lads”.

The swim went well for everyone, particularly Don who reached the 250 marker in third place and got an elbow in the jaw for his troubles ( not sure if the giver of said elbox has been recovered from the Barrow yet). No more than myself, Fintan took his time in the water, but his delay was due to looking for brown trout!. King of T1 was Don once again – he manages to fasten his helmet while removing the wetsuit as PJ flossed his teeth and gelled his hair .

The bike was particularly unpleasant with rain in the face going out and having to clear visors/glasses of fog and rain droplets. It’s a pity helmets don’t come with wipers! Having got to the turnaround, we were then faced with strong winds and biting cold, resulting in numb hands and feet, which makes T2 more difficult. Yours truly took the honours in the bike split (secret lies in the colour of the bike – white goes faster), followed closely by Don and PJ. Pj took the honours in T2 as the gel kept the hair in place . For the rest of us, numb hands and feet resulted in many fumbling to get into the runners. The run in Athy is probably the only crib that triathletes may have with the event – part road with a bad camber/path and lots of puddles, followed by running across someones backyard (Fintan thought he was lost at this point) and onto a muddy, grassy track along by the Barrow – not for the purest runners. Fintan completed the fastest run split in 20:14, on a route that does not lend to fast times, particularly in those wet conditions.

Great to see DavidF returning to triathlon (word has it he’s givin up the mtb stuff) along with Joy who was on secondment to that 26mile thingy. Tracy, amazingly, when David F emerged from the Barrow on Sunday morn, the crowd gasped – they thought it was Jenson Button strutting his stuff, 2 days on the trot in Athy. Paul Hutton returned to the fray with a very respectable time, following a lengthy absence due to injury, eventhough, as he queued for food afterwards, he was told “Athletes only” – he wasnt too impressed. Nice to see Adrian Ryan returning to competitive action also and happily he arrived with air in the wheels this time! PJ, you could learn from Adrian and do as Adrian does and have the hair gelled before the event – save time in T1!

More importantly, it was great to have a crew from the club, thanks to all the shouts of encouragement from Orla, Ann-Marie and Tracy. The post mortem continued in Bradbury’s of Athy over tea and cakes.

Results

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[Report by PJ Dunne]

I have a rule if it takes longer to get there than your going to be racing it’s too far! Valentia island triathlon is the exception . Stunning location and the idea of swimming from the main land to the island sounded appealing.

The road trip:

Roll on Friday morning and another epic road trip. Frank and myself were travelling together, Don coming down later in the day. Shared driving was the order of the day as by the time we had got to Portlaoise I’d heard all about how driving effects Frank’s medical condition. (Won’t mention it as I don’t even know what it is!)

Got to the B&B after lots of forced rest stops by the boss late afternoon.  Dump bags and catch car ferry over to the island (your man is still counting the €6 Frank gave him in 5cents)

We decide to do recce of the bike & run route, just as well as there’s an awful rattle coming from my rear end and quite a few very sharp downhill turns. Time well spent. Return to car and check my bike, turns out my cassette is very loose. Of course we didn’t bring any tools. Will sort Saturday morning.

Down to registration and we meet Don there.

The two lads are hungry so we head for food. Just as well I’m not hungry because there’s fish, fish and more bloody fish on the menu! The two more refined 795ers tuck into smoked salmon and brown bread. I sip water as we all look out window at the sea. Eamonn Tilley had been in for a dip that evening and had said that the current was very strong, he had to aim way over to the right. Frank and myself I’m sure looked worried.

Retire to room which turns into a bike workshop with Frank changing tyres and all sorts of things. Now that I think of it what was that battery pack for? An engine?

Race morning:

I find a nice man from Cork who gives me the cassette tightening tool I need, but in my haste to get it done quickly I lose the quick release spring! Drama. That same nice man from cork gives me one from a spare bike we has with him. Drama over.

We set up in a numbered transition with minutes to spare. Meet Don and we just chill. Sea is like a swimming pool ,not a ripple. 5 ferry trips later and we are ready to go.

Don is off in wave 1 me in 2 and Frank in 3. Only 3 minutes between each wave which is nice. Don reports after that there were mass brawls at the start. We all concur that the water wasn’t near as cold as Courtown.

Before we all knew it the swim was over, Don gliding across in 10:52 Frank a pb of 15:51 And me 14:30. Happy days.

Transition was long and narrow (easy now) so a good 200m run from the water.

I think Don must have a PA in transition he’s so quick. Meanwhile Frank & myself shower and change clothes!

The first 4 km of the bike is up a hill. Roads are narrow and with 550 or so competing and 3 waves there’s people everywhere. Frank reckons he passed about 200 on the bike but with his counting who knows. But he did put in the quickest bike split of the 3 of us and had the 10th quickest spilt of he day in his age group. Don will have his work cutout for him to stay with Frank on that fast white bike this year.

Franks bike 32:04 Don 32:32 PJ 34:16

T2 was a breeze for everyone with Frank getting his now customary calf cramp .

The run was an out & back, 2.5 km up hill 2.5 down simple!

Saw Don when he had 1.5 left in the run and he was giving it socks.

Got to the turnaround and it was all downhill from there. Opened up and let fly for 2.5 km.

Saw Frank coming up the hill, shite he’s not that far behind and the big lanky legs will get me coming down the hill! I open up some more turns out I did the 2.5 km in 9:08. Beat that Hogan!

We all cross the finish line empty but happy.

“Great triathlon will definitely do this one again” was the consensus.

Weather gods also helped. Ideal conditions, sunny, little wind and 15 deg c.

We pack up and head for home. Just before we stop for food our phones go with the results. Dean Watson Sports Timing on the ball. (they did mtb race and are doing our Tri)

Great discussions (or shite talk) over dinner re times.

Overall:

Don came 65 th in a time of 1:07:43

13th in his age group

Frank 163 th in a time of 1:14:17

22th in his age group

Myself 149 th in a time of1:13:38

30 th in my ag.

Considering the top quality field I think we did great if I do say so myself! Frank and myself will have some right battles this year cant wait. Frank and Don will do battle on the bike splits every race. And Don in the swim well 3 rd fastest time in his age group says it all really.

C’mon we could do with some company, or you will get fed up hearing about he 3 stooges all summer!

Results: Overall | Sorted by Category

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Feral’s Lost Sheep Report

(What I did this summer by Fergal “Feral” Kelly, aged 36 and three quarters)

1.9k open water swim, 1k run to transition, 83k bike ride featuring 2 category 1 climbs, half marathon. But first for the challenging bit… getting my bike on the rack before 6:45am.

I am not a morning person. A lot of ye perverts seem to enjoy going training and racing and being up and about at 6 in the morning. I do not. In my extensive preparation for the race I had not acclimatised my body to hours of hardship first thing in the damn morning. I did however discover that a few years ago some dude got disqualified from The Lost Sheep for marshal abuse. I was almost disappointed when it turned out that I got the bike on the rack in time and got the flock out of the transition area without incident. I even went back in to avail of the little boys room after 7am. Still no incident. Those marshals have really got to learn to be more assertive.

On to the start area. A feckin kilometre away. Standin around waitin. Standin. Waitin. Getting cold. Lookin stupid on a pier. Race director observes my race technique is to not enter the water until the very last moment. Race director is informed that I do not have a race technique for open water triathlon swims. Race director notes my race number and makes mental note to not leave the bay until my body had been recovered.

Race start – front crawl – face froze – after some very skilled manoeuvring on my part, “I got out of heavy traffic”. On with the breast stroke. No idea what it’s like up the competitive end of the swim, but tis gas down the back looking at lads going diagonally over and back the whole length of the course. A huge advantage of breaststroke is you can see em comin into your path and burst the sh1te out of em with kicks and boxes. Breaststroke has a much wider assault radius, so there’s feck all chance of em hittin you back. Raa Raa Ree, Kick em in the knee, Raa Raa Rollox, Kick em in the other knee.

Stan Laurel (of Laurel and Hardy/Felix and Unger [Oscar?] fame) had advised me you’d need at least 3 litres of water on board. Sorted. Drank the stuff like a fish. All I needed was gills. Another fine mess you’ve gotten me into.

Dunno whether it was the aqua-karate or scissor kickin in a wetsuit or what but the inside of my left knee began to hurt. After the second buoy it was face her for home – home being the white gable end of a house. Had to change to front crawl on account of the knee. About 40 strokes later, I looked up. I was going at right angles to the house. No-one within an asses roar of me. Back to breast stroke. Ow. Except now I had no-one left to kick. Or box. The boredom. Just me, myself and I. “What has you here?” “Swimmin” “Me too” “Me Too” “Lovely day for it” “Tis” “Lovely” “So where are ye from?” “Bunclody” “Jaysus what a coincidence….” Thank feck we ran out of things to say to each other before we got back to the slipway or we’d have looked fierce stupid getting out of the water. Cos we didn’t look stupid in the wetsuit at all. (See incriminating photo, link below) Thank feck there were 2 strong fellas at the slipway to help me to my feet. Legs like jelly. Observers noted other swimmers being helped to their feet on the slipway and just falling off the side of the slipway.

Slow transition. 1k run didn’t help. Very cold extremities didn’t help. Rootin through bags for stuff didn’t help. The thoughts of 2 mountain passes probably slowed me down the most though.

Made sure I didn’t have a TT chainset on the bike. Well actually I didn’t – but I meant to check. It’s the thought that counts. Was expecting to get blown all over the shop on the bike, but the weather was relatively calm. Not flat calm, but definitely nowhere near as bad as it could’ve been – what with the remnants of hurricane what’s-her-face last week. Despite being way down the field at the start of the bike, 3 fellas passed me in the first 5k. Oops. Not good. Overtook my first bike shortly – they were punctured. First of many punctures. Slow n steady up the Healy pass.

Which reminds me – the Murphy family crashed and were stuck in their car when along came the Healys and the Balls. Thankfully the Murphys were dragged from their car by the Healys.

Meanwhile, back in the saddle… At the top of the Healy pass I was on the steep top 200m 13degrees and next thing I was over it. Not a patch on Corrabut. Nice descent though. If only. If only for a few small things. Balls. The tarmac was wet. The bends were very tight. My tyres were balder than Stan Laurels forehead and the cold seawater had shrivelled my proverbial balls to the size of peanuts. Skidded twice at the first bend, so it was softly slowly down the hill.

At some point before the Caha pass, with feck all to do but pedal and think, (me & myself had fallen out with I and were no longer on speaking terms) I made a mental note. I need a Dictaphone to record my race report while on the bike next time. 2 things wrong there.

1. I remembered my mental note, so no need for a Dictaphone.

2. Next time? What the fu…?

There was a smaller climb and descent before the Caha pass. Pissed it down the descent faster than the speed of light. (Light travelling through sodium at -272degC goes about 60kph). Caha is long. Very long. Really long. Fierce long. Not steep, but long. Long and slow. Slow and long. Finally there’s a tunnel at the top, and yup, you’ve guessed it – you get to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. The far side is neither long nor slow. It’s short and quick. Pissed it down the side of that mountain too. Faster than a flock of sheep on roller skates. Unfortunately the road surface was poxy for the last few kilometres. Lumpy. Like porridge that wasn’t made right.

T2: couldn’t find me tea or biscuits or the newspaper. Had to just toddle on with mesef and run a half marathon. As you do when you’ve no tea, biscuits or newspaper.

A marshal informed me Ireland beat Oz 15-6. Deadly. Adrenaline rush. I had a new target all of a sudden. I was gonna break the 6 hour mark. That adrenaline rush lasted a good 50yards and then I copped on to myself. I’d only run longer than 8 miles twice in my life. No matter. Head down. Keep going. Left, right, left, right. Keep the head down. Left, right, left, right. Head up. Feck – I’d only travelled 8 steps. Water stop 1 came and went. Water stop 2 came and went. I went as well. Den there it was. A nice red cone. The nicest reddest coniest cone I ever did see. Halfway. Deadly. Could still make 6 hours. Just don’t up the ante too early… Water stop 3 came and went. Time to up the ante. The ante went up. Me ould aqua-karate wound wasn’t having any of it. The ante came back down. And fairly lively at that. Had to slow down going downhill of all things. The last 4k was all downhill. The Healys and the Balls weren’t feelin great either. Who’d’ve thought the last few k of a middle distance triathlon could be uncomfortable on the body? 6 hour mark me bollix. Just get to the finish line.

20 minute queue for the physios after the race. Aaaaaarrrrrgghhh. Sod that. Off to the Jacuzzi instead. 2 hours kip. Big feed and then the world of pints.

Only realised Peter wasn’t taking part when there was a space next to my bike on the rack. Commiserations on not making it to the start line. You wouldn’t have liked it – it was just too damn easy.

Great course (if only they’d make it a bit harder). Organisation spot on. Marshals very friendly – which is a bit of a problem if you’re looking to get in a row at 7am to avoid doing a feckin triathlon. Good goody bag. Would I do it again? Would I fu… Are ya mad? What kind of a spanner would do that to themselves. I’m taking up knitting.

Big thanks to Emily for chauffeuring etc… and for putting up with my very very foul mood prior to racking my bike. And ta to big bro Eoin for the big feeds, accommodation and entertainment in general. And cheers to all for the support and well wishes.

The feckin report is longer than the feckin race. If ye want to know about any more races I’m doin ye may just come with me.

Photos [with captions!]

Results

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[Race Report by Brian O’Shaughnessy]

Frank, PJ, Brian and Lorraine at Clogherhead. (Photo by Pixels Promotions)

An early start as usual of 6.45am when you have to travel with Laurel(aka Frank) and Hardy(P.J), the lads always like to get there a good 2 hours before the registration tent is even put up. Collecting Lorraine on the way, hoping that we’d woke Barry and the 3 nippers in the process, PJ in fairness never put a foot wrong till Frank stuck on the Sat Nav and duly got us lost within 5 minutes. Sea looked pretty rough when we got there, but most people we talked to before hand said it was going to go ahead. Registration which was out in the open bar a small tent was quite slow for anyone who queued like Lorraine and myself, no problem for the two boys who took the ryanair express route! Goody bag wasn’t bad, main thing was a bag for carrying your wetsuit. Transition was either side of the road with plenty of room and well marked. Wetsuits on and ready to go, Lorraine in wave 1, Frank and myself in wave 2 and PJ in wave 3. The organisers put a buoy out in the water and it was blown down the coast about a km in no length – swim cancelled, to be replaced with a 2.5km run. In hindsight just as well cause I reckon Frank and myself would have ended up close to Belfast if they had let us in!

First run was on a flat route out and back with a strong wind in our snots on the way out. Up on the bikes for a nice quick start with the wind at our backs for the first 2/3 km. After that it was a series of rolling hills and not as flat as expected, surface was good however and virtually no traffic. Couple of long stretches with the wind in our puss which was hard going for all but the last 5km were very cool – really fast section running right beside the sea with a gale at your back. Out and back 5km run (200m short of 5km probably) pretty flat for the most part, met Frank, Phil Murphy from Wexford Tri and Pj who was motoring very well. Nice finish with loads of support along the way. A good day for all with a partly injured Frank with another very good time on the bike, Lorraine with a great 2nd run (24 mins versus the 30 minutes plus she was predicting!) and getting close to breaking 40 minutes (if we could stop her from admiring the houses along the course!) in the cycle but PJ took top honours with top dog on the cycle after a few maulings from Frank recently and top 5km run to round off a seriously good and consistent year for him particularly on the running front. He will go hard on the club championship this year and deservedly so.

Now If only we could have been beamed back home at this stage – Lorraine and myself had to listen to Carlow/Galway version of little Britain for the next two and a half hours. Between colour choices of compression socks, arm warmers, racing 795 underpants and yoga (Frank – you and yoga are just plain wrong, it’s like crisps and tomato sauce, it’s just not right)

Personally my neck was sore this morning from having to check were the bikes still on the carrier the whole way home.

Would I do this tri again? Yes, really good course, best transition of the year, little or no traffic and well organised.

(Thanks to Jim for the Bike carrier and PJ for driving and Frank for the thay, biscuits and getting us lost)

Result and Photos available on TI site

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