Racing 795

Frank is 2012 Club Champion

Posted on November 26, 2012 by racing795

Club Champion 2012, Frank Burke

Frank Burke is our 2012 Club Champion. The result was announced at the Racing795 end-of-season party in Ferns last Saturday night. Frank was presented with the Championship trophy by last year’s winner, Lorraine Byrne. Frank had a long and busy season, starting early in the year with the long drive to Valentia in Co Kerry. He competed in 9 triathlons including 4 sprints, 4 Olympics, and just recently, a half Ironman. Between races Frank is ever present at club training sessions, and is always on hand to offer help and support to club mates. That’s what Racing795 is all about, so Frank is a popular and deserving champion.

Club championship runner-up this year was David Furlong who scored well in early season Mountain Bike races. New boy Fintan Redmond took third place in his first full season with the club.

Frank Burke was also presented with the 2012 Summer League trophy to add to his Winter League success back in January. That’s a clean sweep for Frank in 2012 making him the man to beat next year. Looking forward to it already!

Tom Hogan was presented with a special award in recognition of representing Ireland at The World Mountain Running Championships.

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Ironman 70.3 Lanzarote – 10th November 2012

Posted on November 15, 2012 by racing795

PJ Dunne and Frank Burke successful in Lanzarote.

[PJ and Frank have just returned from competing in the Ironman 70.3 race in Lanzarote. Well done lads, from all your club mates. Here’s Frank’s report.]

This race was chosen by PJ last April and in a moment of madness, I agreed to tag along. Well, what an experience! Ironman branded races are known to be expensive, but I have to say they really pull out all the stops and make it a great event. PJ planned it with military precision from travel, to accomodation, bike transportation to training schedules and everything went like clockwork. I did read the race briefing on the plane though

Thursday morning’s view from the window brought sunshine and high seas – imagine Lahinch without the rain… and PJ had already assembled his bike Any idea of R an R on Thursday and Friday was quickly dispelled with reassembling bike, run, register, bike spin , swim, race briefing, racking the bikes, handing in gear and pasta party (for a bit of carb loading!)

Saturday morning finally arrived and at 6am (after PJ had his pre-race shower before getting into a dirty, smelly lagoon )we were busy making up the drinks and if anyone looked in the window, would have thought we were part of a drug cartel! Out the door and met by a wind that would have hens laying the same egg several times.. There was very little conversation after that.

Wetsuits on and out of transition by 7.30am. Yvonne and Louise (PJ’s sister) arrived at that ungodly hour to wish us luck having got a taxi from the other side of the island. They looked a little worse for wear…it must have been the early morning start!!!

The Swim:

Down to the swim start and the Pros were off first and I did debate going with them but said I’d hang on for PJ! Next thing we knew there was a hooter and off we went in the biggest wave of swimmers I’ve experienced todate – 700ish! Our trial swim proved very useful as a lot of swimmers got caught on the sandbanks during race day and ran aground as we passed by (yes, even me!) on the inside. Heard after that two competitors had a boxing match in the middle of the lagoon, as one guy lost his goggles and grabbed them off the next triathlete swimming by. He picked on the wrong guy by all accounts as he dealt with him there and then and handed him by the throat to the marshalls before continuing on . The swim went well and I couldn’t believe I was only 42 mins. Now where is PJ? Ran into him in transition. He was going out as I was coming in. Race on!!

The Bike:

Headed off on the bike at a steady pace and soon realised that it was going to be even tougher than we had previously thought. The cross winds meant energy was being used on holding a straight line. At one stage, I noted several triathletes leaning into the wind , so their bikes were at at a funny tilt. ??? At one stage, with the wind behind me I clocked 72.8Kph on the flat, but a lot of the route was crosswinds or in your face. Average speed in the crosswinds was 25kph at best. It was a relief when the turn off came for the climb to Haria. This was the most enjoyable part IMO – it was a bump in the road compared to Mount Leinster. Passed a lot on the climb and there was a bit of banter along the way as names and country of origin were on the race numbers. The descent was fast and had some serious switchbacks. I erred on the side of caution on this due to cross winds. One guy known as Johnny 56 from Gotri clocked 87kph coming of this stretch. On the home stretch, I got a hamstring cramp and stopped briefly to release. A spanish competitor stopped to help, however I ushered him on – what sportsmanship though. After a couple of more stops to water the dry ground, and investigate a strange bike rattle (long story…),back to Club la Santa and no sign of PJ. As it turned out he put in a great bike leg, so the possibility of catching him were slim to none, but it’s never over til its over…

The Run:

Got off the bike feeling reasonable but after a km, got a cramp in the hamstring and stopped to stretch it out. Thankfully that was the only occurrence of cramp and ran (shuffled) the rest of the 21k. Met PJ who was now 10 mins ahead and he was running comfortably, whereas I was suffering. Each time i met him, he was putting more distance between us. The support crew of Yvonne and Louise came into play at this stage with shouts of encouragement and some sports drink. The shouts of encouragement from Mark Lacey (who ran a serious half marathon) of PixelsPromotions along with PJ’s kept the spirits up. PJ only seemed to wane a little on the return journey of the last loop, but overall put in a sterling performance in all three disciplines. Final Results are as follows:

PJ Swim:40:03 Bike:3:27:33 Run:1:52:45 Overall: 6:12:21 Overall Rank:311/650 finishers

Frank Swim:42:14 Bike:3:33:31 Run:2:03:47 Overall: 6:30:06 Overall Rank:400/650 finishers

Immediate thoughts after the race from both of us….”How would you do a full Ironman?” Peter, Jim and James, while I always thought it was a great achievement, I now have a far greater appreciation of what it took to complete that amazing feat. Hoping to get some R&R now as PJ didn’t let me have a minute in Lanzorate. PJ’s taking up ironing for the winter

Very well organised race with a great after race meal and awards night. BTW at the awards night a 60+ lady and a 65+ man completed it in 7.5hrs– the mind boggles! Margaret Sills of GBR was the lady in question and she informed me that she does between 6 and 12 hours training per week! Overall it was a great adventure and we learned a lot from this experience – its now banked for the next one….

A word of thanks to all the 795ers on their good luck text, emails and posts – in the words of El Presidenta -Jim, we completed, competed and conquered!

Keywords over the last few days were: wind, cross winds and refuel. Even the plane on the journey home had to refuel in Portugal!

Results

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World Mountain Running Championships 2012

Posted on September 6, 2012 by racing795

Tom in action at the world senior trial in 2011

[The World Mountain Running Championships took place in Temu-Ponte di Legno, Italy on 2nd September. Tom Hogan was there for Ireland. Congratulations Tom, from all in Racing795. Here’s a brief report from the man himself.]

My first world championships started out with a 4am drive to the airport to meet up with the rest of the 20 strong team and catch the red eye to Milan. Tired but upbeat and optimistic we arrived in Milan around 11am to be told that we would have to wait till 3 for our bus to bring us to Temu. The tight Italians decided it would be best to squeeze two or three countries on each bus, so we were stuck until both the Canadians and the Ukraine shot putters arrived. A further 3 hours on a bus driving from the 30 degree sunshine of Milan to the hail of Temu we arrive at our hotel exhausted but the legs need to get moving so we head out for 40 min run to get the blood flowing.

Awake on Saturday morning to monsoon like weather and I’m seriouly worried as I only have racing flats with me that have zero grip. As anyone that’s been away racing will know the day before is unbelievably boring. A couple of short runs and a whole lot of lying around doing nothing and that’s about it. The only excitement of the day coming with the arrival of the drug testers to test one of our senior women. So bored I nearly wish it was me they came to test.

Race day and the clouds have gone and the temp is up, happy days. The juniors and senior women ( some serious talent in this group Sean Tobin 17 ran 3.45 for 1500 this year and Sarah McCormack 15.26 for 5k) left the hotel early to catch the bus and ski lifts to their respective starts but as the mens start is a 5 min walk from our hotel it’s more sitting around studying the course profile and pics and thinking what the f*^k am I doing here. Finally get to the start and spend more time looking at the Africans warming up than getting myself ready. They’re amazing, they jog around in military style formation dancing more than running.

11am, gun goes and the elbows fly, as we enter the narrow almost vertical streets of Temu. The first 2k are probably the toughest of the race as we wind our way through the town and up into the forests. 3k in we reach the races only decent 800m of twisting single track similar in steepness to the downhill track in bunclody. A couple of hundred in I came to a 90 bend the brakes don’t work and I’m off down the slope on my arse, crawl back up and I’ve lost around 15 places. The next 4 km is rolling hills and actually enjoyable but then we exit the forest and have a 300m hill that’s so steep I pass people who are crawling on all fours. Back onto more runnable ground and with the snow covered peaks all around us we climb up through the supporters who were amazing it was like the tour de France with the crowds closing in and running beside you with their flags and drums. With 500 to go its all level to the finish and I kick for home determined to catch a Swiss and Czech runner, pass the Swiss guy who gives up but the Czech guy kicks with me and we fall across the line in the same time. Lungs are on fire, legs are in bits, can’t stand up but I’m delighted, my own personal goal going out was to score on the team(4 to score) so job done.

Results

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XC Marathon Championships – 26th August 2012

Posted on August 28, 2012 by racing795

Before the off, David T, DavidC and Brian Mc. Fortunately we don’t have the “after” shot, it wouldn’t have been pretty!

[Report by David Conway]

Team Ballyhoura Facebook Status sometime last week: “Due to popular demand the 2012 XC Marathon champs course has been extended from 65km to 75km.”

I nearly spilled my tea. “WTF? Popular demand? Who in their right mind…?”

Damn this was going to be tough, but I had been targeting this race all year and I wasn’t going to be put off. This was going to be my comeback race after many months with a dodgy back. My goal was to at least match and hopefully improve on last year’s performance. Sunday dawned, bright and sunny. The Tullywagon picked me up bang on time and before we knew it we were lined up at the start. We were joined on the line by Brian McElwee doing the marathon for the first time. David T, like me, was hoping to improve on last year.

The whistle blew and away we went in a mass start. The Ballyhoura MTB trails are Coillte’s finest contribution to Irish outdoor life. So it was something of a surprise when the peloton headed straight out the gate onto the public road! Very odd to be bunch-riding on the road in an MTB race but thankfully it was just a short loop to spread out the field before we headed back into the trail centre and the singletrack.

The first 30-40 minutes were tough, but soon I was up to operating temperature and cruising, loving the descents, and finding some nice rhythm on the climbs. Brian Mac and I rode together for the first 30kms or so (we lost Tully in the melee at the start) until Brian announced he was feeling a bit ropey, stomach cramps from putting too much electrolyte in his bottle. I thought a little plain water would help so I gave him some. Little did I realise it was magic water! Within minutes he was miraculously cured, upped the pace and left me behind. I tried drinking some plain water but funnily it didn’t work for me.

In fairness I didn’t help my own cause. It started to rain about the same time, and for some reason it never occurred to me to remove my cycling glasses, even though I couldn’t see a thing through them. I rode for about 20 minutes with the glasses perched on the end of my nose looking out over the top of them. I was hitting rocks, misjudging corners, clipping trees and wondering wtf was going on. Was I so tired already? Finally I copped on. The problem was simple, the glasses were blocking my peripheral vision, which you don’t realise you need until it’s taken away. I pocketed the specs, gave myself a lecture and soon I was back in the groove, but by this time Brian was a speck in the distance and I never caught him again.

The first half of the course had been a nice mix of fire roads and trail centre singletrack, with a few bits of tricky natural singletrack thrown in to keep us on our toes. Things changed a bit as the day wore on. The outer limits of the course were bleak and windswept, with endless rutted muddy lanes and open clearfelled hillsides. The organisers were clearly aware that this could seem depressing, and in an effort to cheer us up (or mess with our heads?) someone had deposited half a dozen rubber ducks in one of the bigger puddles/lakes. Made me smile anyway.

The rain stopped for the last 15kms or so and I found myself in the thick of some racing drama. The elite women were having a right old battle for the final podium position. I decided to stay out of it but I reckon I could have taken that third slot! I finished bang on target in just over 5 hours, 22^nd in my own Vets category, and 4^th in the Elite Women’s race.

Brian had finished 2 minutes before me but he was a bit glum because he had lost his car key out on the course. He needn’t have worried. In his second miracle of the day someone found his key and handed it in! David T finished soon after in a much improved time from last year.

Team Ballyhoura ran a fantastic event once again, with the nicest friendliest marshals you could ever hope to meet. Thank you one and all. Thanks also to David T for the lift.

Race route on Strava

Results: Vets | Masters | Elite Men | Elite Women

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Dublin City Triathlon – 26th August 2012

Posted on August 28, 2012 by racing795

[Report by Don Morrissey]

“Leptospirosis (Weils Disease) is a rare and severe bacterial disease that incubates in the body and can cause death in certain cases if not treated properly”, or so the Vodafone Dublin City Triathlon Website and pre-race emails stated. Not the most enticing of PR I’ve ever encountered….
Luckily I’d done this race last year and the chances are, well lets just say ‘slim’. I did email the officials to see if snorkels were allowed due to the threat, but……

So it was that time of year again, the season finale or close to it anyway when the Dublin City Triathlon arrives upon us. It’s a tough technical slog but strangely, one I like. As Gavin Noble (our Olympian) put it, ‘not the fastest course I think’. 5.30am rise and after some plodding around searching for gels, found myself in transition at 7.45ish. This year the transition was completely changed from the difficulties encountered in 2011. The Racing 795 slots were beside one of only two trees in transition, so myself Frank and Fintan had the best marker possible, no need for usual transition recce.

Didin’t see Fintan or Tracy before the race but managed to catch Frank. I was in Wave One and the two buckos in Wave 4. Hooter and we’re off. The 1st 700 is against the flow and long, very long….. Got to turnaround without incident and back down with the flow. However those evil feckers in Piranha :twisted: , decide it’s best to swim past the exit and down a further 100 metres to another turnaround and that last 100 metres is back against the flow when you least need it.

Exited in 32nd overall in a time of 25.27, arguably my best time this year (only six mins behind our Olympian). Meanwhile Frank and Fintan were having a good battle in the water with Fintan exiting in 35.58 and Frank in 37.35 (a whole 6 mins faster than last year). Transition was much longer than last year due to the changes but I got through with the usual efficiency.

The bike course was tougher this year with the wind, it was against you on the long hills and few straights and with you on the technical sections and downhills (when of course it is of little use). First lap funnily is like a recce, seeing how fast you can hit the technical bits, without losing grip, so it’s a little tentative. By lap five, it’s lunatic time, weaving in and out of other athletes, like a man possessed. In fact on the last lap I nearly missed the exit gate going too fast, to the screams and frowns of the marshalls. I finished in a split of 1:11:30, Frank just behind in 1:12:07 (I beat the hoor! ) and Fintan just behind again in 1:13:21 (definitely Fintan’s best bike split).

Then came the real slog, the run. There are over 300kms of roads and tarmac paths in the Park but for some reason DCT decide to make it a cross-country course. To add insult to injury, the ground conditions were very poor, muck, roots, gravel, deep trails, hills….. Of course in true 2012 form, I managed to hit a root and lamp myself off the ground (3rd fall this year) and it was only 3k into the run, another 7k to go . Managed to get home in a slow but solid split time of 46:12, Frank came home just behind in 47:46 and poor Fintan (run extraordinaire) was visited by the ‘Dizzy Demons’ and came home in 54.01. In true Olympic style, Gavin Noble won in a time of 2:02:53, I finished in 2:26:43 54th overall, Frank in 2:41:43 152nd and Fintan in 2:47:39 198th.

We were greeted at the finish with Red-Bull, Coke, Water, Kinetica, Ice-cream, (I think poor Fintan had doubles in everything) a Vodafone gilet and everyone was announced over the line. I then trotted over for a massage, had a chat with Gavin Noble and told him he had my bike and I wanted it back, then waited for the two buckos to arrive due to the later start times, ‘Happy Days’ as Eamonn Tilley would say. All in all a great day and fantastic organisation as usual by Piranha and the weather Gods came out as well. The goodie bag alone is worth the visit. Off with me to the retirement home now.

Results

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