Racing 795

The racing season continued unabated on Saturday, as six Racing795 members journeyed to Cloghergead, Co Louth for Pulse Triathlon Club’s Sprint Distance Triathlon. Barry Byrne, Padraig Doyle, PJ Dunne, David Furlong and Martin and Siobhan Mimnagh all headed north with high hopes of good performances.

All the lads were off in Swim Wave 1, with Siobhan in Wave 2. The swim was a running beach start which made for some interesting manoeuvres. Martin and Padraig got off to a flier, with Martin rounding the first buoy in what looked like a top 10 position. Barry wasn’t far behind, with PJ and David in the ‘washing machine’ in mid-division. Martin was first out in 23rd place with Padraig not far behind, closely followed by Barry, David and PJ. Meanwhile, back in Wave 2, Siobhan sporting her new 795 trisuit was putting in a sterling effort.

On to the bike leg, and strong efforts by all, in what seems to be becoming the club’s forte. Martin was in under the magic 35 minute mark (yes that’s 35 kph!), with Padraig only marginally behind. Only 26 seconds seperated David and Barry, with PJ less than a minute behind. Siobhan clocked in at 46 minutes, improving by almost a minute on her bike time in TriAthy.

So, out of T2 and the race hots up. Martin out in front, Padraig chasing hard. Padraig trying his best to fend off Barry. Barry digging deep to catch Padraig. David looking over his shoulder trying to keep PJ at bay. PJ hunting David down. Siobhan pushing hard for that elusive PB.

So how did it all end? Martin stayed out in front, finishing a fantastic 24th overall after a strong run. Padraig managed to keep Barry at bay, finishing in an excellent 44th overall (in only his second triathlon) with Barry not far behind in 57th. PJ hunted David down on the run, finishing just inside the top 100 in 97th, with David less than a minute behind in 111th. Siobhan was in at 261st and 11th (out of 57) in her age-group.

Some super performances all round, in particular in the Age Groups. As well as 24th overall, Martin was 3rd in his age group, marking a historical moment for Racing795; the first club member to record a podium finish in triathlon. Hats off to Martin. No doubt he will continue improving, especially as right over his shoulder is one P Doyle, who at current rates of progress will be a live contender for big honours soon. He’ll be doing well to hold off Barry who is the big improver this year. And we all need lessons from PJ ‘Transition King’ Dunne. 26 seconds in T2? Whats’s that all about? Siobhan is leading the way for the female triathlete’s, although I hear rumblings that she will soon be joined by a few more.. As for David, he’s still trying to figure out whether he’s a triathlete or a mountain biker.

Thanks also to all the support – Lorraine and gang, Joy and bigger gang, the biggest gang of all – the O’Neills, and of course Mary the Photographer . Thanks also to James for his gazebo, which proved to be a big hit on the day.

Next up Courtown and the Eireman weekend!

Results

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Race Report by Peter Coulahan

London Tri was huge. 13,000 competitors over two days. A transition that was massive with some serious bike bling. Two different cycle routes for the Olympic distance race. HUGE!!

I was racing on Sunday afternoon so had been told to rack the bike at the Excel Centre on Saturday night. Did so and then spent two hours in London traffic getting to where I was staying which was only 6 miles away. Sunday morning it took me 2.5hrs to get to the venue, most of central London was closed to for the event so was really pot luck that I found the Excel Centre.

Race briefing was playing continuously on a big screen so watched a bit of that and then got ready and made my way to the swim start. The swim briefing was given by some welsh comedian who was hilarious. He told a load of guys that their swim hats were on back to front and got them to take them off and turn them around; he had us giving each other group hugs, lots of stuff like that….a very funny briefing and took a lot of the tension out of the wait for our swim start. I was in Wave 17 out of about 20 waves with approx. 300 swimmers in each wave. We got into the water for the start. Water was warm and brown and tasted foul. Welsh comedian chap followed us in a little boat still telling jokes through a loudspeaker. Klaxon sounded and off we went…..Swim was nice, no current to speak of and loads of room. Exited the water in around 34 minutes and was handed a plastic bag to put my wetsuit and swim stuff into before being allowed run up a flight of stairs to transition. This added a couple of minutes to my recorded swim time. Transition was well marked and found my bike easily.

There was a long long run from transition to the bike mounting point. Got onboard, narrowly avoided crashing into someone who fell off in front of me and off I went. Course was hilly with a stiff breeze in the face for some of it. It was also hot – 23 degrees. Did two laps of a closed road course. I was on the Tower Bridge route so I seen none of the big London sights. If I had been on the Westminster route I would have cycled past the London Eye and Houses Of Parliament so was a bit disappointed with that. The highlight of the bike course was the Limehouse Link Tunnel with its steep descents into the tunnel, some serious speed achieved on the bike here. Spent most of the cycle chasing and being chased by a guy on a Trek Equinox. He seemed a bit peeved that someone on an entry level Trek was overtaking him on his high end Trek. I dropped him with about 5km to go. Finished the bike in just over 70 minutes.

Back into transition again via a long long run. On with the runners and off. Run route was completely flat apart from a short section into the Excel Centre. Run was around the docks past lots of restaurants and beer gardens where there was huge support from people having Sunday lunch and waving beer glasses at us. Two laps of this circular route. At the end of lap one I got a tap on the shoulder and Trek Equinox guy was there thanking me for making him go harder on the bike whilst he tried to keep up with me…then he sped off. There were 8 water stations, one Gatorade station and one gel station on each lap so no excuses for a slow time! Finished the run in just over 48 minutes.

2.45.57 overall. Happy enough!! Well worth doing once just to experience something of that size.

Race Info

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Sunday morning dawned on the 26th July to gales, monsoon rains and floods. Ok, it wasn’t quite that bad but getting out of bed on the morning of the 2nd Beast of the East didn’t feel like it was going to be a walk in the park, and it wasn’t. Just in time for the start of the race, the rain gave us a reprieve and the beast took the form of a million different beasts otherwise known as midges and I have the scars to prove it.

After a good clear swim in Lough Dan, we exited the water (myself in 32.24 )and we took off on the bike straight into a 1km climb. Thisresulted in the strange sight of competitors walking their bikes up the hill!  The bike course continued over unforgiving undulations into Laragh and at 32kms we were directed up a never ending hill which would compare to any climb on Mount Leinster. Back into T2 after 1hr 21:46, we set off for the run and met the same bike walking hill. It was an up and back course which became a leg shattering down hill into the finish after 46:41 seconds to give an overall time of 2:45:20. Incidentally, the finish was compered by Craig Doyle a fact which has my wife signing up for next year. A tough course but well organised and marshalled and highly recommended.  I’ll be going back for another stab at the beast.

Race Detail and Results can be found here

Martin Mimnagh

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