Organisation / Route

There was a bit of faffing about before registration but once it got started it went quickly. Transition was good as it was mostly grass and easy to run in bare feet on. The cycle was 80% uphill and with the head wind for the 2nd half was a killer. The run was also hilly and very hard but both these made it a good event to test yourself.

Competitors

A good mix of experience and novice people at this one. Once more there were plenty of the fitter competitors offering encouragement to this fat boy.

Supporters

There were some round the pool and some encouragement from the marshals and the occasional person round the cycle and run tracks.

Freebies

We got a free backpack and race belt. Backpack will be handy but the race belt doesn’t have any tags so I’ll probably not have any use for it.

My Race

I was injured for 6 week over the summer and therefore went into this race with only 3 full weeks training, as such I was way below power but was happy enough with my performance considering. Here’s the breakdown:

Swim - 15:18  (53rd)
I wasn’t expecting a great swim as I’d only been in the pool a couple of times and was struggling to get under 15mins. However there was quite a distance to run before transition so my swim must have been about 14:45 in the pool.

T1 - 1:02
This is my fastest time for T1 and I managed a great flying mount onto the bike, got my feet in and strapped up quickly after that.

Cycle - 45:11 (105)
Very hard windy cycle that was 80% uphill. I struggled to keep pushing on and lost concentration a few times.

T2 - 0:38
Very happy with this transition. My dismount was flawless and I got the shoes on quickly but forgot to take my glasses off I don’t like running with them on so I tucked them into my belt.

Run - 25:37 (135)
Killer run was two laps 0f valley park which was a hard hill. I struggled going up te hill both times but found some extra energy for the last 3/4mi downhill. It was a little shorter than 5Km but I wasn’t complaining.

Overall - 1:27:45 (95)
Considering the build up I’m very happy with this. I would have been much much quicker had I been training all summer as before I got hurt I was really going well.

There were 173 people entered in this triathlon which put me in the top 55% which is my best place in a triathlon so far, with the other events being  Roe Valley 2010 top 72% , PortLaoise 2010 top 58% and Quarryman 2009 top 60%.

Ian Courtney was doing his first tri and did very well beating my by about 2mins and Dave once again showing his fitness beat me by over 6mins even after a few week of not training.