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Quick Beat; Slow Feet
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Jaysus Mac I'm delighted to see your terrific form. It is a credit to you and all the hard work you've been putting in. It's mad to see the how much you have improved, some may think that there must be a short cut to success but those of us in the know.....well we know the truth
well done and keep it up. 0 -
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Thanks for the good wishes lads, much appreciated. Re the race report - well I don't think I've written a short one yet! One things for sure - it won't be as long as the race!!!
Wed 8.9.10
Run 11.5km
A nice slightly more than easy paced run around a loop near Banna. Threw in 4 x 45 sec sprints in for good measure. The HR for the first peaked at 180, then 182 and 180, my aim for the last was to push harder and get the HR above the 182. Last one peaked at 183.
O/A 11.5km in 52:32, 4:34/km (7:21/ml), HR 155av(71%) 183mx(89%).
Mrs M is just back from 'Pirate Petes' with the two little sailors! Heading to the beach after the dinner to make the most of the good weather when we get it.0 -
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So here is my nice long race report (to keep kb3 happy)
I wrote it in 'Word' before the results came out and have just edited it so hopefully it's not disjointed. Grab a cup of coffee or something:
The Macanri family arrived in to Kenmare for registration on Fri evening, having left Dingle Oceanworld Aquarium where the kids were impressed with the touch pool, the sharks and the big turtle, but seemed even more impressed with the ultra violet light turning their whites luminous. At registration I noted that they had changed the swim route and had a look at the new route seen as I wasn’t able to stick around for the race briefing at 9. The goody bag was pretty good. Instead of the normal t-shirt we got a CTC Lost Sheep fleece, and also a couple of water bottles, a zym tab, Turkish delight, some Kenotic recovery drink and a pretty cool head sweat band with a strip that diverts the sweat from your forehead to the edges of your face to avoid sweat in the eyes. Will try it out on a training run. And also a nice silicone “The Lost Sheep Triathlon” swim hat – which I will wear with pride now - especially after that swim! After losing the 2 year old for a split second (only to find him in the ladies toilet) we headed back for Banna, and the kids were asleep by the time we got there. Mrs M was actually interested in the distances of the swim, bike and run I was going to be doing in the morning, for once – maybe she’s hinting that I should do an IM. :cool:. I don’t think so!
Race Day:
I woke at 4:15 for the porridge. No probs eating porridge at any hour. Had some honey, strawberries, and grapes in it, followed by two slices of brown toast and a strong coffee. On the road for 4:50ish and rolled into Kenmare about 6, dizzy from the twists and turns encountered on the road from Killarney to Kenmare. I parked up and put the wheel on the bike and pumped them with the aid of a head torch from the lad in the car next to me. Down to transition and set it up in the dark. Met Albert (one of the group from Bjorn’s swim sessions). I didn’t see him anywhere on the course so not sure where he finished. I now see from the results that he DNF. He went through T1 but has no time for the bike. I have no number for him so I hope that he is ok and nothing serious happened.
When I had transition set up I rang interested and met up with him to say hello and have a quick chat. I met him again soon after the finish and we had a good chat while waiting for the most painful massage ever!
Swim:
Back to the car to get changed and was tight for time so ended up jogging the 1km to the swim start. Took of the trainers and left them on a wall to collect later as I had forgotten the plastic bag supplied to put them in. I met another lad from the NAC who had been training for IM Nice earlier in the year. I was in the water and swimming the 200 odd metres to the swim start before I knew it. The surface condition was good with very little chop. I met interested in the water just before the start (so knew I was in the wrong place), and didn’t meet him again for a good few hours! The swim started very soon after that and we were off. I was swimming and sighting well and was happy with the way things were going. The revised swim course started at the pier and went directly to a bouy (positioned to avoid rocks) then on under the bridge, and away for a good distance towards the 2nd bouy, 90 deg turn and onto bouy no 3 about 300m away, then 90 deg again and onto bouy no 4 about 450m away, at which was another 90deg turn and then a short swim to the exit. Now, when I arrived at bouy no 1, I honestly thought that a boat had hooked onto it and was dragging it towards the bridge. The flow of the water past it meant that it was not sitting vertically, but was leaning over as it was pushed by the flow. I soon realised that it was actually stationery and the flow was very strong. This flow made the swim to the bridge very laborious (I reckon it took me about 15 or 20 mins to swim the 2 or 300m from this buoy to the bridge). The reason for the strong flow was that the bridge acts as a kind of bottle neck for the water in the harbour/sound and once the water starts moving with the tide it starts to flow. So it was heading for the sea as we were heading against it for the sound beyond. (I was speaking to some organisers after it and they said it was a bit of a disaster as the tide had turned before the start. She was saying that as they were on the bridge looking down it was as if most (not all) of the swimmers were in a big endless pool!) Eventually I got under the bridge and into the sound and noticed then the cold river water mixing with the warmer sea water. There were sections where I was swimming through large enough patches of seaweed and sticks, but I found it nice to be swimming in the fresh water and could even smell the woodiness of it! It was still a struggle to get to the 2nd bouy, but not even a fraction as difficult as the bridge section. After turning the 2nd buoy, from then on it was plain sailing and I was motoring along - apart from getting a slight cramp in my left calf which went after a while and then got a cramp in the right calf which was a little more difficult to shift. I got a few small drafts now and again, but nothing major - I seem to veer off subconsciously to avoid the person I’m drafting off! Now I knew my predicted 35 or 40 min swim was out the window, but I couldn’t believe it when I clambered up onto the bank and staggered past the clock and it read 1:00:xx!!! WTF, WTF, WTF.
After the race someone told me of a person who was swimming under the bridge section for 45mins and was getting nowhere. He was removed from the water! What a bummer. Looking at the results there are about 20 odd people out of the 300 entrants DNF the swim section!
Interested had a good swim, surprisingly enough, but swam into those rocks and cut his foot, yet despite this he was still out of the water in 2nd position after some elite chap called Brian Keane;). Great to meet you interested.
Swim time: 01:01:00 (3:13/100m) F’ck, when it’s put like that it looks bad! Pos: 128th
T1: 03:12, 165th. Well before I got the results and the transition time I had thought that it went OK. I put on socks and then put the shoes directly on my feet as a result as I figured it would be a struggle to place the feet in on the bike. I was considering putting on a long sleeve cycling top but took it off when I had it half on. So race belt on, lid on, sunnies on, put a banana down the top of the trisuit, and away. I probably should have done this a bit quicker.
Bike:
I started out fairly good on the bike and passed a handful in the first 500m or so. The start was a small climb and I spun up it. I had a good bike overall, and really felt the benefit of the hill repeats that I had done over Howth Head the previous weeks. I passed most people on the bike when I was climbing both the Healy and the Caha Pass. There was not much of a wind in general except for the last 15 km or so back towards Kenmare. I was glad of my decision to leave the extra top back in transition as the sun was shining for most of the morning, except for an odd small rain shower which was more than welcome. I have had a nice bit of trisuit tan as a result. I was a bit apprehensive of the bike route over the days before the race, but this turned out to be a little unfounded in the end. The descents were hair-raising, misjudging them even once and you were going to be heading for the finish in the back of an ambulance, for sure. (I wrote this before the results came out – I hope Albert is ok). The scenery on sections was absolutely breathtaking, only I was already out of breath! There were a few draft marshals on motorbikes but there could have been another few. During the bike my left hamstring threatened that it was going to cramp and I eased up a bit. I was worried that it would continue and that it would come back on the run. It didn’t. I took a gel after 5km or so and then an energy bar a few k before the Healy pass. Then had a banana around 40k, some of which came back up the same way. Then another gel at the start of the Caha pass. Half an energy bar around the 65km mark. I had planned to use one bottle with just water, and one of water with nuun. But I decided to go with nuun in both, the benefit of this was that when the first bottle was empty I could switch it with the other and leave it easier to access rather than reaching back for the bottle in the cage on the upright, which I found very awkward in training. At the water station I managed to unscrew the lid from the empty bottle and fill it on the go, which gave me the reassurance that I had enough water for the rest of the bike. I could feel the left Achilles pulling a bit on the bike and was slightly weary of this also, but the run didn’t cause it any bother thankfully.
Bike Split: 02:42:08, av30.7kph, mx70.8kph, Pos 55th.
T2: 01:52, 133th. Again thought it went OK. I was a bit surprised to see so few bikes on the rack beside me. I had the runners in a bag to keep them dry and I changed into a dry pair of socks. Took of the lid and shades and stuck a gel down the top of the trisuit, grabbed a small bottle of water and away I went.
Run:
Straight away I was going well – the running legs were there, they were tired but they were there. But the run course had a lot of ups and downs, and these hills caused a pain in my quads which I have never got on a run before, (except maybe DCM – but that was more just pure cramp). After about 2k I saw a bloke up ahead on his return, he was lamping it and I called out “well done”. When he had passed I realised it was Brian Keane. Nice to say that I have raced against with an elite. The run was tough, but I just kept the legs moving and running with as good a form as I could. As usual the marshals were very encouraging. I expected to meet Albert on his return run at some point as I figured that he would have been off the bike before me, but as I said above he ended up with a DNF unfortunately. Around the 9 or 10k marker I saw interested on his return leg and wondered would I catch up with him before the finish. Eventually I got to the turnaround and rewarded myself with the gel just before the water station. I passed loads on the run, only 2 people passed me, at about 17 or 18km – a bloke and a girl. The bloke was gone before long, but I tried to up the pace to stay with the woman. I kept her within about 20m or so for a km or so, but she put more distance between us on the hills - she was going up them like they weren’t there. She continued to extend the distance until she was out of my view. Somewhere around 18k a girl in a group of 3 or 4 spectators encouraged me and said I was looking fresh - my response - "F'ck sakes - Fresh!" It got a laugh out of them as expected. There was a good crowd at the end cheering everyone home. The finish line appeared unexpectedly around the bend with about 50m to go. So I did a sprint finish against myself (again). The extra effort spent chasing the woman meant I had very little for a sprint finish. I was happy enough to see the clock reading 5:22:xx.
Run splits: 01:34:47, (1st half 47:50, 2nd half 46:58 – negative split,) 4:29.5min/km (7:14/ml), 35th.
Overall Result: 05:22:59, 49th O/A, 12th AG.
This was a well run event by Cork Tri Club. There was plenty of fruit, water, gatorade and flap jacks at the finish. And also a massage for whoever was brave enough to go for one. I went for one and OMG the pain was on the brink of unbearable. I was grimacing and gritting my teeth the whole way through it. The legs were well sore yesterday, not since DCM09 have they been that sore. While waiting for the massage I met Adrian - who I had the sprint finish in Athlone with and had met again in Carlingford.
I don’t think CTC will let the swim problem happen again, well hopefully not.
I was waiting for the results to see the splits. I don’t see why they should take so long, I know the company was doing another tri the following day, but I still think that they could have them up on the web a bit quicker. Others can so they surely can too, no?
Unfortunately, I was unable to head out for pints on the night as we were staying in Banna, but it was good to meet up and have the craic with both new and familiar faces before and after the race.
After having gone through the prolonged pain in the half ironman, I raise my hat to anyone who has done (or is contemplating doing) an Ironman, it is a savage achievement.
I have said it before - but thanks to all you fellow Boardsies for the advice, comments and info which you have given me throughout the year, it is much appreciated.
I'm looking forward to reading the race reports of the Budapest Boardsies when they get posted. Maybe there still hungover!!:D0 -
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I clambered up onto the bank and staggered past the clock and it read xx:xx:xx!!! WTF, WTF, WTF.
Think pretty much everyones race report from the day will include that line
Congrats on a great bike and run split - the swim was an anomaly since Ive never done one that was as difficult - so for a first outing at HIM distance you'd an absolutely savage result.
Great to meet up with you and glad the holiday went well.0 -
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