Tri the Burren, July 9th

pc11

I did Tri the Burren yesterday. Excellent event, well run and what a day in the scenery.

Did anyone get a GPS distance for the bike section? My Garmin battery died on the course. It was one tough course, so I'd like to get an idea of how tough exactly!

yop

Was down as a spectator, well run but for sending the lead lad (McGrath) the wrong way in the cycle!!!
He did a 10min 750m swim and it took him 1hr 17 for the 24km bike and 18 mins for the run. Poor show in that regard.

As for the lad on the tannoy welcoming people to Kinvarra!!!

Great day for it down there but it was dangerous for the runners on the 5km run also, seen numerous competitors been cut in by cars, give a tourist a car on those roads and its only trouble!

Not meaning to sound like a moan but it was poor enough in that regard.

Nwm2

I have about 25.1 km.

Here is the elevation plot from my Garmin (in miles):





I didn't think the hill was too bad. Long climb, but not too steep. But I've been training hills reasonably frequently.

About 600ft of climb in 2.5miles - about 4-5% gradient for that 2.5 miles.

I think the Brian Boru sprint tri in Killaloe is tougher (shorter but sharper).

I really enjoyed the event. Friendly, well organised and of course the superb weather really helped. Smooth clear waters gave me my best ever swim. I enjoyed the bike (sort of) and the run was fantastically flat (saw no safety problem myself).

I finished just outside the prize money, but apparently I should have finished 3 places further down as the 3 lead riders missed a turn that (rumour has it) had not been manned by a marshal. These 3 included last year's winner Colm Turner, who had a 1hr 10min bike split after doing >40k in total!

I'll definitely be back next year.

pc11

Thanks NWM. I was able to get an estimate from my almost complete trace and I get between 25.0 and 25.1 so that's a match. Good to know it was longer than the advertised 24km! I found Corkscrew Hill fine too, as I had been afraid of it. The surface on that road was immaculate which helped greatly. It was the rest of the course on rougher surface with lots of unexpected short uphills that drained my legs.

I took off my aero bars beforehand as I figured there would be very few sections I could really get fown on them and I could do with taking weight off for Corkscrew Hill and I think it was a good decision. It also helped manoeuvrability on the tight bends for me. I noticed very few tri bikes, almost all road bikes, and I would say they were right for that course.

I took it that the run was pretty spot on 5k? The cars cutting in on what was supposed to be a closed road was a problem alright.

In fairness, there should be marshalls of course, but a lot of people were saying if he won it last year he should probably know the course!

Nwm2

pc11 wrote: »

Thanks NWM. I was able to get an estimate from my almost complete trace and I get between 25.0 and 25.1 so that's a match. Good to know it was longer than the advertised 24km! I found Corkscrew Hill fine too, as I had been afraid of it. The surface on that road was immaculate which helped greatly. It was the rest of the course on rougher surface with lots of unexpected short uphills that drained my legs.

I took off my aero bars beforehand as I figured there would be very few sections I could really get fown on them and I could do with taking weight off for Corkscrew Hill and I think it was a good decision. It also helped manoeuvrability on the tight bends for me. I noticed very few tri bikes, almost all road bikes, and I would say they were right for that course.

I took it that the run was pretty spot on 5k? The cars cutting in on what was supposed to be a closed road was a problem alright.

In fairness, there should be marshalls of course, but a lot of people were saying if he won it last year he should probably know the course!

The run seemed to be a bit over 5k. Although I forgot to stop my Garmin as I crossed the finish line I kept my average pace under the target, and expected to finish with 19:XX, but I got 20:XX - about 30-40 seconds more running than their should have been, so maybe 100-200 meters too far.

On the tri vs road bike, I went with the tri bike and was glad I did - bike split was in the top 5%. The descents were grand and the climbs were gentle enough that I could stay on the tri bars 99% of the time. Then again I saw last years winner brought his road bike rather than his tri bike....hmmmmmm.

In fairness, there should be marshalls of course, but a lot of people were saying if he won it last year he should probably know the course!

Yeah, but think of the logic of this? The winner is supposed to have some special knowledge of the course compared to others? He could have10-20 events of all sorts that year and is supposed to memorise them all? I've done one triathlon twice that followed the same bike course and there is no way I'd remember it again for a third visit - I'm not a local.

Let's be honest, the vast majority of people are used to a big line of competitors lining the course ahead of them. It's going to be a bit different if you're leading the way - you're relying entirely on the marshals (and road markings/signs of which there weren't many yesterday).

yop

pc11 wrote: »

In fairness, there should be marshalls of course, but a lot of people were saying if he won it last year he should probably know the course!

With the amount of tri's these lads do it would be hard for them to map each route so no insult to you but thats a cop out of a statement.

The marshal was missing at the fork in the village itself almost at the start of the cycle.

Don't know how much it cost to enter but people and cars up and down the road to the finish line was dangerous. That road should have been closed and barriers up to put a safe line down.

Great day down there though and fair play to all.

pc11

Actually, I went slightly wrong myself in exiting T2 and a marshal called to me to correct me, but I shouldn't have been allowed to go wrong in the first place. I'm pretty annoyed when marshals aren't on the ball, so I'm not defending them.

That said, I personally studied the bike course carefully beforehand as I usually do and I do think people should be prepared and minimise the chances of a problem.

As I said earlier, the cars on the supposedly closed course were a problem. I did yell at one driver who was close to hitting me and another runner.

FYI entry was €40, which is relatively cheap, not that that excuses it.