Athlone '12

Daz1214

so who all is heading to Athlone in a couple of weeks?

BTH

Sprint for me.

Fazz

BetterThanHoyte wrote: »

Sprint for me.

You NS points Ho!


Olympic for me.

BTH

Fazz wrote: »

You NS points Ho!


Olympic for me.

A mans gotta do....

Still nothing from Athy. Damn TI, wish they'd hurry up.

Fazz

By the way is anyone else confused by the Race start times?

Both races are on the same day, and recent email suggested first swimmer in water for 3 pm.

Obv swim course will need one distance to be complete before other starts.
So likely a 5pm start for the other distance maybe.

Run course may be busier than ever

Fazz

BetterThanHoyte wrote: »

A mans gotta do....

Still nothing from Athy. Damn TI, wish they'd hurry up.

Possibly provisional top for you?
Or your club mate perhaps?

Dunmore will be your 5th and top spot then surely if not !

BTH

Fazz wrote: »

Possibly provisional top for you?
Or your club mate perhaps?

Dunmore will be your 5th and top spot then surely if not !

Dunmore will only be my forth. Shane Scadding will have that anyway (presume he'll do his home race), so defo behind him. No doubt a few others. Dunmore will be the 8th NS race so no doubt others with 4/5 races done then too.

Daz1214

last year the olympic started at 3 and the first sprint waves were in the water just after 4...run course was very busy all right and the 2 dead stops at the town centre and barracks dont help.

Last year athlone was the first sprint i had ever done, did the try race in athy, and only managed a 1.34...if im not at least 15mins quicker i wont be happy

RacoonQueen

Olympic for me. I hope.

couerdelion

Sprint for me.
Never done Athlone, what's the course like?

d4r3n

Sprint for me, looking forward to it. Hopefully the weather is better than Athy, couldn't feel my feet for the run and couldn't eat the curry afterwards because I was shaking that much!

sconhome

I'm in for the Olympic.

subscriber

couerdelion wrote: »

Sprint for me.
Never done Athlone, what's the course like?

Athlone is a very fast course, Swim is in the shannon obviously which means no mouthful's of sea water, Last year the water was really calm as well so no fighting against currents or waves. The bike route is nearly all completely flat down the dual carriage way, lovely smooth rolling surface as well, should make for really fast bike splits. The run is organised as a 2.5km loop in the town it's self which means 2 loops for sprint distance, and 4 for the Olympic. It's great that the run is in the town because it's constant support from onlookers every step of the run course. There is a drag of a hill on the run that goes up the back of the town which goes on for about 800 meters but rest of the course is flat. The only downfall is the length of the run into T1, it must be about 600 meters which doesn't sound like much but you know yourself when your coming out of the water winded after a tough swim it can seem a bit far away. More time to get the wetsuit off I supppose.

There was over 2000 athletes done this last year. I was blown away by the organisation of the event. It was spectacular. Had never done an event of this size before and it made for a great day out. If I remember correctly, entry fee was fairly reasonable as well.

Olympic distance for me. Sub 2:35 is the aim. Fingers crossed.

mrboswell

Sprint for me.
Hoping for a serious improvement on Athy.

Daz1214

the swim and bike are quicker than athy so you should be able to achieve that

big mce

Olympic for me!

Huff n Puff

Gonna give the Nat. Champs a miss this year. Date doesn't suit, not a huge fan of the race and bad memories from last year. Best of luck to everyone competing!

Do people really want National Series points that bad that they would opt for the sprint event to avoid taking on the top competitors in the Olympic National Champs? Very strange if true. I would love to hear the rationale for wanting to win an NS age group award like that!

BTH

Huff n Puff wrote: »

Do people really want National Series points that bad that they would opt for the sprint event to avoid taking on the top competitors in the Olympic National Champs? Very strange if true. I would love to hear the rationale for wanting to win an NS age group award like that!

Firstly I have no hope of winning a NS age group award. I'll be lucky to finish in the top 15 in my age group by the end of the season. I have chosen the sprint mostly because there are a lack of sprint races this season that suit my schedule. Only 9 sprints on the NS calender and 11 olympics. A bonus is that this sprint will likely offer me more NS points for my probable finish position than my probable finish position in the Oly. I've made no secret of the fact that I want to finish as high as possible in the NS this year in the hope of securing a place in the world champs in London next year. The 30-34 AG is ridiculously competitive so this is what I need to do. So choosing to do the sprint is a combination of points and convenience. Its also the scene of my first triathlon experience as part of a sprint relay team in 2009 and the first race I managed to swim front crawl for the entire swim in 2010!

bryangiggsy

Fazz wrote: »

You NS Ho!


.

Love this comment!!!

Huff n Puff wrote: »

Do people really want National Series points that bad that they would opt for the sprint event to avoid taking on the top competitors in the Olympic National Champs? Very strange if true. I would love to hear the rationale for wanting to win an NS age group award like that!

The NS is a flawed competition that a whole new thread could be started on. Ignore the top races with big fields and u dont have a chance of getting a podium.

Huff n Puff

BetterThanHoyte wrote: »

Firstly I have no hope of winning a NS age group award. I'll be lucky to finish in the top 15 in my age group by the end of the season. I have chosen the sprint mostly because there are a lack of sprint races this season that suit my schedule. Only 9 sprints on the NS calender and 11 olympics. A bonus is that this sprint will likely offer me more NS points for my probable finish position than my probable finish position in the Oly. I've made no secret of the fact that I want to finish as high as possible in the NS this year in the hope of securing a place in the world champs in London next year. The 30-34 AG is ridiculously competitive so this is what I need to do. So choosing to do the sprint is a combination of points and convenience. Its also the scene of my first triathlon experience as part of a sprint relay team in 2009 and the first race I managed to swim front crawl for the entire swim in 2010!

The 30-34 age group is very competitive alright (I am in that age group myself). Best of luck with securing a place in the world champs in London next year!

It's a case of "don't hate the player hate the game" for me. Nothing personal at all! It is very easy to solve all this. In my opionion, no single event (TriAthlone, TriAthy) should be allowed have two / three National Series races, especially at a National Championship event where you want the best competing against each other. If someone wants to collect NS points then they should have to compete against the best that turn up at each NS race. Then, if you gain a top finish in your age group you will truly deserve to be on the Irish age group team as you are there on ability not due to clever race selection*. Making the team will be all the more sweeter then.

If I was able to race TriAthlone and secured a top 10 finish in the National Champs, it would bother me a little bit that (being in the same age group as you) you would probably score more points than me for finishing higher in the easier option. Therefore, you could deny me a place on an Irish age group team (I have absolutely no interest in age group racing by the way).

Now.....back to discussing TriAthlone

* I am aware that clever race selection is already a feature of finishing high in the National Series. But at least at races like Kilkee and Valentia (that offer more points than most NS races) you have to race against the best that turn up. Completely solving the race selection problem is an issue for another thread.

Bally8

Sprint for me

couerdelion

Looking forward to this now. Is there start lists up anywhere yet?

OldieWilson

Did the sprint last year as my first triathlon.
Doing the Olympic this year

RacoonQueen

couerdelion wrote: »

Looking forward to this now. Is there start lists up anywhere yet?

They've extended the entry deadline to Wednesday so I'd say they won't be up till Weds/Thurs?

Fazz

couerdelion wrote: »

Looking forward to this now. Is there start lists up anywhere yet?

No start lists but wave details up...

Time to dig out the barcode entry confirmation for more info it seems!

http://triathlone.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/AthletePackWEB.pdf

RacoonQueen

How come it starts so late? Does Athlone always start at that time?

sconhome

Was to do with getting the road closures and not interfering too much with trading hours for the town shops.

Fazz

Fazz wrote: »

No start lists but wave details up...

Time to dig out the barcode entry confirmation for more info it seems!

http://triathlone.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/AthletePackWEB.pdf

Can't download the barcode form myself for some reason.
Will try later on a different browser maybe chrome or something as ie says no for me at mo.

It would be super to be first wave off, but likely near the tail.

Also worth noting the run route has changed slightly to avoid the hairpin turn beside finish chute and instead take a right and loop around and back up.

sconhome

Fazz, I think the barcodes are being emailled out individually. Noticed something about it on FB earlier when the briefing was released.

Unregistered.

RacoonQueen wrote: »

How come it starts so late? Does Athlone always start at that time?

Registration closes at half one for a race that won't start (for some) until 5 or 6! What the hell?!! Why can't they leave registration open a lil later for the Sprinters.... say, 3?

Is there anybody from TriAthlone on boards?

BTH

Unregistered. wrote: »

Registration closes at half one for a race that won't start (for some) until 5 or 6! What the hell?!! Why can't they leave registration open a lil later for the Sprinters.... say, 3?

Is there anybody from TriAthlone on boards?

Because you would then have to rack your bike in transition, getting in the way of athletes competing in the national championship race. This is what happens in the larger races at the likes of Dublin, Athy and Athlone. Get in early then go get something to eat and enjoy the atmosphere.

Did a e-mail search for this barcode from Triathlone. Eventually found it, and was just about to print when I realised it was the barcode for 2010 Mustn't have sent them yet