Athlone '12

RacoonQueen

littlemsfickle wrote: »

Oh right, you should have said hi...although I probably didn't seem too approachable. I was just a bit stressed out - the bike was borrowed and my bits and pieces didn't seem to be fitting on. The transition zone 40 mins before my race start prob wasn't the best place to be finding this out though...hope your race went well!

You seemed busy and stressed. Didn't want to confuse you more by introducing myself as the racoon from the internets.

mrbungle

Thanks to the guy #608 that took me out of it about 3k into the bike and ended my race and injured me.

Cycling up overtaking on the inside of me in the hard shoulder, rode into a load of run off black mud, smashed into me, I flipped and so did my almost new 3rd race old bike into the middle of the road, lucky there was no oncoming traffic of any sorts or I'd be facked!

Completely empty road and he goes up the inside!

Moral of the story, cycle a 30+ year old commuter ****ter into muck, lose control and you've a good chance of messing up someone and their gear and you get to continue on and finish.

(Epilogue: Back carbon wheel not true, rear derailleur likely bent, gear levers bent, brake lever badly scratched, shoulder, knee, forearm, elbows busted, Garmin also shot)

On a plus note: as I rode back in, all the folk that turned out thought I was coming in 4th place and were applauding me, duely noted!! ;-)

Bambaata

Have you reported that to the organisers mrbungle? Id be pursuing that guy for damages.

Daz1214

Jesus mate, thats rough going...as long as you're not too badly injured, the bike can be sorted...not much consolation though i know

some peoples bike etiquette is brutal though, i had my best ever bike yesterday and was flying but the amount of times i had to shout at people that i was moving up because they were swerving all over the road was ridiculous...at one stage on the return leg i was forced to cross the white line at 48kph for the same reason

Nwm2

mrbungle wrote: »

Thanks to the guy #608 that took me out of it about 3k into the bike and ended my race and injured me.

Cycling up overtaking on the inside of me in the hard shoulder, rode into a load of run off black mud, smashed into me, I flipped and so did my almost new 3rd race old bike into the middle of the road, lucky there was no oncoming traffic of any sorts or I'd be facked!

Completely empty road and he goes up the inside!

Moral of the story, cycle a 30+ year old commuter ****ter into muck, lose control and you've a good chance of messing up someone and their gear and you get to continue on and finish.

(Epilogue: Back carbon wheel not true, rear derailleur likely bent, gear levers bent, brake lever badly scratched, shoulder, knee, forearm, elbows busted, Garmin also shot)

On a plus note: as I rode back in, all the folk that turned out thought I was coming in 4th place and were applauding me, duely noted!! ;-)

You have a new bike and carbon wheels and someone on a 30 year old bike was over taking you? HTFU.

Oops, sorry. Thought I was on Slowtwitch.

ON a serious note, that sucks. But could have been worse also.

Yeah, roads were crowded with lots of cyclists of all abilities, not the safest but not sure what can be done about it.

mrbungle

Bambaata wrote: »

Have you reported that to the organisers mrbungle? Id be pursuing that guy for damages.

Didn't know I could and if I could wouldn't probably be worth the hassle.

mrbungle

Nwm2 wrote: »

You have a new bike and carbon wheels and someone on a 30 year old bike was over taking you? HTFU.

Oops, sorry. Thought I was on Slowtwitch.

ON a serious note, that sucks. But could have been worse also.

Yeah, roads were crowded with lots of cyclists of all abilities, not the safest but not sure what can be done about it.

re: getting caught by a 30yr old **** can: Yeah, I got that from a couple friends last night already!

Reason why I was fairly annoyed was that there was no one on the road ahead, to my right or behind me ! Except him sneaking up on the inside, which I only found out on impact.
If it was crowded I'd have gotten smoked by someone as soon as I flipped.
I was off in Wave 5 and ppl out on the bike had thinned out.

paddyandy

On a Race from the Viaduct to the famed bridge i'd put my money on a wee perch any day......Lovely town .

Bambaata

mrbungle wrote: »

Didn't know I could and if I could wouldn't probably be worth the hassle.

not sure you would have gotten far but had that been me id have reported that and be looking for things repaired/replaced. good to hear you're ok

couerdelion

Not a great day for me.

Wave #11 was in the holding pen then walked up with the rest of the group but was at the back. Was still on the pontoon when told we had 10s before the hooter went. I reckon I lost a good minute there.

Bike went fine but near the turn around I was held up by a big enough group of cyclists. blocking the road and cycling in a peleton. Stuck the 10m back till the turnarund and then hammered past them.

Run was a disaster. Ended up with a DSQ. My own fault for thinking two laps was once past the finish line and then down the finish chute second time round. Four from our club did the same.

Unregistered.

couerdelion wrote: »

Run was a disaster. Ended up with a DSQ. My own fault for thinking two laps was once past the finish line and then down the finish chute second time round. Four from our club did the same.

Should have had this better marshalled, very easy to forget during the race!

dx22

couerdelion wrote: »

Not a great day for me.

Wave #11 was in the holding pen then walked up with the rest of the group but was at the back. Was still on the pontoon when told we had 10s before the hooter went. I reckon I lost a good minute there.

Bike went fine but near the turn around I was held up by a big enough group of cyclists. blocking the road and cycling in a peleton. Stuck the 10m back till the turnaround and then hammered past them.

Run was a disaster. Ended up with a DSQ. My own fault for thinking two laps was once past the finish line and then down the finish chute second time round. Four from our club did the same.

The start for me was the exact same as this, a complete joke and im very annoyed about it, i dont think i will be doing this race again, the swim seems to be messed around every year.I understand why each wave needs to be started quickly as people will just float down the river, but this wasnt explained clearly. Its just not a good location for a triathlon.

I nearly ran short also on the run (olympic) but figured out i needed to go around again based on my wristwatch. They should indicate that it is 4.5 laps not four as on the briefing documents, i can see how many people went wrong here.

boredatwork82

Unregistered. wrote: »

Should have had this better marshalled, very easy to forget during the race!

2 mates of mine did the same. thats a disgrace really. Should have been marshalled/laid out/ or been made completely obvious. All their hard work and they get a dsq.

RacoonQueen

Few from our club DSQ as well, I assume for the same reason. I had to ask one of the girls what it was and a couple of people asked me so there was a lot of confusion. It's always the same in Athlone though, right? Why don't they say go around 5 times and 5th time go through the finish line, instead of saying 4 laps?

mrboswell

big mce wrote: »

It would have been nice to actually be in the water before the start horn blew. Muppets!

I was in wave 10 but was down at the start from the para starts as my mate was one of the kayakers so I got down early to have a chat with him. Anyway I was there for all the olympic starts and they were all WAY early. People were arriving at the start, on time for their wave, and their wave had gone!

Their was a break between the olympic and sprint waves and I overheard the starter joking about it and saying "I bet Liam is going to get a load of snotty emails complaining about the waves starting ahead of their advertised times. He clearly didn't give a sh*t.

They seemed to get some stick over the radio and the sprints seemed to go off on time after that.

mrbungle

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Few from our club DSQ as well, I assume for the same reason. I had to ask one of the girls what it was and a couple of people asked me so there was a lot of confusion. It's always the same in Athlone though, right? Why don't they say go around 5 times and 5th time go through the finish line, instead of saying 4 laps?

2 words: Race Briefing.

It also says that your lap starts at the exit of T2 therefore if you do 4 full laps you end up at the exit of T2 so still yo get to the finish line! Easy as DSQ!!

Sadly, the same confusion happens every year and ppl get disqualified, maybe something needed to be reviewed.

mrbungle

mrboswell wrote: »

I was in wave 10 but was down at the start from the para starts as my mate was one of the kayakers so I got down early to have a chat with him. Anyway I was there for all the olympic starts and they were all WAY early. People were arriving at the start, on time for their wave, and their wave had gone!

Their was a break between the olympic and sprint waves and I overheard the starter joking about it and saying "I bet Liam is going to get a load of snotty emails complaining about the waves starting ahead of their advertised times. He clearly didn't give a sh*t.

They seemed to get some stick over the radio and the sprints seemed to go off on time after that.

We reckoned we were off 22mins early!

Daz1214

the sprints were on time alright, just didnt give everyone enough time to get into position before starting

Neets O Spray

Daz1214 wrote: »

the sprints were on time alright, just didnt give everyone enough time to get into position before starting

First sprint wave went off early. I was running to pontoon with about 30 others when the hooter went. It was 12 mins early. We then had to wait 24 mins for the next wave to go at its correct time. Not a great start to my first OW triathlon.

toomuchdetail

Enjoyed the race yesterday , well planned and executed well enough , they made alot of improvements on last year especially around bike collection and transition access.

I was in wave 12 and again the swim start was a mess , there was easily 100m+ between the first guys in the water as I came off the pontoon , as I was heading across the river towards the kayak as directed there were swimmers almost out of sight . It seems to be a common issue yesterday .
The bike was good but again "undertaking" on the inside by 1-2 riders scared the sh*t of me once or twice (the briefing should mention this as there are alot of new cyclists out there) and drafting was also very common .
I didnt see a Marshall on a motor bike but I may just have missed him.

An out and back on the run route or a large loop would fix the lap issues , 4 years doing Athlone and the same thing comes up everytime on the run.

It may just be me but the race seems to lack some of the support from previous years , saying that I finished after 6:30pm so maybe everyone was on the way home .

A good day out but long day out .

Daz1214

Neets O Spray wrote: »

Daz1214 wrote: »

the sprints were on time alright, just didnt give everyone enough time to get into position before starting

First sprint wave went off early. I was running to pontoon with about 30 others when the hooter went. It was 12 mins early. We then had to wait 24 mins for the next wave to go at its correct time. Not a great start to my first OW triathlon.

no, not ideal at all...i think the whole swim situation was put together in a hurry

Daz1214

apart from the bit of a mess at the start of the swim i enjoyed the race...last year, athlone was my first sprint and i did a 1.36...i wanted to hit 1.20 this year and did a 1.20.28 so delighted with that.

The swim is always my weakest discipline so was happy with 12.30 considerin i was facin the wrong way at the start.

The bike leg is always my strongest and a 35min 20k was a decent enough time...had great fun averaging around 45kph on the return leg. It was also the first time on a bike leg where i havent been overtaken at all

i found the run tough though it always is in athlone...i mapped the run at almost 5.7km's so was happy with 26mins for that even though i was struggling for the last K

Overall was a good day so happy with my time and how i went

npmurph

Really enjoyed my first tri athlone and my second olympic ever so well done for all the organisation. The swim wave did seem to start rather snappy. Anyway when I finished I was dissapointed with my run time as i felt i had a great run but then checked the distance on mapmyrun and it comes out at 10.74km so it looks like the 4 full laps was 9.92km so if you subtract your first split time from your overall time you should get an acurate 10k time. Can anyone verify this as it makes me a lot happier about my run time.

tom francy

First olympic for me and my first DSQ totally my own fault was wreaked on the run and didnt have a watch on and was counting from two different places other than dat had a good bike same with the swim start was in the water about 5 seconds when the horn went off was really pissed that i messed up the run then found out a few others did the same.....

peter kern

The guy who did the live timing is a wizzard, it worked amazingly well and maybe a big company should offer him a job ;-)
the only problem with that thing I almost forgot to watch the race as I was more on the phone ;-) but for a mass wave start race it was pretty impressive !!!!!

searay

npmurph wrote: »

Really enjoyed my first tri athlone and my second olympic ever so well done for all the organisation. The swim wave did seem to start rather snappy. Anyway when I finished I was dissapointed with my run time as i felt i had a great run but then checked the distance on mapmyrun and it comes out at 10.74km so it looks like the 4 full laps was 9.92km so if you subtract your first split time from your overall time you should get an acurate 10k time. Can anyone verify this as it makes me a lot happier about my run time.

I did the Sprint and clocked the run distance as 5.73km which would fit with what you are saying .73/.74km to finish line and 2 laps of 2.5km.

The sprint cycle was also long, with the turning point 300metres further along the road than last year, giving an extra 600 metres. It's not a big difference but I don't see why they didn't turn at the same point.

The numbers entering were well down on last year which may be why registration was left open until Wednesday and I think that may have contributed to some of the issues.

d4r3n

Distances according to my watch was:

Swim: 1.02 km
Bike: 20.33 km
Run: 5.57 km

Enjoyed the race, was only off the pontoon when the horn blew. That was my fault though, can't blame them for setting off the waves as per advertised times.

Unregistered.

d4r3n wrote: »

Distances according to my watch was:

Swim: 1.02 km
Bike: 20.33 km
Run: 5.57 km

Enjoyed the race, was only off the pontoon when the horn blew. That was my fault though, can't blame them for setting off the waves as per advertised times.

They could have announced "30 seconds to go"! Not all of us have watches which are precisely calibrated to theirs!

d4r3n

Unregistered. wrote: »

They could have announced "30 seconds to go"! Not all of us have watches which are precisely calibrated to theirs!

I'm not trying to defend anyone, I'm simply saying it was my own fault for missing the start in my opinion.

mrboswell

As I said I was there for the first 10 starts.

They were starting WAY early and even still they wouldn't wait for people getting off the pontoon.

Then they were joking about it. Bad organisation. Full stop.