Athlone '12

Unregistered.

d4r3n wrote: »

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

I wasn't having a go at you. Many people, including myself, were caught of guard when the horn went. I was fitting my goggles when it went off, no word of warning.

Unregistered.

Does anyone know what the prizes are? The search on the website doesn't work!

mixervilla

If anyone knows where I could locate a lost wetsuit could you let me know? Forgot to bring it after the race, it was on row 1990-1999. Cheers.

TriL

Hi if anyone found or took by mistake a blue canvas bag from the transition after/during the race, I'd appreciate any info. it was on Olympic girls side, midway, by the bushes. It had a fair bit of gear in it, alot of which were presents:(

I enjoyed the race, swim start was bit disorganised, bike was windy on way out, run was good (once you kept count!), good support on route.

Thanks

RacoonQueen

The race briefing document says to email info@triathlone.com for lost and found.

TriL

RacoonQueen wrote: »

The race briefing document says to email info@triathlone.com for lost and found.

Thanks, I've sent them an email. We called in the next day and was told there were no items in Lost & Found from the post race clean-up. Which is strange for an event that size. Another girl had been in as well looking for a wetsuit and no joy (at that stage anyway). We were one of the last to leave transition after all the railings taken down and there were wetsuits and gear left unclaimed. I just managed to miss/forget my bag when gathering all the rest of the gear.

Guess I was just hoping against hope that a fellow competitor might have picked it up by mistake (and read of it here), rather than it going walkies.

PWEI

What was deal with registration. It took me over an hour to register & I made the mistake of leaving my bike in my car while I was registering.
So after I queued up for over an hour & finally registered, I heard somebody shout out "transition closing in 10 minutes".
I had to run back to the car grab the bike & race back to the transition area. When I got back the main gate was locked & the guy at the small gate wouldn't let me in saying that transition was closed. I had to plead with him telling him I queued for an hour & had to get my bike out of the car. They were also giving priority to the people doing the Olympic, yet the transition area was closing the same time for all the athletes including those doing the sprint.

Apart from that I really enjoyed the race, it was my first time doing it. Had the same problem as so many others during the swim start though.
I was in wave 12 & was one of the last to enter the water. As soon as I got in the horn went & some of the people in my wave were a good 150 meters away. I had to turn around to the guy beside me & ask him was that the start as I didn't believe it was. :eek:

subscriber

I was very disappointed as I received a DQ and didn't get my time. Wen I came back into T2 and turned my race belt around my number was gone, so either it peeled off wen i was stripping my wetsuit off in T1 and I didn't notice or it came off my back during the cycle at some point. Now correct me if i'm missing something, but I don't feel its just to be disqualified for this as I had four other number ID's on the bike so if they wanted to penalise me for drafting, they could have taken my race number from either my helmet or my bike. On the run,... how important is a race number anyway?? What are the ways an athlete can be DQ'd from the run other than not doing the correct number of laps and just short of punching another athlete? It's not like there is drafting rules on the run, so I don't see the number being of major importance here?? I'm open to correction on this?

Anyway, very disappointed, I think I would have been less disappointed if I was pulled up at some point in the race and told I was DQ'd but to let someone race the entire race and then inform them on the score sheet that they have been DQ'd i taught was nasty enough, especially considering that I had a solid race and had my fingers crossed at the finish that I was in the sub 2:30 bracket which I suspect i may have been. (cant say for sure as I don't know my swim time, only GPS for the cycle and run)

Opinions on this anyone??

mrboswell

Did you to the correct number of laps?
The run from transition to the finish line was not included in your laps - its only when you reached the finish line that your laps (2 or 4) started. Could you have missed one?

subscriber

mrboswell wrote: »

Did you to the correct number of laps?
The run from transition to the finish line was not included in your laps - its only when you reached the finish line that your laps (2 or 4) started. Could you have missed one?

Nope, I was very aware of this before I started the the race. I did the oly distance so I ran past the finish line a total of four times and then into the finish chute on the fifth time.. Defo wasn't that anyway!!

RacoonQueen

Go HERE > type in your name > click on your name > look through all the splits. Maybe your chip malfunctioned at some stage? You'll be able to see if you were clocked every time your crossed the lap mats too.

subscriber

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Go HERE > type in your name > click on your name > look through all the splits. Maybe your chip malfunctioned at some stage? You'll be able to see if you were clocked every time your crossed the lap mats too.

Thanks racoon queen, unfortunately, there is no splits at all. None!! I forgot to mention im down on the score card as a DNF but I presume its safe to say that is due to a DQ??

RacoonQueen

subscriber wrote: »

Thanks racoon queen, unfortunately, there is no splits at all. None!! I forgot to mention im down on the score card as a DNF but I presume its safe to say that is due to a DQ??

Nope that means your chip malfunctioned somewhere along the line. Some people are coming up with their time as DSQ and you'll see they're missing a lap of the run. Best bet is to contact them and see if they can pick out your chip time from that, or from photos if you finished in and around someone else in the same wave as you. If there are no splits at all it didn't work from the start, otherwise you'd have swim time, T1 time etc up to the point you were DSQ'd/up to the point the chip stopped working.

subscriber

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Nope that means your chip malfunctioned somewhere along the line. Some people are coming up with their time as DSQ and you'll see they're missing a lap of the run. Best bet is to contact them and see if they can pick out your chip time from that, or from photos if you finished in and around someone else in the same wave as you. If there are no splits at all it didn't work from the start, otherwise you'd have swim time, T1 time etc up to the point you were DSQ'd/up to the point the chip stopped working.

Ok, Very helpful racoon queen, I was under the impression, that all DQ's were down on paper as DNF's for some reason. Thanks for that :):)

subscriber

Interesting, I just logged onto the triathlone website there to get there email address and there is a notice on the website suggesting there was mass malfunction of chips on the day and there trying to rectify this ..... Doesn't look to promising...

Fazz

Athlone Olympic – National Championships

Firstly good to chat to a few on here beforehand - RQ, ElD, BTH, BMC and others.

All suitably relaxed but also clearly nervously excited for the fun ahead

I was in Wave 3 – so off quite early and meant not much traffic which would be nice.

More importantly though, I had Bryan McCrystal, Mark Nolan and Joe Lynch in my wave. This was perfect as with my swimming having improved lately it meant I hoped to be out and onto bike course close to these guys. I thought the race winner would come from our wave and expected the 3 above to be close up in the battle so I was keen to actually see how the front of a race goes if at all possible!

Swim

So the well publicised change to all downstream and 1k instead was happily accepted by me. Whilst it meant not getting as much of a gap over others, it also meant the fish not getting as much of a gap too.
Having Brian Harris in my wave along with the above 3 meant I needed to be ready to go. We arrived to the start point as the previous wave were being released and it was obvious there were current issues and anyone who wanted to ensure no issue needed to get in fast and be ready to go.

I read some of the complaints above, and I do understand their issue, but can’t for the life of me fathom those that were still talking and walking slowly onto pontoon as the rest of us were in the water a few minutes and holding back. There appeared to be decent time in my view, I did a short swim up to bridge and back as folk were still calmly walking by pontoon.

Anyway, I saw Brian Harris at the front and figured it was time to line up in case of a quick start. I did just that and sure enough a quick start as well. We angled out to the left to get around the long buoy float thing to keep us out of reeds.

I couldn’t get over the speed of Brian Harris at the start – actually I can. The man’s a fish end of!

Anyway, I angled nicely but wasn’t on any feet at the start, proceeded on line and swam controlled but well. I got on some feet shortly after this and somehow got a right hook to my left upper jaw in the crowd. Carried on wondering if the numbness was possible bleeding or just numb from the pain! Sped up a bit here and got some space, no feet but I could see I was in the front group. Not much more to say as it was over just as I was getting into a rhythm!

Delighted to get out of water and see 8:xx on watch. Holy cow that current was fast! I’ll take that.

Even happier to be told 5th out of water by a clubmate tracking me and on up the carpet I took another 2 slots.

Swim - 8:46, 6th in wave 30-34. - was actually 5th by time I rounded pontoon hence the call of 5th!

Into transition and I see Mark Nolan removing his wetsuit – sweet, he’s only just ahead. I’m 2 bikes down from Bryan McCrystal and also cop his bike still there. Great this is going to plan.

A slightly slow Transition but I’m leaving with Joe Lynch and Bryan McCrystal beside me. Mark Nolan has gone up ahead.

T1 - 02:33 - 11th in Wave 30-34

Bike

So no flying mount, myself and Bryan do a slow feet into shoes but we’re away and he’s going hard from the off. Joe is just ahead and I use him as a pace line for the first 10k or so. I kept a good 15 – 20 bike lengths back as we are passing through earlier waves and always tracking him. I start to gain on him around the 10k mark and slowly reel him in. Around 12k I decide to push and pass him and try keep up the effort to the turnaround.

I pass a few clubmates (RQ) but to be honest couldn't really even grunt as I was just in the zone. I don't think I even said anything to Joe as I passed him which I apologise for - I'd normally say come on Joe/Pulse to clubmates etc.
I can’t see Mark Nolan or Bryan McCrystal but know they are ahead and I’m likely running 3rd from our wave. Close to turn around I clock Bryan McCrystal and time the gap – he’s 1min ahead to turn around so 2 min’s at half way (time for me to get back to his spot he passed me on).
I’m ahead of Joe by around 20 seconds and he’s shouting encouragement at me. “come on Ian just 1 minute come on”. Fair play Joe, quality guy and club mate.
So the returning 20k, make that 19k was fast. Got up to super speeds over 60kph on some parts, and a decent rhythm with not much wind, certainly compared to the way out! The weather seemed to be giving us all 4 seasons in 1 bike split which was funny to work out. I remember chasing Joe down on the way out and looking at dry road and sunshine thinnking wow what a day.
And on the way back looking at wet roads and thinking I must push more to get off the bike before heavy rain comes down!
I had time, distance and avg pace on the Garmin. I think I was 37.xx kph into the wind on the way out. The whole way back this slowly rose to 38, then 39, then stopped short at 39.8kph as we finished our Bike.
So into T2, 3rd in my wave, and a provisional running of around 8th-9th it seems.

Bike - 57:49 - 3rd in Age Group behind BMC (4.5mins) and Mark Nolan (20secs). clocked at 38km.

Turns out this is joint 6th fastest bike overall I think - and a bunch of us around same time so another 20 secs would be 2nd fastest.
Funny trivia - Neal O'Grady and I have now had the exact same bike splits in Valentia Sprint Champs, and Athlone Olympic Champs! to the second! Gas.

T2 - struggled a tad with runners - actually put on left one and sole was curled up but just kept running. it flattened out soon after thankfully.

01:36 - 23rd in AG ahem...

Run

I grabbed a gel into the pocket and headed off at 3:35pace for the first km.

So out and I'm 1min down on Mark Nolan, with BMC into the distance at this stage. I'm currently 8th overall and trying to put in a good run. I get going at target pace and hit first km in 3:39.
Bit of messing on roads and slight hills and 2nd km done in 3:56, 3rd in 3:44.
Starting to fade a little now, 4th KM in 3:57 and 5th in 3:54. I'm suffering a bit and Joe Lynch is closing in on me. 6th KM in 3:55 and 7th KM in 3:55. Not fast enough. Joe passes me here on second last lap and tries to encourage me to come with him and pick it up. I try to stay with him but I'm suffering and drained. I can't keep up the pace and tail off to an 8th km in 4:05, 9th in 4:15 and 10th km in 4:04. 300m to finish then at 3:44 pace for a 40:29 run of 10.3km. Not gonna cut it and I've lost a few places.

Finished in 1:51:13 - 12th Overall and 4th in Age Group behind BMC, Mark Nolan and Joe Lynch.

A good run should have seen me hold a top 10 slot so slightly disappointed with that. Happy overall with progress and enjoyed the race a lot.
I probably need better strength endurance to run faster for longer, but also made a schoolboy error of missing lunch. Had breakfast and a couple gels and thought I'd be fine. Not so, finished the race quite pale looking from observers and starved. I am used to training on little but not at this intensity so may have contributed a bit.

Happy overall though, and only a matter of time before I nail the run off the bike and should be a few slots up the rankings hopefully.

Daz1214

great report Fazz and a great time, well done...i was talkin to a club mate of yours in work the other day, Dave Adams

Fazz

Daz1214 wrote: »

great report Fazz and a great time, well done...i was talkin to a club mate of yours in work the other day, Dave Adams

Thanks Daz.

Myself and Dave are racing Carrick on Sunday so that should be a bit of Craic.
There's a certain top Junior in it I hear, and likely some other Limerick/Cork top guns but we'll give it a shot.
Wouldn't be surprised to see huff n puff there too as its one of the local ones.

Daz1214

yeah, he was sayin that alright, best of luck down there anyway

Huff n Puff

Fazz wrote: »

Wouldn't be surprised to see huff n puff there too as its one of the local ones.

Nope, I won't be at this one. I would love to support it as the lads in that club are dead sound, but I tend to stick to triathlons with proper swims. It would be very rare that I would turn up to a full downstream event. Any sprint tri swim that is over in 6 mins is not worth doing. Any Olympic race swim that is over in 8 mins is also a waste of my time.

Best of luck at Carrick Fazz and well done at TriAthlone! If you are at the Beast of the East, Brian Boru, Dublin or Lost Sheep (my first attempt at middle distance) then I will see you there.

DaveR1

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!

Turns out the Sprint was worth way more points than the Olympic!!!! :rolleyes:

El Director

DaveR1 wrote: »

Turns out the Sprint was worth way more points than the Olympic!!!! :rolleyes:

Really? That was a Nat Champs right? Something not right there. Something else not right....still no prizes posted out, nor even the courtesy to reply to e-mails. :rolleyes:

Fazz

Did you see how many points BTH got!
I haven't even looked at Dave R1 as he must have cleaned up

BTH - 121.56 points for 8th in Sprint
Fazz - 113.48 for 12th in Oly Nat Champs

Doh

BTH's points whoring pays serious dividends there!
(and Dave R1's also!)

A mockery of the system and an outrage (/plain good tactics)
I don't know how they are able to sleep at night
Personally, I'd be emailing TI asking for a deduction in the rankings in the interest of sporting fairness....

BTH

Fazz wrote: »

Did you see how many points BTH got!
I haven't even looked at Dave R1 as he must have cleaned up

BTH - 121.56 points for 8th in Sprint
Fazz - 113.48 for 12th in Oly Nat Champs

Doh

BTH's points whoring pays serious dividends there!
(and Dave R1's also!)

A mockery of the system and an outrage (/plain good tactics)
I don't know how they are able to sleep at night
Personally, I'd be emailing TI asking for a deduction in the rankings in the interest of sporting fairness....

I slept very soundly last night after a bottle of red, pizza hut, and eventually taming the beast yesterday despite a last minute equipment malfunction

I got almost as many points for the Athlone Sprint as BMC got for becoming national champ. Yes, the system is flawed. But is there really a better way other than only having one NS race per weekend, meaning there aint enough races. And even at that the likes of Athlone and Athy will still offer more points.

Bambaata

BetterThanHoyte wrote: »

I got almost as many points for the Athlone Sprint as BMC got for becoming national champ. Yes, the system is flawed. But is there really a better way other than only having one NS race per weekend, meaning there aint enough races. And even at that the likes of Athlone and Athy will still offer more points.

Simple, minor % bonus for champs race. They had it before but the % was too great.

peter kern

BetterThanHoyte wrote: »

I slept very soundly last night after a bottle of red, pizza hut, and eventually taming the beast yesterday despite a last minute equipment malfunction

I got almost as many points for the Athlone Sprint as BMC got for becoming national champ. Yes, the system is flawed. But is there really a better way other than only having one NS race per weekend, meaning there aint enough races. And even at that the likes of Athlone and Athy will still offer more points.

are you saying we would be better off without a nat series if there is no better way doing it....


I am sure their is better ways but it would bw quite complicated and while their is flaws in the current system the principles are sound.

2 easy feasible changes ones would be only 1 nat series race a weekend and certain bonus points on nat races so you cant win overall or age groups nat series if you have not done really well at nat champs. and if one cant particpate in 2 nat champs in a year maybe one should not be able to win the nat series.
it used to be 3 nats that count and the bonus points where too high
but I think it was the right idea and giving bonus point to the 2 best nat champs result sounds a good idea to me maybe 5%.( we cant expect people to participate in all 3 champs

anyway so far dont hate the player question the system.

tunney

peter kern wrote: »

are you saying we would be better off without a nat series if there is no better way doing it....


I am sure their is better ways but it would bw quite complicated and while their is flaws in the current system the principles are sound.

2 easy feasible changes ones would be only 1 nat series race a weekend and certain bonus points on nat races so you cant win overall or age groups nat series if you have not done really well at nat champs. and if one cant particpate in 2 nat champs in a year maybe one should not be able to win the nat series.
it used to be 3 nats that count and the bonus points where too high
but I think it was the right idea and giving bonus point to the 2 best nat champs result sounds a good idea to me maybe 5%.( we cant expect people to participate in all 3 champs

anyway so far dont hate the player question the system.

I did race secretary for TI a few years back. A thankless job however gave me alot of insights into things I wouldn't otherwise have known.

From this experience I can tell you " easy feasible changes ones would be only 1 nat series race a weekend" is not easy, and I doubt feasible.

peter kern

i agree with that dave than at least on nat champ weekends
and no race should have more than 1 nat series race incorporated
i think its great races offer various distances but only 1 distacne should carry nat series points.

tunney

peter kern wrote: »

i agree with that dave than at least on nat champ weekends
and no race should have more than 1 nat series race incorporated
i think its great races offer various distances but only 1 distacne should carry nat series points.

Yes i think having three races of the same series all having NS points is silly.

El Director

Bambaata wrote: »

Simple, minor % bonus for champs race. They had it before but the % was too great.

Correct me if I am wrong but didn't they do away with Nat Champ % bonus because it wasn't fair on the host club and it's members who had to marshall the event, essentially ruling them out for the bonuses. I guess if you went with Peter's idea of 3 Nat Champs then they could participate in the other 2.