Dublin city tri

tunney

what estimated swim time did you put down?

and still ricky villa

On entry on the TI page I put down 50 minutes as my swim time. I wound up being closer to the hour, disappointed with that as I had done a couple of sprints/aquathons in the run up and come out in under 20 minutes for the 750m

darraghsherwin

Have to congratulation Prihana on such a well organised race. It was my first triathlon and went for olympic distance.
There was loads of marshalls and they were great at motivating people in the race.
I was in wave 4, had estimated my time at 45 mins but I was shocked by the coldness of the water and panicked at the start of the swim so I probably looked like one of those "Tri tourists" before I settled myself into the swim and got the face in the water. I did the swim in 36 mins in the end.

The bike leg was good, nice mix of a drags and flats but some very tight turns. The run was lovely as I run mostly on forest trails so I could keep a nice steady pace and keep the legs moving.

Will definitely do it again and hopefully faster next time.

Darragh

RacoonQueen

From a spectators point of view I thought the turn from military road to the Kyber looked badly designed. Barriers didn't need to be in the middle for the people just entering the park and loads of near misses from people who thought it was a good idea to overtake coming round the bend...and a few just nearly hitting the barriers. Obviously makes the course more technical and difficult having the barriers there (perhaps that was the point) but the overtaking on the bend was looking really dangerous

iwillhtfu

I'd agree with the above. A lot of folks seemed to think that while I was slowing and taking a wide angle into the corner it'd be a good idea to cut down the inside only for me to pass them on the straight again. One lad completely misjuged one bend and ended up on the grass.

Another thing on the bike route was that feckin sunken drain on the inside of one of the bends. It was marked but that really could've lead to a bad accident.

Other than that it was a good albeit technical course. The only advantage in having a tri bike would've been down Chesterfield ave and even at that I was catching/passing some of the slower guys on tri bikes on the twisty sections. Obviously those who are strong on a tri bike would've passed me on a tricycle.

Great day though

Shedite27

I found the bike course challenging but fair, it had everything, climbs, descents, variety of corners, and a nice flat bit for striaght line speed. Proper test of biking ability. My nemesis was this corner....
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=53.358966,+-6.350377&num=1&t=h&vpsrc=0&ie=UTF8&z=16&iwloc=A

The best line through it was a fairly rough patch, but I seemed to be overtaken most times I went through it. Think I hit it right once out of 5 attempts.

Great race tho, hats off to Pirhana. Great event, great atmosphere, great value too (although it was tricky to carry a granola bar, coco milk, pint and a 99 all at once!). I'll be back.

Green&Red

Really enjoyed marshalling for this, good craic and nice weather
Would love to race in the PP, esp a bike route like that

If someone was to undertake me on a bend in a race I would have some choice words

PWEI

When I did Dublin City two years ago the waves were done on age groups & definitely weren't done on estimated swim times.

The 2nd last wave was the 40-44 AG & the last wave was 45 & up.

A lad I work with in his late 40's who is a very strong swimmer was in the last wave but did a 22:47 swim in the Olympic.

adamski8

Kurt Godel wrote: »

If thats the case I stand corrected: those guys had every right to be there so.

Well not ever right, if someone can barely last 100m swimming then they shouldnt even be in the super sprint let alone the olympic.

MRJ

This was my second attempt at the Olympic distance, found the swim grand (if a bit cold) apart from being a bit slower than i thought i'd be! Thought the bike route was brilliant I was in the first wave so had a lap or two of the route were it wasn't as congested. Then struggled on the run. All in all a very well organised event.

@Green&Red ....I wonder who was responsible for the up Mayo sprayed on the road before the dismount line?:)

pot p

First time doing the Dublin tri, taught it was very well run apart from I counted my laps wrong and did six laps.

MojoMaker

5 little balls of blu-tack on your cross bar and remove one for each lap, keeps you honest when the effort is being put in.

Superb organisation, kudos to Piranha for one of the best races of 2014. My first DCT but have already pencilled this in for next year.

Congrats on your AG win by the way KG - strong showing.

Kurt Godel

One piece of information we ask for during entry is swim time. We do not put the top 120 swimmers in wave 1 otherwise you would have everyone swimming on top of each other at the same pace. Instead we mix the waves and in fact put the slowest 30 people in wave 1. This means they are involved more in the race with the other waves still to go and are not left on the course on the run on their own.

As per their mass email last night. The inclusive thinking behind this is commendable (to say nothing of limiting the time the marshalls would have to stay on the course), but my personal opinion is that athletes who have difficulty swimming should have availed of the Super Sprint option when signing up.

cjt156

Fair point, I can see the thinking behind that. I do think its irresponsible for an entrant to start an event like that so unprepared. I'm not a elitist by any means but there were a lot of raised eyebrows on the river bank Saturday morning.

rainbow kirby

When we were leaving the ExCeL after the London Triathlon earlier this month, we saw a couple of the last swim finishers from the last male Olympic age group swim wave. They would have been in the water for around 75 minutes at this stage... and looked like they were almost clinging to the safety kayaks to complete the swim with a mixture of breaststroke and doggy paddle. That's dangerous, and a bit unfair to the kayakers and other competitors really - I cannot imagine why someone would want to put themselves through that knowing that they would struggle so much with the swim, particularly when they have shorter options and there are plenty of duathlons around too.

Podge83

This is a great race and with the barriers that putting on such in an event in a city throws up John and all at Piranha deserve great credit putting this race on year after year.

One big problem is the width of the river, and with "two way" traffic the width is halved. Getting the swimmers away without incident is probably one of the biggest headaches for the organizers. You will always get novices in races such as this. Distribution of abilities is important so that the fight for space spreads out quickly. This isn't so important when you have a bay or lake to spread out into.

Wave one obviously needs to have all front runners in it and will be no place for the faint-hearted. "start at the back" is the instruction but sometimes people can be caught in the middle which in most waves of this race can be worse that at the very front.

Everyone has to do a first "olympic" at some stage and due to its size and location the DCT is a place where this will happen.

Spreading out the abilities is important (in the waves), but probably keeping novices out of wave 1 might be an idea.

All that said beginners to the distance (not triathlons) can have a comfortable time with the use of common sense.

adamski8

Yeah i think mainly people are commenting on people seemily doing their first ever tri and not being able to swim. No one is saying they have to be going a certain speed but to be having to doggy paddle your way round you shouldn't be doing a triathlon (never mind olympic distance).

The kayakers should be there for people who get in difficulty for reasons other than they decided doing a tri would be great craic and can't complete a length of a pool without struggling.

Ive seen this happen at a few sprints before but first time at an Olympic distance. Not that i think much can be done about it.

Green&Red

MRJ wrote: »

@Green&Red ....I wonder who was responsible for the up Mayo sprayed on the road before the dismount line?:)

There would have been a lot more if my paint supply hadn't been curtailed!

tunney

Green&Red wrote: »

There would have been a lot more if my paint supply hadn't been curtailed!

Was a mighty battle at the weekend in Croke park for the coveted title of 2014 All-Ireland runners up.

Up the Dubs

Shedite27

Was it my imagination or were there more waves in the past? Going off every 10mns? Would that not thin the crowd?

Oryx

adamski8 wrote: »

Ive seen this happen at a few sprints before but first time at an Olympic distance. Not that i think much can be done about it.

A new TI rule where a referee can have you pulled from the swim if your swim competency is in question, might help. Something I would like to see. Probably cause a few calls to Joe if it was implemented.

Green&Red

tunney wrote: »

Was a mighty battle at the weekend in Croke park for the coveted title of 2014 All-Ireland runners up.

Up the Dubs

Just the sort of chat we love!