Lough Cutra 24th May 2015

sconhome

pgibbo wrote: »

Man, those prices are tasty!!! :eek:

Be thankful you are paying in €!

Gauntlet: €135 for Irish residents £165 for UK!! Glad to see the shoe on the other foot for a change.

sconhome

Last call for the training day tomorrow. They are closing the free registration at 12 today. http://www.castletriathlonseries.co.uk/training/training-days/

If nothing else a good opportunity to start getting acclimatised to open water swimming in a bunch.

benji2006

I took AKW's advice and attended the training session yesterday - it really was excellent and probably the best 30 euro I will spend on triathlon-related stuff this year. The simulated swim starts were an eye-opener and I am glad I won't be experiencing it for a first time on race day.

Just a few notes for any other newbies or people who haven't raced Lough Cutra before:

SWIM:
Everyone remarked that the water was not as cold as they expected and we must have been in for at least 20 mins in total. The entry point is a bit stony but not too bad. The start point for the races is a fair bit off-shore and you will not be able to stand up, but it is v. easy to float on your back with the wetsuits (for those of us that need to conserve our swimming energies :-) For the 800m swim, it looks like you swim approx 300m towards the island, turn at a bouy and then 500m back (300m plus an extra 200m more to the exit point). There are mats in the water at the exit point, but they were extremely slippery yesterday - from photos it looks like they may put in rails here on race day to help people get out of the water.


T1;
There is a bit of a run (200m maybe), mainly on grass lawn, from the swim exit to the bikes. From the bikes, there is a significant uphill run on grass to get to the mount point. The mount and dismount points have been separated this year to reduce confusion. There is a slight uphill at the start of the bike, so getting cleats in and getting going can be tricky.

BIKE:
The first 1k of the bike is on the entrance lane from the castle to the front gate. The lane is only one car width, and is used for both starting and finishing the bike course with cones down the middle, so I assume it gets quite hectic. I think racing is allowed on this section, but assume overtaking will be hazardous. There are 2 speed bumps, not very obvious at all, a cattle grid that has been filled in (more or less) and a dip in the road just at the exit onto the main road. There is no way to avoid these apart from slowing down. The bike route is on the website so won't say too much about that - turn left onto the old Limerick road and then turn off pretty soon towards Scarrif. Most of the middle section is on quite narrow back roads, with fair to poor surfaces. There is a smallish climb that starts before a 90 degree left-hand turn so be prepared. The descent is a lot sharper than you would expect and the surface is atrocious on the left-hand side of the road - this could be very dangerous if raining and faster riders from later waves are overtaking. The route is a bit long - 21.5k for the loop on the road so for the olympic/plus it will be 1k + 21.5k + 21.5k + 1k so approx 45k in total.


RUN:
Starts on a lawn but quite quickly uphill onto a single-width trail for a bit - can imagine some argy-bargy here with faster runners from later waves/races as there really is only room for one person at a time. We didn't get to do the full 4k/5k route but the first half seemed more like cross-country running, and that was on a dry day. The second half of the loop is on lanes, and through the courtyard. If doing 2 or 3 laps, there is a fast downhill on very rough cobbles followed by lawn beside the castle before starting again on the level. The finish is in front of the castle on gravel so will miss the dangerous cobbles this time.



The setting itself is fabulous, and should be very enjoyable if the weather is any ways nice - but as said before on this thread, do not expect to set your best time on this course - it really isn't built for speed, particularly the run.

iAcesHigh

Great post, thx for heads-up. Now I'm getting nervous :P

benji2006

I see the wave details have been released - only one wave for the Prendergast Sprint Plus (800,40k,8k) and approx 130+ entries. The start should be fun...I am guessing a lot of newbies like myself may have gone with the Sprint Plus just to get the longer swim done.


Also water temperature as measured last Sat was 14.9c so not too bad.

Ceepo

benji2006 wrote: »

Also water temperature as measured last Sat was 14.9c so not too bad.

Not for a minute do I believe that the water temp was that high.

SucCes09

For the Gauntlet course (half IM distance) - I heard from a couple of folks on the training day that the cycle was closer to 100km - is that correct?

sconhome

SucCes09 wrote: »

For the Gauntlet course (half IM distance) - I heard from a couple of folks on the training day that the cycle was closer to 100km - is that correct?

IIRC it's 94k but if you cut the corners on the racing line you can get it under 93

rodneyr1981

Did the bike today. Honest course. Worst over by the 50km. Make sure everything on bike well tightened. If using tie straps change for heavy duty. Straps on my bottle holder broke with all the rattling. Also lake measured at 9.8deg yesterday

mossym

rodneyr1981 wrote: »

Did the bike today. Honest course. Worst over by the 50km. Make sure everything on bike well tightened. If using tie straps change for heavy duty. Straps on my bottle holder broke with all the rattling. Also lake measured at 9.8deg yesterday

they'll claim it at 14 next week. did last year, it wasn't even close.

least that gives it a chance of going ahead

rodneyr1981

mossym wrote: »

they'll claim it at 14 next week. did last year, it wasn't even close.

least that gives it a chance of going ahead

To be honest that part of lake is sheltered so no fear of cancellation etc. Just a case of having right clothing for bike.

mossym

rodneyr1981 wrote: »

To be honest that part of lake is sheltered so no fear of cancellation etc. Just a case of having right clothing for bike.

There must have been some amount of peeing in the vicinity of the thermometer last year to get 14:)

looking at the weather now i'm considering the new tri line from deadliest catch

iAcesHigh

So, since this is my first triathlon in Ireland and I've never done tri with this low temperatures could you lend me few advices. Do you guys, after a swim, just take off wet-suits and do the bike in standard tri-suit or do you put on extra (bike) shirt or maybe a jacket? Do you just put on biking shoes or add covers? What about a run, do you just run in tri-suit, use extra shirt or something third? What about socks - use them on tri this early in a season?

I have all the equipment and I'm used to it for trainings but up until now I have just used tri-suits in race. For the swim I have wet-suit + prepared neoprene extra cap + little bigger goggles...

RacoonQueen

I don't think neoprene caps are allowed?

Most will just wear trisuit for bike and run. Depends on air temps/weather really...and distance you're doing. Some doing the half might opt for a light jacket/arm warmers etc

sconhome

RacoonQueen wrote: »

I don't think neoprene caps are allowed?

Most will just wear trisuit for bike and run. Depends on air temps/weather really...and distance you're doing. Some doing the half might opt for a light jacket/arm warmers etc

Absolutely no problem with neoprene hats. Perfectly legal.

Gloves and booties are a no no though.

Dilbert75

AKW wrote: »

Gloves and booties are a no no though.

Do you know if that applies to the junior races too?

iAcesHigh

don't see why neoprene cap wouldn't be allowed but thx for escalating, will ask at the spot. I think I'll bring some extras but probably just use tri-suit since I'm doing sprint plus. I think I'll put on socks, just tri-suit on run and for bike maybe add a jacket but let's see how I feel about it in the morning...

sconhome

iAcesHigh wrote: »

don't see why neoprene cap wouldn't be allowed but thx for escalating, will ask at the spot. I think I'll bring some extras but probably just use tri-suit since I'm doing sprint plus. I think I'll put on socks, just tri-suit on run and for bike maybe add a jacket but let's see how I feel about it in the morning...

Just to be clear neoprene hats are allowed. There is no restriction on them in triathlon.

Kurt_Godel

AKW wrote: »

Just to be clear neoprene hats are allowed. There is no restriction on them in triathlon.

And lots were in evidence today! Not that they were needed, you don't notice the cold once you get moving. Great place for a swim! And its about the best organised Tri I've yet seen, they really know how to put on a good event(s).

Ceepo

Kurt_Godel wrote: »

And lots were in evidence today! Not that they were needed, you don't notice the cold once you get moving. Great place for a swim! And its about the best organised Tri I've yet seen, they really know how to put on a good event(s).

While I would agree with you for the most part I would have to say that the transition area was probably the worse organised that I have ever seen. Wave 4 had no bike rack and had to leave them against the railings and also there was a lot of bike just left on the ground along the slope.

Again another issue I seen was only I prize per AG in all AG category. I know that this would not bother some people but it's a bug bearer for me for the simple reason as a high % of the field will neve have any hope of ever getting into the top 3 overall and it would give other people that take part something to aim for.

Great run course all the same 😉

Dilbert75

Sure was well run. Apart from the juniors cycling on the same path as swimmers running to t1 I saw nothing much I would have changed. The support swimmers and kayakers for the juniors were excellent.

zico10

I don't know if this happened in other races, but the swimmers in The Gaunlet were let swim into rocks when rounding the island. They should have been marked out of bounds with buoys, or at the very least have a kayak warning swimmers of the hazard. It wasn't much fun banging my hands off the rocks just a few inches below the water surface and I imagine a good few people were inspecting their wetsuits for damage after the race. I saw a kayak racing over after I'd passed through, but it was too late for me and many others. It was a major oversight on the part of the organisers.
Perhaps it's unavoidable, and it's a pretty minor in comparison to swimming into rocks, but nor did I like having to cut through a line of cyclists to get back to T2, or having to cross the cycle route three times on the run.
Apart from these things, I thought it was a very well run race.

Ceepo

zico10 wrote: »

I don't know if this happened in other races, but the swimmers in The Gaunlet were let swim into rocks when rounding the island. They should have been marked out of bounds with buoys, or at the very least have a kayak warning swimmers of the hazard. It wasn't much fun banging my hands off the rocks just a few inches below the water surface and I imagine a good few people were inspecting their wetsuits for damage after the race. I saw a kayak racing over after I'd passed through, but it was too late for me and many others. It was a major oversight on the part of the organisers.
Perhaps it's unavoidable, and it's a pretty minor in comparison to swimming into rocks, but nor did I like having to cut through a line of cyclists to get back to T2, or having to cross the cycle route three times on the run.
Apart from these things, I thought it was a very well run race.

I could be wrong but I think the oly was a different swim route

Kurt_Godel

zico10 wrote: »

I don't know if this happened in other races, but the swimmers in The Gaunlet were let swim into rocks when rounding the island. They should have been marked out of bounds with buoys, or at the very least have a kayak warning swimmers of the hazard. It wasn't much fun banging my hands off the rocks just a few inches below the water surface and I imagine a good few people were inspecting their wetsuits for damage after the race. I saw a kayak racing over after I'd passed through, but it was too late for me and many others. It was a major oversight on the part of the organisers.
Perhaps it's unavoidable, and it's a pretty minor in comparison to swimming into rocks, but nor did I like having to cut through a line of cyclists to get back to T2, or having to cross the cycle route three times on the run.
Apart from these things, I thought it was a very well run race.

Thats dangerous. The Oly swam a long 1,500m, out and back, no rocks and no going around the island. No reason why you guys couldn't have been given that course with a further marker.

(Actually now that I think of it the bike/run crossovers were pretty bad. Also I wondered why people wave 4 were lined up against the barrier, thats pretty bad too. And the backroads were in fairly rag order... a lot more positives than negatives, I probably have rose glasses still on!)

mossym

not complaining, but does anyone else have the swim course long? I left my garmin running all the way back to transition. but i did the same last year and i'm reading over 200m more than last year

Ceepo

mossym wrote: »

not complaining, but does anyone else have the swim course long? I left my garmin running all the way back to transition. but i did the same last year and i'm reading over 200m more than last year

I hope so as I hope I am not that bad lol.

Most if the people I spoke to said there swim time was down on what they would normally be around.
I know I definitely done more as I kept tight to the bouy going out and back which in normal terms would be fine but the were blown of centre by the breeze. Solely my own fault.

@ Kurt you must be happy to get in a full swim
How did the rest of the race go for you ?

Kurt_Godel

Ceepo wrote: »

I hope so as I hope I am not that bad lol.

Most if the people I spoke to said there swim time was down on what they would normally be around.
I know I definitely done more as I kept tight to the bouy going out and back which in normal terms would be fine but the were blown of centre by the breeze. Solely my own fault.

@ Kurt you must be happy to get in a full swim
How did the rest of the race go for you ?

Cold swim going ahead + extra swim distance = best race ever

No garmin but the swim was a lot longer than 2014. I had one of my best swim races today and was down on 2014 time. 200m looks about right. Decent bike for me after and I held together a bad achilles on the run so pretty happy overall.

Squeaker

We're all the run routes short?
Are relay teams second class citizens in lough cutra? (I ask this simply because I see that the team prize,when compared to the entry fee,is embarrassing) [the winning team got a e15 voucher for a shop in south Galway,each,off a e125 entry fee]
A very well organized event without a doubt,however,if you are prepared to charge good money for entry,then it seems only fair to reflect that in the prize structure.

Ceepo

Kurt_Godel wrote: »

Cold swim going ahead + extra swim distance = best race ever

No garmin but the swim was a lot longer than 2014. I had one of my best swim races today and was down on 2014 time. 200m looks about right. Decent bike for me after and I held together a bad achilles on the run so pretty happy overall.[/quote

Great stuff so faith us restored so.

Probably the opposite for me down on the swim happy enough with the bike but I think I had a good run ( for me anyway )

Chartsengrafs

Squeaker wrote: »

Are relay teams second class citizens in lough cutra?

Not sure a relay prize should be comparable to an individual one considering there's usually considerably more competition on an individual level. How many relay teams were there?