Lough Cutra 2018

woody1

who's heading for lough cutra on the 26th / 27th

wife is in for the 5k, im doing the half marathon ( slowly ) and one of the boys is doing the kids tri..

anyone here ever been before and camped / campervan.. 4 of us are going and camping , just curious what the facilities are like , is it a campsite or just a field. is car park close to campsite ? showers / toilets etc.. ?

on a more relevant note .. whats the half marathon surface like , is it one for trail runners or will road runners do ..

Kurt.Godel

I camped here a couple of years ago, its just a field but handy for transition and spectating. No electric hookup, but there's a tap to fill water containers. Be careful going in, we were directed in through a very narrow path and needed a tow from a tractor to get to the field!

rodneyr1981

woody1 wrote: »

on a more relevant note .. whats the half marathon surface like , is it one for trail runners or will road runners do ..

Large portions of it is very much a trail run. I've worn normal runners but def wouldn't be going with flats etc.
Also don't be hoping for a pb..

woody1

wont be within an asses roar of a pb , be lucky to get round, havent run past 10k since well before xmas.. will be going on muscle memory and prayers ..

kurt .. can you park beside the tents or is parking seperate .. be handy to have th car beside us..

rodneyr1981

If your running it to enjoy could be nice. Certain sections across fields not ideal but of you have family there it's spectator friendly as 3 laps etc.

Kurt.Godel

woody1 wrote: »

wont be within an asses roar of a pb , be lucky to get round, havent run past 10k since well before xmas.. will be going on muscle memory and prayers ..

kurt .. can you park beside the tents or is parking seperate .. be handy to have th car beside us..

Yeah park right beside your tent/caravan. It’s only a field but if the weather is good it’s a nice setting and close to the castle/race etc.

9Crimes

I'm there for the Olympic, praying for good weather as its a beautiful venue.

woody1

9Crimes wrote: »

I'm there for the Olympic, praying for good weather as its a beautiful venue.

same as that .. il be there with 2 small kids in a tent.. a sunny dry weekend would make it all easier ..

rodneyr1981

Weather looks to be good for the weekend.

Did a recce of middle distance bike course over weekend.
You'll get rattled on first 30k bit roads not bad after that. 2 climbs and plenty of rolling sections.

Fluffybums

In for the 5k swim, camping Friday night. Did the Oly a couple of years ago and camped.

The showers were hot whenever I needed one, bring a torch as it is a step to the loos.
Hopefully it will be dry over the weekend.

Kurt.Godel

Very good set-up again at Lough Cutra today.

I did the Standard, loved the water temps and the lake itself, swim was long I suspect. Some very rattley surfaces on the back part of the bike course, saw the ambulance on my second lap at that bad bridge turn 7k in, hope nothing too serious (but really there should be bales of hay here). The ground was pretty soft in places which made the run a real slog.

TheBazman

Kurt.Godel wrote: »

Very good set-up again at Lough Cutra today.

I did the Standard, loved the water temps and the lake itself, swim was long I suspect. Some very rattley surfaces on the back part of the bike course, saw the ambulance on my second lap at that bad bridge turn 7k in, hope nothing too serious (but really there should be bales of hay here). The ground was pretty soft in places which made the run a real slog.

My third time doing it and felt it was the toughest of them all. The swim was definitely long - I looked at the map from previous years and we only went half way up the island in the standard, but today it went up beyond it. Felt the swim was slow also given the choppy conditions. Bike was grand but the surface is dodgy in parts. I heard that a guy was taken away in an ambulance alright - hopefully he is alright but that is a really dodgy turn.

The run as always is really challenging. So easy to go over on your ankle.

Great set up though and the weather for the past 3 years has been great.

68 lost souls

Kurt.Godel wrote: »

Very good set-up again at Lough Cutra today.

I did the Standard, loved the water temps and the lake itself, swim was long I suspect. Some very rattley surfaces on the back part of the bike course, saw the ambulance on my second lap at that bad bridge turn 7k in, hope nothing too serious (but really there should be bales of hay here). The ground was pretty soft in places which made the run a real slog.

Lad came off and went through the windscreen of the Marshalls car by all accounts. Hope he recovers ok.

Swim was either tougher than I thought or long I agree, don’t measure my swims anymore but would have expected sub 28 or at worst sub 30 with the chop, swam a pretty straight line I think and came out about 33 which seemed on par as the placing was similar to what would have normally expected.

Well run race I felt. Long day getting down and back up. The full spectrum of racing catered for in a weekend seemed to make a great atmosphere.

I was glad I brought trail runners with me despite my poor run, didn’t bring the legs to go with them.

Is it just me is anyone else irritated by the fact that it defaults everyone’s nationally to UK?

boysinblack

Did the Olympic. I honestly have no clue how that right hard turn is allowed to be used in a triathlon. I crashed into the bridge while taking it on my first lap, lucky I landed in nettles and my bike just fell over onto the marshal car which was been placed nicely on the turn so that if you missed you hit the car and sure enough some poor lad did behind me. He was on a stretcher with a neck brace when I went by him on lap 2.

Total disgrace it’s used, really mental stuff. Marshall telling you to slow down after you turn down into the hill and you have already gained speed. They should be telling you at the very least on your way up the hill.

Swim was 1,600 odd

68 lost souls

Hope the guy is alright.

Was the run short. I clocked it at about 9km but could be due to tree cover.

Kurt.Godel

68 lost souls wrote: »

Hope the guy is alright.

Was the run short. I clocked it at about 9km but could be due to tree cover.

Yeah that Oly run is always about 1k short. Helps make up for the long bike.

EDit

Did my first Olympic there today. Found the swim really tough with the swell (at least on the way out to the island), enjoyed the bike, but didn’t enjoy the run (legs had less left in them than I expected and I found the surface hard going in number of spots). That said, pleased that I did it (and finished it).

P.s. I measured the bike at around 42-43k and the run just over 9k. My watch said the swim was only 1250m, but I’m pretty sure that’s just an error caused by the OW swim

woody1

we had 3 races going on, plus other clubmates in other races so we were there early sat morning til 5 sunday evening, have to say i was hugely impressed with the level of organisation.. especially with the kids races on sunday, waves going off every half hour but everyone gets the same level of detail in the briefing and care by the marshalls, swim safety etc..
missus did the 5k swim, most people had it closer to 5.9k... she was just a few yards short of the podium ..
i did the half marathon, which was well short at 19.7k but i didnt mind , longest run ive done for 6 months by a long way.. didnt mind the surface at all to be honest
eldest did the 8-10 kids tri.. more nerve wracking than racing yourself.. but he got thru it.. thought he'd gotten lost on the bike but apparently it was tough enough route...
the great weather helped of course

9Crimes

Olympic Swim was definitely long! I raced this in 2016 and swam 29min flat in my second ever olympic. My swimming has improved vastly and I swam 33min 18sec yesterday

pgibbo

rodneyr1981 wrote: »

Weather looks to be good for the weekend.

Did a recce of middle distance bike course over weekend.
You'll get rattled on first 30k bit roads not bad after that. 2 climbs and plenty of rolling sections.

Rattled - understatement. Back section had some very rough sections too. Road surface was shocking in spots. Well run event though. Very slick operation. Great setting. Lovely run to boot.

pgibbo

Nice to bump in to a couple of boardsies before the races started yesterday. Hope ye all raced well.

Begs

I did the Olympic yesterday. My watch had the swim as 1800m, which explains my really slow swim time. I enjoyed the event, setting, organisation. Glad to have done it after all these years (thanks to the black friday discount), and it was a good day out for the family too.

Kurt.Godel

pgibbo wrote: »

Nice to bump in to a couple of boardsies before the races started yesterday.

Good to chat briefly pgibbo, I was still half asleep though! How'd you get on?

pgibbo

Kurt.Godel wrote: »

Good to chat briefly pgibbo, I was still half asleep though! How'd you get on?

Had some issues with cramps getting out of the water but all good otherwise. Bike and run went well except for the dodgy road surface on the bike route in spots. Very well run event and thankfully the water was nice as it was only my second OW swim of the year.

You had a good battle with Paul I see. Sound skin.

P.

rodneyr1981

Did the middle distance too.
Regarding organisation etc top marks. With so many races on they really seemed on top of things and everything flowed well.
They really have made an effort to make it very family friendly which showed by the numbers there. Great to see so many kids getting ready for there races.
The lake water was lovely and distance was spot on.
My only negative is the road surface on the bike. Had reccied it but different story when head down and racing. Really got rattled on bike. They had people at every junctions which I don't remember them having last time I raced. Think a few people went off course last year so they've addressed. Run is a bloody tough honest course. Plenty if well stacked aid stations on course. Glad the weather was good recently as a wet period leading into it would have made some run sections very soft.
Young lad made it to top of climbing wall so he was chuffed heading home too😂 so good day all round.

PWEI

Lough Cutra are advertising a 25% discount at the moment but when I tried to enter the Half it was still coming up at €145.
Anybody know how to avail of the discount?
I sent them a message but didn't get a reply.

TheBazman

PWEI wrote: »

Lough Cutra are advertising a 25% discount at the moment but when I tried to enter the Half it was still coming up at €145.
Anybody know how to avail of the discount?
I sent them a message but didn't get a reply.

They normally do a decent discount on black friday. From memory the price on the screen you first see isnt the actual price. I think I've paid around 50 euros for each of the past 2 years.

PWEI

TheBazman wrote: »

They normally do a decent discount on black friday. From memory the price on the screen you first see isnt the actual price. I think I've paid around 50 euros for each of the past 2 years.

Great. I'll wait till Black Friday then.
Thanks for the reply.

PWEI

PWEI wrote: »

Lough Cutra are advertising a 25% discount at the moment but when I tried to enter the Half it was still coming up at €145.
Anybody know how to avail of the discount?
I sent them a message but didn't get a reply.

So they replied to my message today and advised that €145 is the discounted price. That means the normal price is €181.
I think I paid €130 for the Gauntlet this year.

The Hardman half is on that weekend also so I think I might do that instead.

TheBazman

PWEI wrote: »

Great. I'll wait till Black Friday then.
Thanks for the reply.

The cost I gave was for the Olympic, but I would expect decent discounts for the half aswell.

rodneyr1981

PWEI wrote: »

So they replied to my message today and advised that €145 is the discounted price. That means the normal price is €181.
I think I paid €130 for the Gauntlet this year.

The Hardman half is on that weekend also so I think I might do that instead.

Did the cutra half this year and way over priced imo. Like wise will race elsewhere next year