TriAthy - Race Results and Report

Well done to all club members who travelled to TriAthy on the May bank holiday weekend for the sprint and Olympic distance races.

Some fast and furious times were recorded.

See club times below. Well done to all the newbies - a special mention to Aileen Waldron who did her first Olympic distance race in Athy, having attended the New to Tri day in March; she posted the fastest time of the Galway ladies in the Olympic race on the day. See below for her race report.

Well done also to Mike Ryder who (along with his great TT performance last week) had a great race at 2:07 to come in the fastest of the GTC men.

OLYMPIC RESULTS

Race No First name Last name Gender Age category Wave description Gun time Team name Chip code Finish time
209 Mike Ryder Male 25-29 Olympic 1 10:30:00 Galway Tri Club 165273346 02:07:52
177 Mark O'duffy Male 25-29 Olympic 1 10:30:00 Galway Triathlon Club 158141504 02:12:20
170 Philip O' connell Male 25-29 Olympic 1 10:30:00 Galway Triathlon Club 165274018 02:17:09
817 Owen Percy Male 35-39 Olympic 4 11:15:00 Galway 168066681 02:28:19
87 Michael Guerin Male 30-34 Olympic 1 10:30:00 Galway 165273256 02:30:24
634 Mark Brogan Male 23-24 Olympic 4 11:15:00 Galway Triathlon Club 155741242 02:31:58
760 Michael Mccarthy Male 35-39 Olympic 4 11:15:00 Galway 158142016 02:35:01
713 Aidan Hanley Male 35-39 Olympic 4 11:15:00 Galway Triathlon Club 165273323 02:36:03
403 Aileen Waldron Female 25-29 Olympic 2 10:45:00 Galway Triathlon Club 168066245 02:38:26
398 Ruth Staunton Female 35-39 Olympic 2 10:45:00 Galway Triathlon Club 142614411 02:40:29
361 Jacinta Mulroe Female 25-29 Olympic 2 10:45:00 Galway Triathlon Club 149513336 02:44:16
353 Kate Meagher Female 30-34 Olympic 2 10:45:00 Galway 149512536 02:45:07
1025 Eoin O'sullivan Male 30-34 Olympic 5 11:30:00 Galway 165275277 02:51:09
972 Garret Maher Male 30-34 Olympic 5 11:30:00 Galway Triathlon Club 161330787 02:53:48
944 Dennis Heydendael Male 30-34 Olympic 5 11:30:00 Galway Triathlon Club 150573155 02:57:36
454 Paul Cotter Male 40-44 Olympic 3 11:00:00 Galway 168066419 02:58:17
384 Ailish O'reilly Female 35-39 Olympic 2 10:45:00 Galway Triathlon Club 151228797 03:10:55

SPRINT RESULTS

Race No Overall Pos Gender Pos Cat Pos First name Last name Gender Age category Wave description Gun time Team name Chip code Finish time
1179 44 39 9 John Loughlin Male 30-34 Sprint 1 16:30:00 Galway Tri Club 162364638 01:07:11
1407 252 24 9 Ciodhna Ruane Female 30-34 Sprint 2 16:45:00 Galway Tri Club 161338301 01:15:44
2385 269 242 57 Philip Hayes Male 25-29 Sprint 7 18:00:00 galway triathlon club 168065273 01:16:17
2432 468 398 94 Richard Mccarthy Male 25-29 Sprint 7 18:00:00 Galway Tri Club 168065216 01:20:47

AILEEN'S RACE REPORT

Having commenced the triathlon season in April with a mindset that Olympic distance triathlons are not events for the someone like me, it came as a bit of a surprise to find myself, red hat on, in the thick of wave 2 swimmers of Athy 2009.

I'm a triathlon-newbie – this being my first year in GTC. I completed two triathlons in 2008 that had swims of 200m & 500m respectively. Needless to say, 'the swim' is my Achilles’ heel and I am only beginning to accept the fact that Yes indeed you can run for 40 minutes non-stop and actually enjoy it!

I originally signed up for the sprint distance race in Athy but a couple of things prompted me to switch over to the Olympic event. I'm more a morning person when it comes to training and the thought of hanging around all day to commence the sprint at 5PM really didn't appeal. A start time of 10:30 which was the case for Olympic was much more my style. The second reason, probably carrying more influence was a conversation that I had with a club member at track one Tuesday evening. She was dwelling on the upcoming Athy event and was a little daunted by the challenge of an Olympic race. Almost thinking aloud, she commented that if you just did it, if you just kept going, then you could and would finish the race. I liked her attitude and decided to take her approach. I signed up.

The Friday of the race rolled up and a real scorcher it was too. The Volvo Ocean Race was in full steam at the docks and so it was in a slightly regretful state that I ignored The Coronas and headed for Kildare. Missing beer, boats and bands, my friends thought that there must be something very wrong with me!

Race morning dawned – it was obvious that we were going to roast. After applying what must have been 8 coats of sunscreen I cycled down to the transition zone. The atmosphere was tremendous and there was a real buzz of excitement. It was lovely to see some familiar faces from the club and people all around were so so friendly. Words however, fail to express how intimidating it is to see the 'old-hats' in action with their top-notch gear and meticulous pre-race preparation.

All competitors were escorted to race-start by a marching band and flag bearers to represent each nation that was participating. We watched in awe as the wave 1 men commenced their swim with ferocious determination and incredible technique. Wave 2 was all the ladies so that was me - my ticket was up. Since all the ladies were in the one wave there was a complete mixture of abilities. I hung to the left near the bank (so no drowning) and also to the back (so no black eyes – not this seasons look apparently). The gun went off and we were away. The group dispersed and I didn't feel too crowded. I started my swim feeling comfortable and strong but 800m in, I had to switch to breaststroke. I persevered with this froggy-motion happy in the knowledge that this was by far my better stroke. The first 1100m was downstream with the final 400m an upstream battle. This latter part was exhausting as the water pushed and flowed against me. A voice in my head pleaded ' will this ever end'? I continued on, pulling and kicking and finally, finally the pontoon appeared like a miracle from God. I was hauled aboard and shakily hobbled from there to my bike.

With my worst element over, I was thankful to be on terra firma once again. The cycle consisted of two loops of 20 km each. The 10 km out faced into a gentle headwind but the terrain was flat and I began to enjoy the spin. The light tailwind on the return route provided tired legs with a little relief. As I was nearing the end of my first lap, the men from wave 1 started to close in on me as they finished their second lap on the bike. The sound of their carbon wheels as they zoomed by with unbelievable speed was simply terrifying. Cheers and claps from the watching crowd provided much needed encouragement to complete loop two.

And so there I was, on the home-straight with only my favourite element between me and the finish line. As I commenced my run I felt pretty fresh and began to focus on what time I thought that I could realistically achieve. 2hrs 45mins seemed doable as I set off on the first of the 5 km loops. The sun beat down as I attempted to maintain a reasonably high cadence. It was one hot hot day indeed. The dust being spun from the bikes on the road began to irritate my eyes and there was of patch of terrain that was particularly uneven. Never-the-less, I was in my element, reveling as I ticked of the kilometers one-by-one. And so my initial aim of 2hrs 45mins decreased to 2hrs 40mins as I entered my final 3 kilometers. Supportive shouts from spectators pushed me ever closer to the much anticipated race finish. The red flashing numbers glowed in the distance as I started to sprint lifting my legs with every last bit of energy.

I crossed over with a final time of 2hr:38min entering a mass of happy faces basking in the gorgeous summer sun. Sitting on the jetty with my sore legs dangling in the cold water I wondered where I could have lost an extra few minutes. Next time I'll push harder on the bike. Next time I'll have better front-crawl technique (or at least any front crawl technique!). Next time I'll start sprinting earlier in the run. These are all at best nice intentions – I'll be lucky if I manage to put one into practice. One thing that is for sure however - there will be another Olympic event for me. Triathlons are addictive and I most definitely am hooked.