Swinford Tri Race Report

As a display of solidarity with our teammates racing in Antwerp and Zurich, several athletes from Galway went to Swinford, Co. Mayo to take on *cue trumpets* the Humbert Challenge!  The good folks in Swinford Tri Sports had decided to organize a middle distance race, just nine months after forming their club!  They promised a challenging course with undulating hills and a particularly steep climb somewhere on the bike and they delivered on their promise!  They also delivered a fantastically organized event, complete with nice goody bags and friendly supporters throughout the course!  This was my last triathlon before I move to Austria, and I’m delighted that I got to bring home a bit of age group hardware for my troubles!

Registration took place on the night before the race, so I traveled with Kieran Whyte to the race venue.   Kieran had made a mistake in his booking, so he had to travel a bit further to look for a place to stay, but we took the opportunity to look for transition and see what we had to look forward to in the morning.  Eventually, Kieran found a B&B and we found transition.  There were three rows of racks set out and with only 90-something participants, there was plenty of room for everyone.  Fast forward through dinner (and dessert!) and a good night’s sleep, and it’s race morning.  We all arrived at the race venue between 8:00 and 8:30, set up our bikes, shoes, gels, and all of our other tri paraphernalia in the misty rain, chatted with each other (and the other competitors – it was a very small friendly race!), donned hats and penguin suits, and went to hear the race briefing.  We were all reminded not to draft and to mind the sheep on the descents and then it was time to start swimming.

The swim was around a flat, clean lake.  Everyone skipped a buoy, but it didn’t make much of a difference to the overall distance and the kayakers didn’t seem to mind, so I followed all of the other bobbing red hats around the lake…left arm, right arm…I recognized John and my (non-Galway Tri Club) friend Colin at some stage in the lake, but I didn’t know what to say so I just tried not to splash them in the face and kept going.  All good things have to end.  Eventually I came back to where we started, got out of the water, and found my bike.   I put on shoes (no socks, they really are pointless in summer on the bike!), helmet, sunglasses and checked that my nutrition was still on board, and then I was off into the hills of Mayo.  The other two girls that I had seen were out of the water before me, but I knew that I wasn’t racing them, only myself, so I tried to brush it off. 

We had been promised good road surfaces, but this must have meant something else to the race organizers than it meant to me.   Other than that though, the bike course was fantastic!  The first 30k or so had a few climbs, with the worst one at around 27k, but after that the course flattened out to undulating hills with very little sting.  While I was going up the big hill, the good Dr. Whyte passed me, smiling away.  I thought, “I must get new wheels too” (but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t just the new wheels that made Kieran faster…still…whatever it takes on the day!)  I was delighted to see him because, just in case I collapsed off the hill, it was good to know that I wouldn’t be left to the sheep.  John had already passed me around 9k, and I’d found Padraic after his phenomenal swim at around 6k.   I never saw Tony because by the time I was out of the water, he was long gone!  It was a lonely 90k, with only fleeting encounters with other athletes because of the distance and the small number of participants, but I like the bike and I was enjoying my tasty energy bars and chia seeds so it was fine.

I passed a man in an Ironman Zurich top, sparing a thought for Barry and Shirley, in the last 9k of the bike leg.  Once I passed through Swinford, I knew the bike was nearly over, so I started spinning in a lighter gear and trying to get a bit of a stretch.  Eventually I was back in transition.  Bike: racked, runners (with socks!) on…leave…oh…wait…helmet off.  That’s better!  My legs were a bit stiff off the bike so I started waddling my way to the start of the run course.  Because Kieran and I had driven around looking for transition the night before, I knew that there was a mean hill waiting for me just out of T2, so I prepared myself, for suffering slurped down another gel, and hit the road.  Kilometers 1 & 2 were not particularly pleasant, but after a few more, my legs decided to be good amnesiacs and forget about the bike.  For a few kilometers I felt like I was actually running, but then I got overly ambitious trying to keep up with someone and I lost a bit of energy.  At 16k, I was suffering.  At 17k, after the last of many well-placed aid stations, I dropped back a bit, and erroneously calculated that I had 3k to go.  By 18, I’d realized my error but I’d passed another couple of runner/walkers, so I was feeling good.  Kilometeres 19-21.1 were tough because I was getting tired and I was in desperate need of more energy, but once I saw the finish, I felt a bit better.  Two minutes, a banana and a bottle of water later, I was almost human again! 

After the race, Kieran said that the run had been tough, which made me feel a lot better about my 2:15 half marathon.  If it was tough for Kieran then it’s tough!  After the race, there was food in the hotel (Kelly’s Gateway, Swinford) that had hosted registration.  The vegetarian option was pretty weak, but all of the omnivores seemed happy.  We made our way back to Galway, skipping the award ceremony because neither myself nor Kieran thought that we had won anything, but Kieran emailed me today to say that he was so tired that he forgot to lock his car! 

CopyRight Galway Triathlon Club 2006