Mourne Triathlon Race Report

Wednesday, August 04 2004 @ 09:14 AM IST

A great day was had by all in Castlewellan. (Pictured on the right are John and Steve before the swim). Daithí, John, Alan & Ed all completed their longest triathlons so far - with Alan being declared "One of the Kings of Triathlon" by the MC when he finished. Mary and Caron did well despite Caron appearing in the results as a male. I think she may have lost out on a prize as a result. Sean, Jeremy and David all were happy their performances or at least that's what they told me.

The leading few Tsunami guys didn't seem as happy though. Wes' swim was just too slow. Eimhin not so happy about Wes passing him on the run (they were in different waves). And Mick didn't seem so pleased with an upstart who joined the club this year finishing about 20 seconds behind him. The upstart was happy though...

That morning I woke bright and early, had my breckie and I was all ready to leave when I discovered a puncture. I quickly changed the tube only to get a second punnture immediately. Before I got a chance to fix it again John arrived, so we piled into the car to collect Mary (who had done her best to steal my lift, but thankfully there was room for us all). It was a grand trip up, not too far or long, with a couple of wrong turns thrown in for luck.

When we arrive in Castlewellan the gossip on the street is not about who is there, but who isn't there. The entries exceeded the max capacity, so various people of various levels were denied entry. It was a bit different not having some of the regular club faces to chase.

The race was split into 3 waves of about 60 people. Women, children and Vets were off in the first wave. Before the start of the 2nd wave (my wave) I discovered a nice hole in the arm of my wet suit, but I didn't have time to worry much about it before the hooter sounded. Got into a decent rhythm on the way out but on the way home I wandered all over the place. I think I did a few 360 degree loops.

A quick T1, for me, and I was on my bike. The road was undulating with plenty of cyclists on the way. It got a bit messy towards the end. I got stuck behind rows of cars stuck behind slower cyclists. I was happy with the cycle, in part because my bike wasn't sabotaged this week! Up and down the tricky hill into transition, a quick change of shoes and I was off on the run. Legs felt good straight away. With the 3 waves and two laps of the lake, the run was all very sociable. I greeted 5 other Tsunami runners along the way, some who said hello back and others just grunted. I was really happy with my run.

My sister Annemarie, who I haven't seen in over a year, turned up to say hello with her daughter Grace, who I had never seen before! So I skipped the warm downs and free massage. I didn't skip the food though. There were enough sandwiches to make Mrs Doyle proud, and plenty of soup to wash them down too.

All in all it was a good day. I could have done with some printed results to analyse over the weekend, to see where a second could be saved here and or shaved off there. I was almost looking forward to getting back into work on Tuesday.

A special thanks to everyone, who took a step backwards, when Eimhin asked for a volunteer to write the race report. And finally thanks to John for giving Mary and I a lift. Anyone willing to give me a lift to Ballyronan? If I get duped into writing the report again, I'll tell everyone how great you are.

Related Links
Photo gallery from the race
Individual Results
Mourne Triathlon website

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PiranhaTri
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