[Niall gave me the go ahead to submit this]
I heard about the Wicklow 200 when I started triathlon in 2004. I thought about doing it a month ago after Anna just casually asked me whether I was doing it and said that if I was I’d better sign up soon. I didn’t want to say that I wasn’t doing it so I signed myself up. Luckily for me a number of others in the club had also entered so I knew we’d want to try to keep together for support during the event...
A few days before it I assumed that I’d do it in about 8 hours and I’d feel perfectly fine when I finished it. After all, I felt fit and my cycling wasn’t going too bad. How hard could it be. Paj did ask me whether I had taken the Monday afterwards off work but then told me he was only joking. I still didn’t really think it’d be too bad.
I started off with Mark, Chris, Jim, Tadhg, Neil O'brien, Niall Smart and Don Clarke. There were a few others at the start but that was the core group. We had Bren along with us for the first 100km too and he was racing monday so didn't want to kill himself.
I ended up having to go out the night before and didn't make it to bed till late. I got to Donnybrook just after 7am. After a bit of chat we got one the road and had a nice roll towards Bray, Greystones and Newcastle on the back roads. Very nice pace. We then crossed to motorway to do the fist significant climb. The Devil's Pass/Glen. People were certainly passing out all around me and I was out of my saddle for quite a while. It was so tempting to get off the bike like lots of the people there.
We had a rest at the top and a chat about how tough it was before rolling on to Rathdrum. We had a food stop there but for some reason the organisers decided that savory food wasn't going to be in demand so muffins and bananas were the order of the day. We met up with Mark and Anna (with her Dad) and then Bren wished us well before heading off.
We had a decent break before cycling on to hit the half-way mark. Things were still not bad at this stage and we had met up with a few other cyclists on the way. The route took us through to the bar in Glenmalure and the left to Slieve Maan (which Mary and myself did the week beforehand). This time the mountain was quite a struggle. Not the sit back and relax climb that I remembered from the previous week when my legs had be quite fresh. It was a long push to the top and we had another break up there. I felt that the worst was over by then and was feeling quite good. The downhill of Slieve Maan was a good buzz and there was mostly a long bumpy ride till we hit Blessington. Felt good enough to admire the surroundings and we were chatting to each other checking that we were all ok and able to hang on. The undulations of the road continued and there was lots of talk about the eventual climb of Sally Gap that awaited us. In preparation I was munching down the rest of my, horrible, food (apricots, gels, sweets) - I felt drained and sick in my stomach.
Then we finally hit the ride towards the top of the Sally Gap. It was long and winding, I already felt really tired and every time I looked up there seemed to be a never ending climb. Loads of time I thought about getting off the bike for a rest, thinking that the rest of them aren't as tired as me etc. I just got up out of the saddle and methodically kept going until I got to the top. We regrouped again, refilled our water bottles and a kind lady donated a mini-mars bar and a mr kipling apple pie (still no savory food I was thinking!). I think that was about 170km done by then. At that stage I just wanted to get it over with. We had some more hills to go before we hit the main downhill of the sally gap, home free I was thinking... not so with Neil O'Brien ripping it along all the way home. Finally we rode on with the sugar loaf ahead to the right we did about 35 till we hit the hill before Enniskerry. We regrouped at the shop at the crossroads in the village. People were in good form. I just wanted to get home. After a rest I put on my earphones, I knew I had to have something extra to motivate me to get back to RTE. I put on Bloc Party (http://tinyurl.com/96spx) because of the guitar, drums and loud insane singing to block out the "I want to get off my bike" thoughts.
By the time we finally got back to RTE, my mind was buzzing and my body felt awful. A toilet stop and a massively overpriced bbq burger later with Neil and Niall and I felt a little more alive. I got home, put my legs up and watched some tv. I polished away two bottles of rego recovery drink. I was in bed by 8:30pm but it took me two hours to get to sleep, my mind still processing the hills of wicklow, a dull overall ache throughout my head and body, my hands twitching randomly from gripping the bars all day.
By my odometer it took 10hrs 30-40minutes. Seeing as there was v little activity on the site about the w200 on Monday I'd say that everyone felt that it really was a challenge. The good thing is that I’m feeling more confident about doing Kenmare (http://www.corktri.com/kenmare/) now. And the Dublin City Marathon...
PiranhaTri
http://www.piranhatri.com/article.php/2005061413002326