Back on the Road Again – Joey Hannon Race Report

Thursday, May 11 2006 @ 05:45 PM IST

Daithi (right) writes in with the following race report from the Joey Hannon this weekend.

Summer is back. The Joey Hannon race in Limerick was my season opener for 2006. The Triathlon circus begins again. We decided to start with a bit of luxury this year. The tent remained in the attic and we headed for the Castle Oaks Hotel in Castleconnell (12km from Limerick) early on Saturday afternoon. The tent may have been at home, but we still had room for the picnic. Once booked into the hotel, it was off to the leisure centre for a wee swim to work up an appetite for dinner, seafood chowder followed by a big bowl of pasta. A quick romantic walk by the River Shannon and then off to bed.

Registration time was 9:30 to 10:30am so no need to get up at the crack of dawn, plenty of time to stroll down to the breakfast room, for some weetabix and a couple of fried eggs (sunny side up off course)...

We hit registration at 10am, the Limerick boys and girls had it well sorted, all done and dusted in 5mins. Now it was time to rack the bike and catch up with other Triathletes. Our buddies from Wicklow Tri where still walking round in there warm weather hoodies, the Belpark boys got loads of new toys for Christmas (one thing missing was a visiting to a waxing parlour, triathlon Speedos should surely come with waxing strips – definitely deserving of a two minute time penalty), disc wheels are the new black and who hasn’t got a teardrop helmet and multi-coloured runners. You need to get up early in the morning to have better gear than some of these guys.

I saw 5 Piranha on view, Elena, Frank, Derek, Fergal and myself.

The race itself was quite eventful, pool swims are always a bit unusual, you are relying on the courtesy of your fellow tri-athletes to let you pass in a polite manner, this does not always happen and seemed to cause a lot of frustration, I saw it happen in the 5 heats before mine and it happened in mine. Point to note for pool swims, if you think you are faster than the rest of the guys in your lane, let them know you are leading out and that you expect them to get out of your way, also if you are the one holding the show up, don’t wait to be told to let others past, do it yourself. I raced in the same lane as Frank, we started 2nd and 3rd, but should have gone of 1st and 2nd, we lapped everybody at least twice (because we are great) but one guy just didn’t want to give way, it was frustrating, but we will know for the future. I had a disaster of a T1 (nothing new there).

The bike section really sorted me out, it was here that I was reminded of all the training in Italy, because my legs where in bits, in addition, we were cycling into the wind and rain and slightly uphill. It took me 35mins to reach the turn and 28mins to get back, my quads were killing me.

T2 was much more too my liking and so was the run, I didn’t go banana’s, but was happy with a 36min finish for 8K and, most importantly, bragging rights on the TI council.

As I was strolling around the hall afterwards, munching on the Sambos and fruit bars, I noticed the race committee making a rather large chart. On closer examination, it was the penalties for the day. A quick check to make sure my number wasn’t there, however there were quite a few who were. Both the first Male and Female Triathletes to cross the line where hit. Brian Crinion got 2mins for a number violation and our Elena got a DQ for missing the turnaround on the run course. There were a number of other penalties for Drafting, Dangerous Riding, riding in transition and Helmet violations. So make sure you listen to the race briefing and read those rules, they are there for the safety of all.

On a lighter note, the funniest moment of the race, was the guy who got changed from his swim gear into his cycling gear and shoes in the pool changing area, then proceeded to his racked bike, where he took of his cycling shoes and put on his runners, he then realized what he had done and muttered a few profanities to himself. We all had a little chuckle.

I’m out again at Abbotstown, no tent or hotel required.

Piranha Results

Pos	Name	Swim	SP	T1	Cycle	CP	T2	Run	RP	Overall
53	David WADE	18:13	(53)	01:59	01:03:14	(71)	00:44	00:36:35	(63)	02:00:43
66	Derek O'DONOGHUE	19:26	(79)	01:27	01:01:42	(59)	01:12	00:39:08	(89)	02:02:53
80	Frank KEHOE	17:52	(43)	01:00	01:07:15	(116)	00:46	00:38:48	(84)	02:05:39
152	Fergal MOLLOY	24:25	(155)	02:24	01:10:59	(144)	01:31	00:48:22	(161)	02:27:40
DSQ	Elena MASLOVA	18:04	(49)	00:48	00:58:09	(30)	00:31	00:34:03	(27)	01:51:33

Related Links

Full results on Triathlon Ireland website

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