Mourne Triathlon 2006

Thursday, August 10 2006 @ 09:41 PM IST

Contributed by: eimhin

Matt Coughlan writes in with a race report from the Mourne Triathlon in Castlewellan last weekend.

While the 6 generals were doing their thing in London at the weekend, 29 others from Piranha were heading north to Castlewellan for another battle. As a Cork man, I wouldn’t be looking to ancient times to find the names of suitable warriors after which to call the 29. I’d simply pick the name of any man who wore the Rebel red in Croke Park at the weekend. Heroes all. :-)

Although registration for the race didn’t open until June, this was definitely on the race ‘To Do’ list this year. Twenty Nine Piranhas were among the 300 strong field which took to the lake in the Forest Park in Castlewellan and all 29 feature in the results sheet.

Arrived in Castlewellan about 2 hours prior to race start and headed down to registration straight away. Found out the spaces in transition were already allocated so no rush down with the bikes. Registration was pretty smooth and after last weekend the plastic bag for the tshirt, chip and bottle of Powerade seemed like a brainwave. Although they did manage to do a ‘Kilkee’ on it and give wave 3 yellow hats to go with the yellow buoys...

As usual the time flies by getting everything sorted and before you’ve time to say ‘I hate wasps’ its time for the race briefing. 3 wave starts with the swim as before – just longer. Bike was out the same road for 2 laps of an apparently 12.5 mile lap. Had seen the markers earlier while road testing the bike and it was pretty clear where this was going to happen. Run was also to be the same as before with just a ‘little’ spur attached on to the lap to bring the 2 lap course up to the 10k. All pretty clear. I myself had put a slightly dodgy feeling before the race down to being slightly nervous. Had set myself a target of 2.30 for this race earlier in the year but wasn’t particular confident of doing it on the day.

Start of the swim was reasonably civilized and the relatively uneventful. I used the long run up the beach in Kilkee as the excuse for not breaking 29 minutes for the swim but no excuses this time. In and out of T1 pretty smoothly. Felt bad about disrupting the little meeting of wasps which was in full swing around the top of my bike bottle but needs must.

Once out of the park on the bike, there’s a bit of climb which is deceptively long or at least that’s how it felt at the time. It’s not long before a few familiar people have passed me. Steve Cleary comes flying by soon followed by Jeremy Crisp. I hit 10k on my bike clock and still no sign of the turnaround. And it seems to take an age to arrive. Eventually it does and I can see how far the guys are ahead. The remainder of lap one and lap 2 don’t seem to take as long with the route getting slightly more familiar if not any easier.

Coming into T2 and Steve is taking off on the run as I come down the hill to dismount the bike. I’ve a bit of catching up to do. Exiting T2 and I hear the beep as I cross the timing matt. Just over 1.50. Need a 39 minute 10k to do 2.30 and that’s definitely not on the agenda. But there’s always Steve to catch up with.

Make my way along the run and I can see a Piranha ahead. I pass Sam and soon get to the little spur. Its like the hill at the start of Kilkee but definitely felt worse on Saturday. Stomach cramps, lower back pain and sore hip are all making me fairly miserable. I pass Steve near the end of the first lap. Over the timing matt and it reality of doing it all over again dawns on me. Liuwe tells me Jeremy is only just ahead – my body tells me stop here now. I pass Jeremy soon on the second lap but as soon as I pass him with the road opening up in front all I want to do is get sick. So I do. I decide the fastest way back to the car and some drinks is to turn around and go back. A good few Piranha go by me wondering am I OK? I’m grand – just feeling on deaths door at the moment. I keep walking back around till Mary sees me and tells me in no uncertain terms to turn around and finish. Course she was right – but at the time less than 2k seems a lot more attractive than over 3k including a hill. I decide I will begin to walk the other way and try finish. I try to jog a bit but not a lot doing. Eventually after what seems like an eternity I got around to the end - my whole body creaking and not a once of energy left. Glad I finished but a lot of lessons learned especially about races which start at 1pm.

Everyone seems to finish the race in good spirits from what I could tell while all acknowledging a very tough race. I clocked over 42k on the bike which seems a bit needless on an out and back course.

Tomas Kelly was first Piranha home with Elena Maslova first Piranha lady home in 3rd place.

Also definitely worth a mention is Robert Kehoe who was part of the winning relay team. I assume it was he who did the run?! :-)

Overall a very well run race. The marshalling on the closed roads was pretty good – didn’t hear or see any major incidents - and the commentary in the speakers really adds to the atmosphere. Definitely back for more next year although the great reports from London would suggest otherwise. Food for thought over the winter.

Related Links
Results on TI website
TI race report
Photos by Noel McCluskey from 3DTri

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