Lough Neagh Race Report

Thursday, August 24 2006 @ 12:27 AM IST

Contributed by: eimhin

Niall Larkin (to the right of Greg) writes in with the following race report from Lough Neagh at the weekend.

Lough Neagh always proves a popular triathlon and this year was to be no exception. With 32 Piranhas making the trip north, we would provide the biggest entry of any club in the country. There were also some notable absentees, Fergal Coen was one who was surely suffering from exhaustion / writers cramp after his mammoth race report from London.

Leaving Dublin in the late afternoon I picked up Frank Kehoe and that's when we hit our first problem. Franks super-duper tri bike wouldn't fit onto my not so super-duper bike rack. After a quick Plan B we were on the way to Moneymore. After arriving, we went to Ballyronan and registered (I'd be glad on Saturday morning that we did that). Then back for a bite to eat and back to the B&B where we were joined by Greg Campbell. I had taken some pride in not seeing a single minute of the 93 days of Big Brother but Frank made us watch the final hour. Now I'll have to wait until next year to totally avoid it...

Up next morning and after checking that the monsoon season had departed, a quick brekkie and off to Ballyronan. Rack my bike and go for a quick "warm-up" run. So warmed up in fact that I start to melt. Panic then sets in as I remember the humidity and more importantly the after effects of Castlewellan, so I down the bottle of Powerade I got in my goody bag. Then its time to suit up and go to the briefing. Now, is it my imagination or does this guy press play on the tape recorder, because I definitely remember him saying "if the marshall pulls you over for drafting, don't argue with him, cause he'll stay and talk to you all day" on more than one occasion.

Anyway, before I know it Wave 1 is off. I'm in Wave 2 and I'm off soon enough. A good, solid (that means straight for me, I usually opt for the slalom course) swim and I'm into T1 after 31 minutes. Derek O'Donoghoe posts a 17:21 time for the swim (which beats the pros by 30 seconds), so I'm thinking that either they messed up his wave or he got Grant Hackett to help as part of a relay. T1 was pretty uneventful and I'm out onto the bike.

The bike was 4 laps, which is great for seeing some other Piranhas. Pass a few, get passed by a few and lapped by one or two and before you know it the 4 laps have passed and I'm heading for T2. At this stage I have a look at the clock and realise that I have a big chance of breaking 2:30 for the first time. I just have to keep the head down and do a 44 minute 10km and I'm there.

At the start of lap 1 of the run Tom Kelly is just in front of me (albeit 2 laps ahead of me) and I get a good tow off him. Jen is there giving lots of encouragement and you can hear her over everyone. Never realised she had a such a big, eh, eh, eh..... set of lungs!! So, I start knocking the laps out and with one to go I know I'll make my target. To help Mary Horgan is closing me down fast. I up the gears, hold off Mary and finish in 2:28:54.

It seems that the good conditions have lead to PB's all over the place. There were also top 3 positions in their age groups for Sharon, Elena, Mary, Anne, Tom & Jack.

Afterwards, we hang around to watch to see how the Pro's do it. Don't they make it look easy? 17 minutes for the swim and round it all off with a 34 minute 10km run. I only have to improve just over a half an hour and I'm there. Always next year I suppose!!!!

Member Results

Name AG AGpos SWIM SP T1 CYCLE CP T2 RUN RP Overall
Tomas Kelly ME (2) 00:22:47 (19) 00:01:08 01:01:33 (5) 00:01:05 00:40:31 (34) 02:07:02
Michael McGloin MF (4) 00:24:37 (45) 00:01:11 01:03:11 (14) 00:01:15 00:39:21 (19) 02:09:33
Eimhin McManus MF (5) 00:22:58 (24) 00:01:08 01:03:31 (16) 00:01:36 00:40:57 (43) 02:10:09
Brian Kelly MF (14) 00:23:43 (30) 00:01:52 01:08:02 (58) 00:01:35 00:42:16 (64) 02:17:27
Derek O'Donoghue MG (15) 00:17:21 (1) 00:01:48 01:14:06 (159) 00:01:12 00:47:22 (128) 02:21:47
Elena Maslova FF (2) 00:26:41 (82) 00:01:32 01:09:49 (85) 00:01:16 00:42:55 (70) 02:22:10
Peter Coughlan MF (20) 00:25:23 (61) 00:01:27 01:12:52 (145) 00:01:18 00:41:26 (50) 02:22:25
Frank Kehoe ME (18) 00:26:02 (73) 00:01:27 01:12:47 (141) 00:01:17 00:42:07 (62) 02:23:39
Steve Cleary MF (24) 00:27:52 (126) 00:01:34 01:07:05 (45) 00:01:21 00:46:22 (118) 02:24:12
Mary Horgan FF (3) 00:24:38 (46) 00:01:40 01:15:01 (173) 00:01:10 00:41:48 (54) 02:24:14
Eoin O'Flaherty ME (20) 00:28:55 (150) 00:01:30 01:08:02 (57) 00:01:17 00:45:50 (112) 02:25:33
Niall McDonnell ME (21) 00:26:47 (87) 00:01:49 01:12:07 (127) 00:01:03 00:44:06 (91) 02:25:49
Gregory Campbell MG (18) 00:27:11 (98) 00:01:40 01:10:00 (90) 00:01:23 00:45:39 (111) 02:25:51
David Leonard ME (23) 00:28:47 (148) 00:02:09 01:11:11 (104) 00:01:50 00:42:54 (69) 02:26:49
Niall Larkin ME (26) 00:30:59 (201) 00:01:51 01:11:58 (125) 00:01:07 00:43:00 (72) 02:28:54
Sharon Dolan FE (3) 00:28:47 (147) 00:01:10 01:11:20 (107) 00:01:33 00:46:11 (117) 02:28:59
Jamie Taylor ME (28) 00:28:56 (151) 00:01:25 01:11:23 (109) 00:01:26 00:47:16 (126) 02:30:23
Jonathon Dowling MF (34) 00:30:44 (193) 00:01:44 01:12:14 (130) 00:01:37 00:44:22 (96) 02:30:39
Samuel Blonde MF (35) 00:22:50 (21) 00:01:40 01:12:30 (134) 00:01:46 00:52:01 (164) 02:30:45
Nick Walsh MH (13) 00:32:47 (242) 00:01:45 01:12:58 (147) 00:01:53 00:42:36 (67) 02:31:58
Ian McFarlane MF (39) 00:30:42 (191) 00:01:31 01:08:46 (71) 00:02:20 00:48:59 (0) 02:32:16
Emily Ennis FE (4) 00:26:39 (79) 00:01:34 01:15:56 (191) 00:01:24 00:48:10 (136) 02:33:41
Andrew Fleury ME (36) 00:28:04 (130) 00:02:17 01:15:28 (181) 00:01:44 00:47:58 (134) 02:35:30
David Rock MG (28) 00:36:06 (283) 00:02:40 01:10:50 (101) 00:01:14 00:46:21 (0) 02:37:09
Anne O'Leary FG (2) 00:24:06 (34) 00:01:44 01:26:16 (289) 00:01:47 00:43:26 (0) 02:37:16
Jack Meade MK (2) 00:25:14 (58) 00:02:31 01:22:31 (267) 00:01:36 00:47:09 (125) 02:39:00
Noelle McDonald FF (9) 00:25:50 (69) 00:01:48 01:20:03 (244) 00:01:32 00:53:23 (0) 02:42:35
Michael Grimes MG (36) 00:32:40 (240) 00:01:48 01:14:39 (170) 00:01:32 00:52:15 (0) 02:42:52
Matthew Fleury MD (10) 00:31:55 (220) 00:02:26 01:28:16 (300) 00:01:20 00:42:01 (0) 02:45:57
Kevin Galvin MF (61) 00:34:31 (265) 00:02:19 01:18:48 (231) 00:01:19 00:52:21 (0) 02:49:16
Don Clarke MH (34) 00:39:51 (303) 00:02:24 01:19:30 (239) 00:01:54 00:54:59 (0) 02:58:36
Matt Coughlan ME (51) 00:33:58 (256) 00:03:22 01:27:07 (293) 00:01:49 00:55:42 (0) 03:01:57

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