PiranhaTri: Athy Race Report

Noelle McDonald writes in with her report from Athy where she was winner of the sprint race....

I had a pretty hectic week in work and a few sleepless nights leading up to Athy.I didn't manage to train much during the first half of the week as planned. I got as far as the track on Monday, did one lap and had to call it a night as I felt exhausted.I also missed Tuesday morning swim session with the guys from 3D. The second half of the week was a bit better, ran early on Wednesday morning, swam on Thursday morning and cycled Friday morning.I wasn't feeling top dollar but was looking forward to the race.

I was registered in the slower Wave 2 .I knew from the start that I would have to run my own race.I would have none of the faster girls from Wave 1 to chase or to gauge my position by.The swim was rough at the start, there was little space to break free. I swam hard but I felt sluggish.T1 was extremely slow, my new wetsuit took me forever to remove.The two guys transitioned beside came and went.

The bike course was straight forward, 10km out and 10km in.The first 10km was hard work.There was a strong head wind and lots of small draggy hills. If was difficult to hold a decent speed. Once I turned the back after the first 10 km I committed myself to pedalling as fast as I could.I wanted to give the second half my best effort. My race from here on seemed to come together.I held my cadence till I reached T2. T2 wasn't great either.I had put my runners in a bag in case it rained.I started my run fast and luckily was able to keep the pace. I had suffered from cramps two weeks earlier in Abbotstown and had to stop and walk a few times on the run .So 2 km in I began to feel good about this race.

Well done to Matt Coughlan who finished in an incredible 2.10mins and Elena who came second in the ladies Olympic and Sinead who came fourth in the Sprint.

Athy Race Report

Friday, June 08 2007 @ 07:24 PM IST