Niall McDonnell writes this excellent race report from the truly hellish Hell of the West:Niall McDonnell writes this excellent race report from the truly hellish Hell of the West:
Well the weather forecast had being putting fear into most tri athletes in the week coming up to the Kilkee. Persistent rain and winds were pencilled in by Met Eireann for the whole weekend. With this always in mind I started out from Dublin on Friday afternoon on the road to County Clare for the 23rd running of the Hell of the West Triathlon.
Arrived in the Anvil Guest house after registering (which was very kindly organised by Jen & Dave) a little after. The lovely Bean and Ti - Maire had scones and brown bread baked for us on arrival. 12 of us shacked up in the house apart from the happy couple (Tibo and Graham) who shared the cottage beside us.
Swim wave
one headed over to the water after the race briefing and a moving tribute to
the late Howard Flannery who was tragically killed while training for the race. Im not the best of swimmers so stuck to the
edges and let the big lads fight it out at the front. Water was clear and there was no current, was
perfect conditions. The swimmers spread
out fairly well and didn’t find the swim too congested. Was tough to spot the yellow bouy on the way
back though and I had to stop once or twice to get myself going in the right
direction.
Got out of the water and checked my watch and it said 26mins and some seconds. Was delighted as did the swim in 30 mins last year. The work with Chantal and Jack is paying off. No time to get sentimental - got to T1 and found that my race number had shredded to bits under my wetsuit. Crap – lost time as I rummaged through my bag to get another number as I feared being penalzied. Shouldn’t have bothered as when I got out on the bike as the majority of competitors had stuck with the wasted number slips.
The bike course was tough enough I thought. Plenty of rolling hills and bit of a cross wind. Patches were wet from the night before so you had to watch it on a couple of corners. Greg came flying by me at 15k, knew I should have slashed his tyres in T1, will remember for next time. Then at 25k I tried to reach for my drink and knocked my pump off. Decided against stopping and just hoped I didn’t get a puncture.
Came into T2 got the bike on the rack and set off for the run part of the race. Starts off along the strand for 750m and then your straight into a hill. Liz Hussey was leading the women’s race and I was running with her for a while but got a really bad cramp in my side on the way up the hill. Had to stop and walk it out for a while. Then I could see Thibault Candebat in the distance further up. Tried picking up my pace but was tough going and knew I had given Tibo too much space. Elena Masalova then came powering by me. She was going all out to catch Liz and win the race. Close to the top Tibo came running by with a big smile. He looked strong so obviously a night in the love-nasium with Graham hadn’t taken too much out of him. Saw plenty more Piranha’s on the way and everyone was giving each other a shout of support which is great. I find it really gives you a boost during the race. Plus it takes my mind of the poxy blisters from the lock laces. On the way back down I found my speed again and started picking it up to catch. Tibo. Started making some progress but knew he was too far ahead. With a kilometre to go I went flat out and came flying round the corner onto the strand. Tibo was a bit ahead and I was closing the gap but the finish was only a 400m away. So the young French man crossed the line 100m before me. Ah well, was a good buzz and got to finish with a sprint which is always nice.
Met Elena
after the race and she informed me she had won.
Congratulations were due, she put in a super performance. Hats off to Limerick Tri as well was a very
well organised race and the cycling top in the goodie bag was the
business. . Word of warning if anyone is travelling down
there – don’t take the N6 it’s a pile of muck!!!
PiranhaTri
http://www.piranhatri.com/article.php/20070711132741221