A long time coming but its finally here... slash I finally got my head around updating the site. Jennifer O'Reilly gives us her account of the pulse triathlon 2007
Pulse Triathlon – Blessington
It was a wet and mucky morning in Blessington for Pulse Triathlon. The start was delayed, due to problems with registration and parking, but there were lots of Piranhas around which made the wait more bearable. Despite the weather I really enjoyed this race as did lots of others from the comments afterwards. I would recommend it for next year particularly those starting out in tri like a good few of us this year......
Swim
The swim was 750metres on flat lake water. There were two buoys to negotiate before returning back to the bank. The women were in the third, and last, wave. Although this meant we could all race together the start time between the second and third wave was not long enough and we ended up having to negotiate through the weaker swimmers from the second wave from about 300metres until the end of the swim. The transition area was over 300metres away from the lake up a sharp climb. Only part of the path on the climb was covered in carpet. This made it very difficult to run along due to the stones on the path. I was glad that I had brought my runners down to the lakeside to avoid having to run on the stones. If the course is the same next year this is worth noting. Also, most people took their wetsuits off as they exited the water before embarking on the run up to transition.
Bike
The bike course was an 18km undulating course. After exiting transition there was an immediate climb. It wasn’t a severe climb, but was enough to cause a back-log of bikes from people trying to get into their shoes/ clip their pedals while going uphill. Once up the hill the course opened out onto open roads. None of the climbs were too steep or long, but the course was undulating nonetheless. The road was wet from the morning’s rain and there was also quite a bit of gravel on it which made two corners quite tight. The bike course was sheltered from the wind and I only ever noticed the wind when going over the bridge heading back to Poolaphuca. On the home stretch the road got busier making it difficult to maintain a constant speed as traffic stopped was right up against the curb and it was busy coming in the opposite direction too.
Run
The run was a straight out and back 5km course with minor undulations but nothing too challenging unlike Kinsale two weeks previous. The surface, being the road, was fine to run on. As always it was great to spot so many Piranhas along the run to break up the 5km.
Even though the weather wasn’t great everyone seemed to enjoy the day and as the course wasn’t too difficult many came in with great times. Well done to everyone.
Piranha Party
Just a word of thanks to Greg and everyone else who was involved in organising the night out after the race. We had a great meal in Brassarie 66 and washed it all down with copious amounts of random *censored*tail concoctions in the Sugar Club. Tote worth the hangover o’ death for the following three days!
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