Fionnuala (one of our few award winners thus far this year) did Lough Hynch this weekend ... and would like to recommend it to everyone (well sort of)
Nobody said it would be easy..(warning this is a long report!)
It all started leaving Dublin at 8pm on thurs eve, we eventually arrived at the most remote point of cork at 2am.. woke up at midday on fri to experience the most monsoon-like weather. yep the forecast was spot on!
Having being deceived about the sea swim (who knew loch hyne race swim was to be held in baltimore harbour!), I checked out the cycle route
and sure enough the 45k route was littered with steep hills and bends to beat the band.. Anyhow I though that's what brakes are for so I'll be grand, so I put on my swimcap under my helmet as you do in this irish summer and headed off to a v windy, rainy 12k section of the route..this proved to be a good idea as the course wasn't as bad as the description lead me to believe, ok, there was one major climb that I would need to have had a green jersey to get to the top of it but all my hill training would pay off..mmm must remember to do some hill training at some point...
Similar to all triathlons since Athy, the weather was howling and gushing rain the night before & the organisers were contemplating a shorter route but by the race start at 9 it had eased off so after a briefing that would scare the life out of anyone, (bike-if there's one bend, there's another right after it, swim- there's a challenge this year with the tides, you'll be swimming against them, mind the big trawler out there, last year people got sucked in when they went too close etc..) off we went..
The swim was grand for the first 500m to the first bouy, then an almighty struggle against the tide to get to the second one, I really had to kick against the tide, a bit like swimming on a treadmill.. there were about 20 of us weaker swimmers who were really struggling to make headway while the rest of the field had no bother to them. I eventually rounded the second one and was headed back to the dry land still against the tide.. we were swimming between boats in the harbour and it was a scary feeling of drifting aimlessly towards the moorings on the boats- there were two boats in particular that I seemed to be swimming for an age between them and had people on board both encouraging me-I felt like stopping for a cup of tea, actually I must admit that I came close to throwing in the towel and getting a lift from one of the canoeists that were around me. The only thing that
stopped me was that I had gotten a young fella from cork to the run for me and I just could not arrive back at the harbour disqualified ..So on it went for almost as long as this report.
Maybe I was glad to be alive but I really enjoyed the beautiful scenery on the bike course, mercifully the gale force winds and rain subsided. I knew that I didn't have to save any energy for the run
which was just as well. About 2.3 hours from when I started I arrived back from the bike course had handed over my timing chip to Sean who was raring to at this stage god bless him, he tore around the mainly uphill run course and team Fionnuala finished around 3.15 or so I think but I wasn't really counting..
On the whole it's a great race, lovely people, amazing part of the country (just v far away), best after-race party, and definitely one to do if you want a challenge..
Having said that next time I enter I race, I'll read the course description before entering and definitely stick to my rule of never doing sea swims!
PiranhaTri
http://www.piranhatri.com/article.php/20080710163753910