By Ellen Shilling.
It all started with a stooppid comment.
“you better not beat me..”
“challenge accepted” came the reply. What? Oh well, not one to shy away from a challenge.
“Game on.”
Cr*p.
I really didn’t need to challenge someone who’s improved massively in the last year..who’s flying on the bike and who is a friend….and a man….and better than me…. sometimes I wish I’d keep my mouth shut.
Me v’s Declan Cunningham.
Holey cr*p.
Skerries Sprint triathlon here we come. The nerves started and I went into panic mode. I had the jitters all week, studied the race course (even had all the twists and turns written on a piece of paper and stuck onto my bike), ate right, lost a load of weight due to nerves and all round didn’t really sleep for the full week. But I’d never been so prepared for a race in my life.
Night before the race. Text to boss:
“Road helmet v’s TT?”.
“TT Ellen, why not?”,
“Cause it looks bleedin stoopid” (and it really did)
“it looks grand Ellen.”
“no It doesn’t but will it help me beat Declan?”
“yes”
“its packed”
That’s how serious I was.
Race day: Another great little road trip with my homies Sharon and Louise. Me and louise had done this tri 3 years ago when it took me 24minutes to get around a 750m swim. I was hoping I would be able to freestyle instead of breastroke this time round.
The sun always shines in Skerries and the day was perfect. I tried to psych Declan out with talk of feeling fatigued and feigning injury but he was having none of it. However, I was psyched, in good fitness and ready for this battle. I knew it would come down to the run. I had him in the swim and he had me on the bike but the run…if I could just stay within 1 or 2 mins on the run I might have him.
Swim
Off we went, my favourite and a lovely course. 2nd out of the water. Happy with that.
Bike
He caught me within the first couple of km’s. I feigned exhaustion as he passed and he muttered something to me but I couldn’t hear caused of the stoopid TT helmet. Don’t worry I said to myself, I’ll get him yet. Settled into the course, passed by a few males but no females. I started to get excited. I knew Vivienne Fenton wouldn’t be far behind me. I could no longer see Declan ahead of me but my spidey senses told me he was no more than a minute in front.
Suddenly I had visions of being on a podium. Through the tt helmet I heard someone yelling, you’re the first female. Me? Really? I looked around. Surely I was being caught? Acceptance speeches being written, my parents being so proud, photo in the local paper, opening supermarkets, things like this don’t happen to me… you can imagine.
15km, now the piece of paper with detailed twists and turns carefully noted was a waste, it was tied so far down my crossbar that everytime I tried to read it I was completely blind to the road. Russian roulette: read the map or crash into a tree? I chose not crashing….to my detriment. At 17km there was a turn we were all told to be careful of, where the Olympic and sprint split, turn right here, turn right. They said it at the race briefing, it was on my crossbar, it should have been on my mind…
22km – hmmm should I not be in transition now?
25km? I should definitely be in transition
26km – “are you Sprint or Olympic? “
27km – cr*p.
35km and I’m back on the sprint course, the very very back of the sprint course, a mountain bike overtakes me. I’m getting sympathy claps and pats on the back from the oaps’ passing me, and me on my snazzy new TT bike, with fancy wheels and a stoopid aero helmet…morto
T2 – 1hr 12min cycle. Game over.
Declan didn’t technically beat me so that’s the one and only consolation. In fact I beat him into T1, so technically I won, right?
The last challenge was from someone to me to write a race report and well… I couldn’t DNF twice in one day!
Congrats to Vivienne Fenton, Sinead Lambe and Louise O’Grady for filling the podium and Declan for coming 6th overall. I’ll get ya next year J
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