Valentia Sprint 09

Canis Lupus

Hey,

I'm finding it a bit difficult to locate information on the 2009 race. Is registration up or is it way too early yet? Is TI the best spot for the Irish race calendar?

Cheers.

tunney

For most races its still too early for race registration. I'd keep an eye on the TI boards. If I hear of any races opening I will post here.

Canis Lupus

Groovy, CHeers. Just really dont want to miss out on it cos it's my home town and I'm using it to go home as well.

I should make a point of booking holidays..... From what I can gather the date is up at least.

MCOS

I'm planning on doing this one too. It will be my first OW event so really looking forward to it. My sister is going to do a coupe of Tris also so a bit of family rivalry

Canis Lupus

Ah that's good. My biggest worry is that last year I did a sprint and was racing against two friends. This year it's only me. Worried I won't have the same drive to train.

blanchdub

First I check triathlonireland.com, but because most races have no link provided, or are not working I look at www.runireland.com.

On this site you can search per sport, country ec..


http://www.runireland.com/events/clone-ulster-bank-valentia-island-triathlon

here's the link provided
http://www.jakera.com/triathlon/

and you can see that this is not open yet.

then if runireland does not help I go next on http://www.activeeurope.com/ which also list some races.


and finally if the 3 sites above does not help, I use google.com ...and usually find out which club organizes the race and I keep an eye on it, or send a mail to the club contact.

Yeah, would be simpler if Triathlonireland.com had the right links.

sooty11

applications are open from the 1st of Feb

http://www.jakera.com/triathlon

Bambaata

so who from here is at this on Saturday? I'm heading down on Thursday myself. Cant wait for it at this stage. I'm going to take a spin of the bike leg on Friday if anyone here is interested?

Conor20

I'll be heading down. I hear it's great craic. I'd probably be down too late for doing the bike leg on Friday.

We don't have accommadation so will probably camp if we can find a camp site (see seperate thread). Is anyone else camping? / know of a camp site there?

Conor.

Bambaata

Not long home from this. The weather was awful!! A serious contrast to Friday which saw broken cloud amd plenty of sunshine! They changed the swim which meant we didn't have to board the ferry and go to the mainland. Instead the swim was from a beach the far side of the harbour, out to a buoy, around the outside of the harbour and over to the far side of the harbour. The swim is my weakest part of the race, which i'm working on, so i took it steady. I could have put more into it but i was happy enough to get through it with no leaking goggles and no major incidents! I found sighting hard as i wasn't sure what the new course was so i just followed other swimmers for the most part. I also started at the back of the group but i was surprised to find i was then passing loads but this in turn slowed me down. Twice i got stuck with one ahead and one left and right. A good learning experience. I should maybe be a little braver next time and get in with the main pack towards the front, albeit a few metres back!

T1 was a disaster! On exiting I mounted the bike and started to pedal with my feet on top of the shoes. The start was on a slight climb so they were giving people a push but when i got a push my left foot slid off the shoe and in doing so I managed to pull the strap out of the buckle!! I didn't know what was up and I spent about 30 seconds before I realised I had to get off the bike. So off i got with people flying past. I got back on the bike and struggled into the shoes as my feet were so numb and then my drink bottle fell off!! Off I got again and finally i with about 300m done in about two minutes i finally got going. id say i lost about 20 places in the mess.

The outward part of the cycle was hard. Into the wind, up the hills (I'm not a great climber) and in the rain. I caught loads (maybe 20 or 30?) and had a good duel with someone on a giant around the halfway point (that you MCOS?). I got past this person (MCOS??) only to go waaaay too slow at the bad bends (which were really bad!) and lost a fair bit of ground but on the return i was hitting 45 - 50k/hr easily enough and caught this person and 5 others before T2.

I struggled into my runners as my hands were covered in baby oil, i had put bodyglide on the insides of the runners, my feet were like ice blocks and my lock laces a little too tight. The run was out and up the hill again. I was very happy with my run. At this stage my feet were in ribbons. I went sockless and didn't know if i was cutting the feet of myself or not. I couldn't feel from half way down my feet. I passed lead lady about 150m into the run and started to make ground of those ahead. I could see another guy about 50m ahead and drove on. I got him before the first turnaround. then on down closer to the coast and i could see a guy catching me so i dug in. Running has never been a strong point but ive focused on the run off the bike more in recent training and it seemed to help. I saw another guy about 100m up the road but never thought id catch him. i was more interested in not getting caught but in turn i caught this guy with 1k or so left. i thought i had given my all at that point but i managed to sprint through that final km and luckily the guy i passed hadn't any kick left so i finished comfortably enough, although i nearly ran through the barrier at the end cos i couldn't stop!!

All in all i was happy enough and very surprised to finish in 15th in 1:06. i was aiming for a top 40 and about 1:10 so that was a surprise. Only bad thing is i've now got a sore throat, cold and and sneezing constantly so fingers crossed it clears as ive another race this weekend, but this time in 26C and blue skies!

Im glad i went down early Friday as i got to cycle the island, ran a few km and swam to see what the water was like. I think it helped a lot. I'm of course annoyed with the mess of T1 but not much i can do now. As much as ive practised transitions and getting going on the bike, ive never done it with such cold feet! I couldn't wriggle my toes at all which i generally use to get my feet in the shoes so maybe i should start freezing the toes in training :P

The final splits are - 1:06:22 (Rank 15th), Swim 11:33 (52) - T1 02:17 - Bike 34:51 (26) - T2 0:44 - Run 16:57 (22)

I think its the first race were i ranked higher on the run than the bike but i did waste a lot of time with the mess at the start so they possibly could have been even enough. I checked the run course the next day by cycling it and i clocked it at 4.4km so i am happy with my run pace.

MrCreosote

Nice report Bambaata.
Sounds like a tough day!
Good time though.

jlang

I was in the second (slow) wave for the swim and did a mix of a few strokes of front crawl and mostly breaststroke. It was disappointing not to do the point-point swim but I saw how rough the crossing got later in the day. Being slow and steady in the water meant that I had an enjoyable time on the bike and run, passing loads of people in both (presumably the slower racers who just happen to be competent swimmers). While that felt great, I'm a little disappointed with the raw time/ranking in both the bike and run. I suspect I may be a little better once I can get out of the water a bit quicker into a more evenly matched race and have to work hard for each place.

Quite windy, it was particularly gusty at the turn around at the western end of the island. The rain didn't bother me too much when moving, but was a nuisance in the muddy transition. Plenty of space in the new area at the top of the town and the little run after the swim suited me well. I saw a few people crash into the barrier on the way in to T2 despite being told to be careful at the end of the bike. Still find it funny that I was surprised to find my wetsuit was wet when collecting it from the transition area after the race. (this despite swimming in it and having left it in the rain for an hour. Duh!)

Post race, quick shower, a beer to warm up, another couple to while away the afternoon, a bit of food with another beer, a beer to distract from the shockingly awful band in the hotel and a few more beers to make sure the stories of how I swam across the Atlantic Ocean were spread widely.

Looking forward to seeing the results sheet for a bit of comparative analysis with a few friends on the lines of, "if we ignore the swim time..." Definitely want to go back and give the race another go, but for now I'll keep up the swim lessons.

MCOS

Well done Bambaata and jlang, it was a tough one!

Bambaata, yes that was me on the Giant!! Well done on your excellent result Looks like I was 2 mins behind you at the end in 1'08 but I'm happy enough with that considering the day I had . I'll stick a report in the log when I get through the morning meetings

pgibbo

Great report Bambaata. Sounds like a tough day at the office. You fairly ground it out though and put in a super performance. Well done.

Congrats jlang and MCOS too. Looking forward to the report MCOS.

Bambaata

pgibbo wrote: »

Great report Bambaata. Sounds like a tough day at the office. You fairly ground it out though and put in a super performance. Well done.

Congrats jlang and MCOS too. Looking forward to the report MCOS.

thanks all. sorry about the typo's!! bring on sunshine!!

osgur

results sheet should be up my now.... this is poor and a bit frustrating have to say

Bambaata

I'm very surprised they aren't up seeing as we already have our times courtesy of the text messages. maybe they have to get approval from TI?

Bambaata

Results are up and surprised to see i am bumped up to 14th and the times have been corrected. I couldnt understand how i was 11 mins behind the winner from the original time sheet

http://www.triathlonireland.com/filemgmt/visit.php?lid=1055

osgur

Have got to ask a question regarding T1. I did it in 3:08, was happy enough at the time but looking at times here i still gave away a decent chunk of time.... seen people have shoes ready at bottom of hill on exit of water... surely this should have been allowed ??... I just jogged up the hill oblivious to pain !

cantswim

as long as everyone is allowed to do it there is no reason why it can't happen...