Kenmare - Little Bo Peep

Funkyzeit

Anyone know how difficuly swim/cyle/run is ?

I'm down to do it but serious lack of training last 4 months (the joy of new parenthood) and just want to know what I'm in for.

Funkyzeit

Funkyzeit wrote: »

Anyone know how difficuly swim/cyle/run is ?

I'm down to do it but serious lack of training last 4 months (the joy of new parenthood) and just want to know what I'm in for.

Bump !
Any boardsies doing this? Wonder with 250 entries if they'll have a couple of starts?

nutzzz123

just reading about Kenmare, did I read right that there is a cut off time of 8 hrs

Spins

Was down in Kenmare with the club last weekend for a training weekend covering the Lost Sheep course. I'm doing the Little Bo Peep next week aswell so I did the swim course, part of the bike course and drove the run course.
Swim - Was nice and calm on the day, surprised that it was fresh water rather than salt water. Although I was subsequently advised by a local that it depends on the tides whether it'll be salt/fresh water. As long as it's calm, the swim should be ok.
Cycle - Only did the first section of it as it's part of the Lost Sheep course. There's a big hill at about 13km that drags on for a while but in hindsight, it's not that bad compared to Healy/Caha Pass. Still tougher than most hills on most other Olympic distances I've done.
Run - :eek: Whoa! Only drove this by my god it looks tough. After the first 1km which is flat, it's pretty much a steeply undulating narrow country road with multiple hills in and out. None of the hills look as tough as the hills at Kilkee or the Beast but the course looks just as scary, possible scarier. Save something on the bike for the run.

Enjoy, I'll be there 'enjoying' it too.....

Funkyzeit

Spins wrote: »

Was down in Kenmare with the club last weekend for a training weekend covering the Lost Sheep course. I'm doing the Little Bo Peep next week aswell so I did the swim course, part of the bike course and drove the run course.
Swim - Was nice and calm on the day, surprised that it was fresh water rather than salt water. Although I was subsequently advised by a local that it depends on the tides whether it'll be salt/fresh water. As long as it's calm, the swim should be ok.
Cycle - Only did the first section of it as it's part of the Lost Sheep course. There's a big hill at about 13km that drags on for a while but in hindsight, it's not that bad compared to Healy/Caha Pass. Still tougher than most hills on most other Olympic distances I've done.
Run - :eek: Whoa! Only drove this by my god it looks tough. After the first 1km which is flat, it's pretty much a steeply undulating narrow country road with multiple hills in and out. None of the hills look as tough as the hills at Kilkee or the Beast but the course looks just as scary, possible scarier. Save something on the bike for the run.

Enjoy, I'll be there 'enjoying' it too.....

Superb (if slightly worrying) info thanks!

Funkyzeit

nutzzz123 wrote: »

just reading about Kenmare, did I read right that there is a cut off time of 8 hrs

Assume thats for the Lost Sheep...!

nutzzz123

Funkyzeit wrote: »

Assume thats for the Lost Sheep...!

yeah funky, sorry i should have stated. I was just curious is the cut off 8hrs and is that the norm for all half ironmans

MrCreosote

I'll be doing it as well on Saturday. Really looking forward to it! The forecast is looking good at this stage...

Don't know much about the swim or run. The swim looks sheltered enough anyway. The cycle is great- decent climb in the first half to 200m (not too steep though), down to lauragh and back along the coast road with a smaller pull at about three-quarters along. Fantastic scenery all along here, best part of the country!

cantswim

nutzzz123 wrote: »

yeah funky, sorry i should have stated. I was just curious is the cut off 8hrs and is that the norm for all half ironmans

its normal to have a cut off yes... think 8 hours is sufficient for Kenmare esp with the bike not the full 90k

MrCreosote

How did people go with this? Had to leave straight afterwards myself.

Nice course- swim was grand, cycle I found the coast road fairly twisty but great scenery! And cleared up nicely on this stretch. The herd of cows being driven along the road was a nice touch too...:pac:

The run was tough alright.

Good day out!

ZZJ

Great Day, Great Race

Really enjoyed it, when I finished I was really happy, and then when I got the txt with my result was even better than I thought, so I'm delighted (but still waiting to see all results to check the txt was not a mistake)

Swim was calm and well marked, Cycle was nice even though the narrow road led to some people bunching up (and staying in a bunch), I enjoyed the run, not a great runner but less people than normal pass me out on the run (I live half way up a steep hill and those gradients were familiar)

MrCreosote

Provisional results are up:

http://www.kenmaretri.com/events/little-bo-peep/

Supposed to be some pictures later in the week too!

ZZJ

As i thought I got the wrong result in the txt, still delighted with my actual result.

Conor20

This went very well and it was a really enjoyable day. It was definitely a lot easier than Beast of the East - I finished 21 minutes faster in Kenmare than BOTE.

It was well organised but there was a very laid back feel, which was welcome. The martials were helpful and good craic, especially around transition.

The swim was good - the water was calm and the buoys were good and tall, which made sighting much easier.
The cycle was okay, the roads were generally good apart from a 5-6km section around the 20km mark, where the surface became fairly poor. There's nothing they can do about this obviously though. It was the most scenic cycle of any triathlon I've done. The coastal sections were fantastic. People were cycling in groups alright, I don't know whether it was intentional drafting or just a product of the small roads and slow climbs at times that brought people together. I clocked the cycle at 36.3km.
The run was fine - some hills but nothing like the punishing initial climb in BOTE.

The boxes of cookies at the finish line were a nice touch also, never was a more welcome one had.

Conor.

hunnymonster

I was down at this as ref and also enjoyed it. Weather wasn't kind for the swim (for those of us on dry land) but cleared after that.

The drafting is a tough one, We had mobile draft busters on the main section but decided it was not a good idea to have cars on the narrow road so had only static marshals there. You need multiple reports of drafting from static marshals to enforce any penalties which is tough to get.

Spins

Great race, well organised and friendly marshalls. Nice touch with the silver bracelets and medals for the winners too, not that I'll ever see one of them. Still tho, well happy with my time, my fastest Olympic to date.
Swim - lovely flat calm water, felt like the full 1,500m but no longer.
Cycle - Fast course I thought with the exception of the hill c. km10-14 and the coastal section with its narrow windy roads. Very Scenic.
Run - Very tough I thought. I agree with Conor20 that overall BOTE is much harder (principally coz of the BOTE cycle and the lonnnng lake swim) but I thought the run here was on par with HOTW and BOTE run in terms of toughness. Having said that, running is my weakest discipline.

Really enjoyed the race and the whole day out tho. Well done Kenmare Tri Club! Was a bit dissappointed that the t-shirts didn't have the shaun the sheep type logo on them tho, was expecting them to....Oh well!

No more racing now till The Lost Sheep, den den den!

MrCreosote

hunnymonster wrote: »

Weather wasn't kind for the swim (for those of us on dry land) but cleared after that.

Saw everybody getting soaked while we were heading into T1 alright!

I thought the marshalling was great. It could have been dodgy around transition but they seemed to be well on the ball with the traffic.

And those cookies! Still getting through the two in the goody bag myself...

hunnymonster

they have the same cookies for the Lost Sheep so you'll just have to tackle that next :-)

holdfast

would have loved to do it. Done the lost sheep in another life a few years ago. well done all that completed it was great entertainment.