{Event}Westport Triathlon June 15th

toomuchdetail

Nice sprint distance tri in Westport June 15th , ideal for first open water tri . sheltered sea swim , flat fast bike out by Croagh Patrick and a 5k flat run thru Westport house , good value at €35 or €45 for relay . Great test for a sea swim 2 weeks before Kilkee .
Opportunity to race against our 2 TI junior team mates incl world bronze medalist and a defending champion from last year .
Good weather and calm warm seas have been requested , food will also be provided post race in the Atlantic coast hotel as last year.
Follow the link to enter:
http://www.westporttriclub.ie/?p=777

Nappy

I'm making my triathlon debut here and am trying to convince a few mates to join me. I'm from Dublin and a few friends main problem is wetsuits and two need a race bike. Is there any wetsuit or race bike rentals we could avail of?

gerfmurphy

Any idea what time the even will start? I'm keen to go but not too keen on having a really early start.
What's a rough estimate of travel time from Navan Meath ?

woody1

im sure some are going to say they can do it faster but id say 3 1/2 hours..
i regularly drive ballina to duleek which is similar distance on pretty much the same roads

subscriber

No affiliation with the race but did the olympic distance here last year. Absolutely suburb race and excellent value for money. Great organisation and also a challenging course. A hot meal in the hotel afterwards included with an awards ceremony and plenty of prizes for all age categories, along with loads of spot prizes / goodie bags, ect.. Was very impressed considering the entry price.

toomuchdetail

gerfmurphy wrote: »

Any idea what time the even will start? I'm keen to go but not too keen on having a really early start.
What's a rough estimate of travel time from Navan Meath ?

gerf , been from Navan myself originally 3/3:15 hrs about right for travel depending on stops etc, Athboy,Delvin Mullingar would be the usual route for me . Sign on is TBC on race day but you would probably have to be there no later than 8:30am to ensure sign on,briefing etc.
Good luck .

toomuchdetail

Nappy wrote: »

I'm making my triathlon debut here and am trying to convince a few mates to join me. I'm from Dublin and a few friends main problem is wetsuits and two need a race bike. Is there any wetsuit or race bike rentals we could avail of?

Nappy : chances are you should try and source bikes and suits in Dublin as the choice is greater , you can buy a surf wetsuit for about €80 in Portwest or similar in Westport or you can hire from one of the surf shop in Louisburgh but they are not ideal for swimming in as the make up of them is a little different than tri specific suits, saying that alot of people use them for triathlons until they are sure they will take the sport up .
On Bike hire Westport has a number of good bike hire shops with the Greenway running thru Westport but all of these bikes would be of the touring bike variety and not race bikes with race set up .
A quick google search has thrown up a few places that hire bikes and wetsuits together but as I havent used them I cannot vouch for them either way.
We hope we will see you in Westport for the race.

gerfmurphy

thanks toomuchdetail, looks like a great event there but I'm far to lazy to do the round trip starting @ 5am

toomuchdetail

Everything looking good for Westport June 15th . Get in while you can as it filling up well .

HardyEustace

Is the swim course the same as last year? I've heard very positive things about the race in general but a lot of negative comments about the swim.

The two sticking points for people were
1. the cleanlieness of the water - lots of diesel and muck in the water around by the boats.
2. lots of thick seaweed to swim through.

point 2, you may not be able to do much about, seaweed will grow in the sea :-)

However, having to swim through dirty water would really put me off.

Race organisation was meant to be excellent as was the run course.

toomuchdetail

HardyEustace wrote: »

Is the swim course the same as last year? I've heard very positive things about the race in general but a lot of negative comments about the swim.

The two sticking points for people were
1. the cleanlieness of the water - lots of diesel and muck in the water around by the boats.
2. lots of thick seaweed to swim through.

point 2, you may not be able to do much about, seaweed will grow in the sea :-)

However, having to swim through dirty water would really put me off.

Race organisation was meant to be excellent as was the run course.

Hey Hardy , I hope you can make it to Westport on the 15th on the 2 points mentioned I will see if I can address them .
On Cleanliness I have to say this has never been mentioned as an issue and we are regularly in the quay for our club swims , saying that close to the walls and boats you will get some algae or residue gathering but a 1-2 meter from the wall in the water and this is gone . Last year we had a very tight gap (15mins) where the local fishing competition was leaving the harbour within 15 mins of our race start time , this may have caused some debris/residue as up up to 10 boats were leaving at the same time but as I mentioned I heard nothing on it , this year the boats are leaving 90mins ahead of race start time so this is not an issue this year . We had our race and 2 aquathlons and numerous training sessions at the quay and apart from the cold there have been no issues. We are spolit for choice around Westport so if the Quay was anyway dodgy we could move to a number of beaches .

On the Seaweed this is something the club is consious of and its a pain , this year we are adjusting the swim slightly to start about 50m or possibly more further up the harbour to allow us swim around the points at the turn that the seaweed is at its worse , this should reduce the impact of the seaweed but as you said seaweed will grow in the sea.
There will still be a little at the exit of the swim but nothing to be worried about.

I hope this answers your queries and I hope we will see you on the 15th .

topcat77

Has anyone got any idea regarding start times and registration cut off? Thinking of doing this but would like more info before sign up. Will be traveling from Galway in the morning.

toomuchdetail

topcat77 wrote: »

Has anyone got any idea regarding start times and registration cut off? Thinking of doing this but would like more info before sign up. Will be traveling from Galway in the morning.

topcat : Entry Registration cut off will most likely be next Wednesday (12th) or possibly Thursday (13th) noon if it doesnt fill up sooner .
The race reg will be on Friday eve (7pm-8:30pm tbc) and again on Saturday morning from 7am-8:30am . Race Briefing will be at 9:30am and the first wave in the water for 10am.Usual TI licence etc required .
All the times are 90% certain but may change slightly depending on what else is going on but these will be confirmed by next Monday eve.
Travel time from Galway should be about 70mins max at that hour of the day.
I hope this helps.

Nappy

Signed up and registered! How many are competing next saturday?

toomuchdetail

Nappy , we are hoping to be on roughly the same level of entires as last year which should see us around the 150 mark all going well . Weather is looking good for next Saturday so that may give us a few more competitors.
Good luck and see you next week .

topcat77

Signed up!!! Will be leaving Galway at 6:30am and heading back straight after i finish. Anyone looking for a lift? A donation to the diesel fund would be appreciated?

Green&Red

The bad weather has scuppered my farming plans so this is the alternative

Any tips on how to avoid the sea weed TMD?

toomuchdetail

Green&Red wrote: »

The bad weather has scuppered my farming plans so this is the alternative

Any tips on how to avoid the sea weed TMD?

The start has been moved slightly up the quay about 30-40m and we are placing larger bouys at the turns to try and create a longer and wider channel to avoid the worst of the sea weed. We have spent a bit of time looking at it and this should help. Other advice would be to keep out from the wall and swim mid channel . Coming in towards the exit there may be a little sea weed as the channel narrows but not alot really.
Good luck and see you Saturday.

MalDoc

toomuchdetail wrote: »

The start has been moved slightly up the quay about 30-40m and we are placing larger bouys at the turns to try and create a longer and wider channel to avoid the worst of the sea weed. We have spent a bit of time looking at it and this should help. Other advice would be to keep out from the wall and swim mid channel . Coming in towards the exit there may be a little sea weed as the channel narrows but not alot really.
Good luck and see you Saturday.

Unfortunately I can't make this race. Are race entries transferrable?
Can't find a direct contact number for the race director.
I'd give them away at this stage, just don't want anyone that can do it to miss out as myself and my mate are clean useless at organising.
Two race entries by the way.....

Thanks

ShineyShiney

Quick note on Westport

The best organized event I've done, well done to the organizers.

Marshall's were excellent, course was improved on last year, after event refreshments were spot on, thought the coffee and cookies were a nice extra.

I'll be back next year for sure.

Perfect beginners event, safe swim, spacious transition, fast flat cycle, flat interesting run.

trihead

Great race overall - after food / goody bag / after race snacks / friendly marshals / entry price - all top notch. Well done to all involved

toomuchdetail

Great to hear you had a positive experience trihead and ShineyShiney . We wanted to put on a race that appealed to everyone while also ticking all the boxes of what we want in a race ourselves. Great turn out for it and the you guys and those others racing really finished the final few pieces of the jigsaw for us .
We had a very strong team involved and they are all racers of various levels which made the difference.
You will be happy to know planning for 2014 has already started albeits at 12:15am in the Helm pub on the quay in Westport but it counts as a meeting I think .....

Nappy

Thanks for a great race! Came down from dublin for my first triathlon with a mate, think im hooked now, we'll be back next year and aiming to get a few more mates on board!

topcat77

Great race! Thankfully the weather held! Had a great time and thought the race was extremely well organised, even the race briefing was well done and i didn't come across any seaweed or oil slicks on the swim. I did this race back in 2011 but missed 2012. Will be planning on 2014, perfect place for a Tri sprint and i'd recommend this race to anyone of any level.

Green&Red

Lads, great race, well organised