[Event] HoTW Kilkee - 29/06/2013

pgibbo

It's nearly upon us. So who is in? I know a few folks on here are doing it. Looking forward to seeing how Fazz goes against Kevin Thornton and Gavin Noble.

Anyone know if Owen Cummins is back to where he was before his injuries?

Are HuffnPuff and DaveR1 in?

Should be a cracking race.

kal7

I am in, but you won't know me. I am with galway tri club.

Bit of newbie on boards, lurking for good while, only posting now.

I am looking forward to my first HOTW, been in triathlon since 2007 and first time to race it.

Fazz

Seeing as Limerick haven't put up entry list just yet its not confirmed but afaik main contenders as follows in a stacked field:

- Gavin Noble
- Owen Cummins
- Kevin Thornton
- Colm Turner
- Mark Horan
- Trevor Woods
- Rory Sexton
- David Richardson
- Shane Scully a maybe but recovering from op
- Peter Kern
- Bjorn?
- Paul Carroll?
- Mark Nolan?

Women's Field also looking competitive:
- Jen Duffy
- Joyce Wolfe
- Anna Crooks
- Katie Cooke
- Andree Walkin
- Marie Boland
- Jennifer O'Connell
- Rachel Clancy
- Kim Hickey


No doubt a couple juniors in too, and others not listed above but competitive.

Safe to say its prob the most competitive field yet this season.

Looking like some epic battles and close results likely.

Looking forward to it myself.

Fazz

pgibbo wrote: »

Anyone know if Owen Cummins is back to where he was before his injuries?

Raced Windsor British Super Series last week, had a fish like swim and was in good shape before mechanical issues on bike I believe (stuck in gear).
Still ran a good race after but result compromised.

Looks in good shape.

couerdelion

Safe to say that with that many contenders there's no chance of me troubling the podium

My first HOTW and a fair few from the club going down to it. weather forecast isn't the best at the moment (is it ever?)

mossym

i was injured when sign ups came for this so didn't sign up, would have been my first HOTW (and first olympic) so would have just been focused on getting around, regretting now that i didn't just sign up anyway.

I'm marshalling at it instead, will be at registration on Friday night and will be checking in bikes/in transition on Saturday so any of you lot doing it feel free to say hi.

toomuchdetail

I'm in , not sure why but I am in : I am as anxious as an Anglo Irish banker at the moment !

El Director

I'm in myself. 3rd time in 4 years for me. Love it. I think I will be employing my relaxed attitude about it like I did last year as it served me well, however I won't be repeating last years performance - it has just come 3/4 weeks too early. Still though, I wouldn't miss it for the world

That is some field! Of course Fazz you yourself should be on that list. The race to get on the podium will be a serious one.

You will probably bump into me in The Pantry, Kilkee for the traditional pre race coffee

ormond lad

Marshalling on the bike route.
Big crowd from nenagh competing. Don't think Shane Scully is competing and if he is it will not be in contention for winning considering how soon it is since surgery.
Looking forward to being down in Kilkee for first HOTW.

bryangiggsy

Am in also. Was Pulse tri's 10 yr anniversary last week so we have 85 athletes signed up and racing..going to be some party

PS If u dont recognise me ill be the guy with the pimped out bike

mossym

bryangiggsy wrote: »

PS If u dont recognise me ill be the guy with the pimped out bike

not after i check it in..:)

El Director

Fazz wrote: »

- Gavin Noble
- Owen Cummins
- Kevin Thornton
- Colm Turner
- Mark Horan
- Trevor Woods
- Rory Sexton
- David Richardson
- Shane Scully a maybe but recovering from op
- Peter Kern
- Bjorn?
- Paul Carroll?
- Mark Nolan?

...

Two of those maybe's are doing it, Bjorn (good form from last weekend's evidence) and Shane according to his latest blog entry.

bombidal

Is Bryan Keane doing it?

Rawhead

According to Mr Cranium over on weather it looks like a cracking weekend and I'd hold his forecast in fairly high regard. My first time in Kilkee, looking forward to it.

dave04

Eleventh year out of twelve for me ! my very first triathlon back in 2002 and mesmerised by the place since , postal entry back then around 100 in the
water ! how things have changed. Not bad for a Welshman living in Kilkenny.
Have lobsters ordered from fish shop in carrigaholt , Barbie after , Hopefully celebrating lions win !! Good luck everyone.No better tri anywhere imho.

Huff n Puff

Best of luck to everyone at this one. It will be a cracker of a race. My money would be on Noble to win but he will have to dig deep to beat Kevin Thornton, with Owen Cummins not far behind.

Think Rory Sexton is part of a relay team with Aaron O'Brien (their focus is TriAthlone the following week)

I will be on the starting line too and I have got my excuses in early! Top 20 is probably the best I can hope for. My brother is going to do it too - he was an animal back in the day, but this is his first triathlon in nearly 10 years so, like myself, it will take him a few weeks to get some form back. He will be hoping for a top 20 as well.

If I couldn't race it I would still head down to it to watch. Great race. Great organising. Great host club. Great night out afterwards.

pgibbo

Huff n Puff wrote: »

Best of luck to everyone at this one. It will be a cracker of a race. My money would be on Noble to win but he will have to dig deep to beat Kevin Thornton, with Owen Cummins not far behind.

Think Rory Sexton is part of a relay team with Aaron O'Brien (their focus is TriAthlone the following week)

I will be on the starting line too and I have got my excuses in early! Top 20 is probably the best I can hope for. My brother is going to do it too - he was an animal back in the day, but this is his first triathlon in nearly 10 years so, like myself, it will take him a few weeks to get some form back. He will be hoping for a top 20 as well.

If I couldn't race it I would still head down to it to watch. Great race. Great organising. Great host club. Great night out afterwards.

Great to hear you're back racing. All the best for the rest of the season.

munsterbear

I'll be participating too... Built for comfort not for speed.

You'd think the Lions would do the decent thing and put back kick off.

NorthernRaider

I know that Bryan Keane used a road bike last year, but I wonder will Gavin Noble this year, given how big a threat Kevin Thornton could be! Would be interesting to see a true apples to apples comparison of professional and amateur.

Huffn'Puff, amidst all those excuses, you neglect to mention your impressive bike exploits in A2 races, you sly dog! Hope you go well anyway!

Fazz

Bryan Keane not racing as i think he starts at Kitzbuhel in 2 weeks so too close I imagine.

Owen Cummins not racing now apparently according to HOTW fb.

And you can be sure Gavin will be on his new Shiv.


Provisional entry list is up but subject to changes.
http://www.limericktriathlon.com/drupal/?q=content/race-briefing-documents

Huff n Puff

NorthernRaider wrote: »

I know that Bryan Keane used a road bike last year, but I wonder will Gavin Noble this year, given how big a threat Kevin Thornton could be! Would be interesting to see a true apples to apples comparison of professional and amateur.

Huffn'Puff, amidst all those excuses, you neglect to mention your impressive bike exploits in A2 races, you sly dog! Hope you go well anyway!

Ha, not sure if what I did on the bike this year deserves much praise to be honest. Especially when you see how well the likes of Bryan McCrystal did at the Rás and Gavin Noble at Rás Dun na nGall. I am miles behind that standard.

Gavin is not long back from injury so it wouldn't really be a true comparision anyway (just like Bryan Keane at Kilkee last year).

I went to Kilkee yesterday to do the course, just to make sure I could manage it without hurting myself. Conditions were great. Got through it well enough - probably scraped under the 2:30 mark. That's a long way off the probable 2:05 time that I reckon will be needed to win this year - I think that will be a new, new course record.

bopperr

Fazz wrote: »

Bryan Keane not racing as i think he starts at Kitzbuhel in 2 weeks so too close I imagine.

Owen Cummins not racing now apparently according to HOTW fb.

And you can be sure Gavin will be on his new Shiv.


Provisional entry list is up but subject to changes.
http://www.limericktriathlon.com/drupal/?q=content/race-briefing-documents

he is racing in holland I think

elvis jones

A lovely red fleece jacket with a hood this yr;)

catweazle

elvis jones wrote: »

A lovely red fleece jacket with a hood this yr;)

Balls I had heard it was a jacket, was hoping it was a cycling jacket and not a casual one

RacoonQueen

elvis jones wrote: »

A lovely red fleece jacket with a hood this yr;)

Red?

Don't want it. :mad:

elvis jones

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Red?

Don't want it. :mad:

with a white and blue logo.................i'm looking here and i think the hood can be removed.

bombidal

1/10 Noble
11/2 the field

shotgunmcos

Best of luck all the boards crew doing this. Great race. Embrace the pain on the Dunlicky hill and empty the tank. No better reward on this course. Stacked field so should be exciting.

peter kern

bombidal wrote: »

1/10 Noble
11/2 the field

its more a question how long gav will stop at an aid station to have a chat with the marshalls. What people forget is how he was crusing last year at dublin tri just doing enough to win.
And stephen was in great shape last year.
Its another level gav bryan and aileen operate at when healthy and going flat out.

bombidal

peter kern wrote: »

its more a question how long gav will stop at an aid station to have a chat with the marshalls. What people forget is how he was crusing last year at dublin tri just doing enough to win.
And stephen was in great shape last year.
Its another level gav bryan and aileen operate at when healthy and going flat out.

Predicting the podiums... That's a harder task I'd imagine...you willing to give it a go?

pgibbo

peter kern wrote: »

its more a question how long gav will stop at an aid station to have a chat with the marshalls. What people forget is how he was crusing last year at dublin tri just doing enough to win.
And stephen was in great shape last year.
Its another level gav bryan and aileen operate at when healthy and going flat out.

Is he fully healthy? I thought he's only back running a couple of months. Those couple of months probably have him way ahead of anyone else run wise mind you.

Huff n Puff

peter kern wrote: »

its more a question how long gav will stop at an aid station to have a chat with the marshalls. What people forget is how he was crusing last year at dublin tri just doing enough to win.
And stephen was in great shape last year.
Its another level gav bryan and aileen operate at when healthy and going flat out.

I have consistently told anyone that reads my blog that these boys are on a different planet and they always provide a sanity check to some of our wannabe age group superstars.

Even still, I don't see it being quite as clear cut as you at this race. I think Kevin is a good bit stronger than Stephen last year (no offence Stephen!), and Gavin is coming back from a long period out with a running injury. They are meeting at different stages of preparation. The bike leg in Kilkee is very important and Kevin has been putting in unreal bike splits all year.

I do think Gavin will win, but I don't think there will be as much chatting time as you predict. With Owen Cummins gone it leaves the 3rd place spot wide open.

(apologies to Kevin for lumping all this pressure onto him!!)

peter kern

kev is a fantastic long term project but to be a bit realistic check the half challenger result.

Huff n Puff

peter kern wrote: »

kev is a fantastic long term project but to be a bit realistic check the half challenger result.

You could well be right. My track record of predicting results is rubbish!

I think everyone can have a bad race though. So it's impossible to come to a conclusion from one result.

Again, I don't want my comments to seem like I don't respect our elite triathletes. Nothing could be further from the truth.

hf4z6sqo7vjngi

I agree with Shane, i think the gap and race between GN and KT will be a lot closer. For the rest it's a race for 3rd and any one of several people are in the shake up for that.

bryangiggsy

Legend Slow Ocean wrote: »

I agree with Shane, i think the gap and race between GN and KT will be a lot closer. For the rest it's a race for 3rd and any one of several people are in the shake up for that.

3rd is so hard to call i expect to see a group coming down that hill together...cant wait

Casula

peter kern wrote: »

its more a question how long gav will stop at an aid station to have a chat with the marshalls. What people forget is how he was crusing last year at dublin tri just doing enough to win.
And stephen was in great shape last year.
Its another level gav bryan and aileen operate at when healthy and going flat out.

What do Gav's results from last Sunday in Derry tell you about where his form is at.....?

http://www.firmusenergytriathlon.co.uk/uploads/1/7/5/4/17545089/derry_triathlon_result_1.xls

Unregistered.

The fecking size of the helmet stickers!

mossym

Was marshalling at the bike exit/ entry today. Saw most of the posters here. Noble was in awesome form. Thornton too but sizeable gap. Reckon I should just give up after seeing how it should be done.

ormond lad

Marshalling on bike route. Noble was so so quick and yet so comfortable on the bike
Any link to full results as I haven't seen full results yet.
Great race and one that I definitely intend on competing in next year

catweazle

http://www.racetecresults.com/results.aspx?CId=74&RId=10162

I must have been delirious heading out on the run, I could have sworn Dave Richardson was a cert for 3rd and Scully was just behind him.

Great day as ever by Limerick - my one critcism was rocking up much earlier to registration than usual for me to be told that they only have xl left in the jacket. There was loads of timing chips still on the desk so this was disappointing. After arriving paddy last last year they had no goody bags left so I made sure I was down earlier this year. It must be an American xl as well as it is gargantuan on me so i would think only the really big units will get any use out of it.

I suppose Limerick are a hostage to fortune, if they were like 99% of other races and just stuck in flyers and one gel no-one would give a crap. So my whingeing is actually a compliment to Kilkee

Now if only they could do something about that headwind on the way back in from the bike :rolleyes:

SlowMe

Tough race, really enjoyed it though.

Swim: water temp nice and was a very good OW swim course. Most aggressive start I've been in ever prob because of stacked field - fine though, anyone that didn't like could easily have moved out of the way into space at the sides. Best part of the race for me. Bit shorter than 1500 maybe? Anyone got it on GPS?

Bike: hard. Lots of traffic - got held up by cars and tractors at different points and had to cycle through a foot of water where water main burst. Lots of blatant drafting but lots of situations where it couldn't be avoided cos of traffic or sheer numbers of cyclists in one place

Run: a savage course. Wicked hill that never ends on the first half followed by a pounding descent. Enjoyed it even though time far from best. Lizzie Lee and Gavin Noble were a class apart - run was the only time I saw them

mossym

catweazle wrote: »

I must have been delirious heading out on the run, I could have sworn Dave Richardson was a cert for 3rd and Scully was just behind him.

:

huff n puff put in one of the performances of the day, given his recent op, came screaming into t2 in third, honestly thought watching him move he'd been bluffing about his level of prep. he walked by me marshalling after the race at the bike exit and i said nice run, meant to say nice race, as the bike was a real strong show.

shane was in third heading out, dave not far behind him (pretty sure about that, was on the bike side so only going by the announcer, and how i saw them coming in)

catweazle wrote: »

Great day as ever by Limerick - my one critcism was rocking up much earlier to registration than usual for me to be told that they only have xl left in the jacket. There was loads of timing chips still on the desk so this was disappointing. After arriving paddy last last year they had no goody bags left so I made sure I was down earlier this year. It must be an American xl as well as it is gargantuan on me so i would think only the really big units will get any use out of it.

i probably gave you your hat, and was handing out some of the jackets. the mediums and smalls in mens were there, just everyone through the door first took them. there were large and xl left for most of the evening though. There are also a lot of men walking around with womens jackets as they fit them pretty well!!

RacoonQueen

Enjoyed the race...despite my crappy time.

Lots of cars and tractors on the bike course. Got stuck behind a tractor myself.

Fazz

Well, as good an event as I remember it being 2 years ago when I nearly drowned in the swell (well not quite, but struggled for sure! )

Swim - 25:24 - 118/696 - 1.5km (for me... likely 150m=200m or so short imo)

A funny one. I went into this race determined to get on feet.
After tri an mhi where I missed feet, this tactic was start near the front bunch and try hang on basically.
Started near Gavin, Mark Waters, Peter Kern (no goggles - Peter?), Mark Horan, Shane Scully etc so I was near good company.
Waist level start, a dolphin dive and away we go.
Felt I started alright, plenty of knocks but didn't get swam over much and seemed to hold pace with those beside me.
It was choppy and with a current so I got thrown around, I actually enjoyed this but clearly it didn't work out too well for me.
Sighting ahead was hard, and I could see the fish getting a gap very early and heading towards the right.
I tried to follow and had some feet in front and few beside which I used to assume I was on line and just keep the head down stayin on feet.
This was my main mistake.
I didn't really sight again till nearer the first turn buoy, at which stage I was too far right and had to correct left.
Came back into the main bunch at this stage and fought through a bit but not enough.
A strange swim, didn't feel I went too bad, but know I didn't sight enough at all and so probably zig zagged too much.

Stopped Garmin right at waters edge and it was bang on 1.5km and 24:xx which for that chop I wasn't too disappointed with.
Till I realised I was behind a massive amount of competitors at which stage I knew sh1t, poor swim I'm miles behind...

Looking at Gav's time, 16:59 for the swim and run to transition is sick.
Distance had to be short for that but same for us all (assuming you can swim straight!!).


Bike - 1:08:40 - 43.94km - 3/696

Flying mount went well, touched 70kmh on the first descent and was motoring nicely along.
Unfortunately, I couldn't hold my planned watts or theoretical Olympic wattage that I should be able to hold.
Passed a good few along the way, had no issues with the wind and rear disc as I'm actually more comfortable on the disc for some reason.

Had this in my head to pace it at around 40-45% effort on way out, and the rest on way back into head wind hoping to make up ground.
looking at my power I knew I wasn't able to lift it to my planned watts, but was still making good progress.
Had no idea of my position but as I approached the top 15 or so I was disappointed to pass a few drafters.
I did get passed by one a couple times and the watts dropped 50 as I moved back the legal gap. They stayed down and so I had to push to re-pass again.
The difference in a draft is phenomenal. Not to mention carry forward onto the run.
I hope it's really clamped down now as those drafting are cheating plain and simple.

Took a mental note of a couple, shook my head at a few others and it was just poor form.
I had the perfect viewpoint.
Coming from behind and closing to groups of 3-4 seeing them looking to be close - but thinking could just be as I'm far back.
5 or so mins later to catch up and as they take a turn I see they are too close.
Catching up and passing them seeing they were 1-2 bike lengths back was just plain cheating.

I'll post in the other thread soon as it's relatively easily fixed imo.

Off the bike in 10th.

Power geeks - I averaged 90% of my ftp for this. I should be able to average 95%+ if I was more Olympic focussed or more capable over this distance.
For 70.3, I can average 85% so to be just 15 or so watts above for 1 hour vs 2.5 hours is poor imo.
Alternatively, shows my more competitive 70.3 ability so each to their own...

An average bike in my mind and not competitive enough for what I feel I should be capable of.

T2 - fast, and I took the legal route!!!

I asked the marshals before race was transition neutralised. As in when off bike do we need to run to bottom of transition, down and up at end to exit the run.
Yes was the answer, and this is what I did.
Turns out no one else did, or very few apparently!
Cost 5 seconds - realistic cost, absolutely nothing so hey

Run 38:33 - 20/696

Passed 9th place in T2, out onto run and spot STL up ahead.
Legs feel ok but bit numb. Start to loosen around 2km and I pass STL at this stage and feel a bit better.
Try to work a bit more and no sign of anyone ahead.
I'd say I was barely past 3.5km when Gavin came flying down. Miles ahead, but followed by Kevin who also had a good gap for 2nd.
Next up was Dave R1 who had a bit of a gap to Shane, followed by Bjorn and then Mark who was running strong.
Trevor next and my target up ahead but had a decent gap so was going to be hard.

Around the turn and I've Mr Geraghty closing fast and a strong runner.
He passed me around the 6-7km mark and I tried to hold, managed to sustain the gap and tried to push but couldn't close the 11second gap he pulled.
Over line in 9th place.

I'm not too disappointed really, it was a competitive race and great to measure performances against the top athletes around.
For me, it showed despite my poor swim I still don't have the run quite up to top level, but have shown progress so it's a steady thing.

My swim has improved a lot in the pool, and I'm swimming same times as Mark so to lose 3 minutes in OW is clearly poor.
It cost me a few places on Saturday, but I was nowhere near the podium guys so no real complaints.
Lessons to take forward and apply in next race.
Clearly, I'll be in the sea a lot more over the next few weeks


Good to see the officials sticking the drafting penalties to those caught in the Top 10. It's about time as it's getting rampant.
No need for it, it's blatant cheating so hopefully the Draftbusters will now keep a closer eye on the Top 10-20 of every race as this is where it affects the most. There are pelotons back the field too but at least no prize money or podiums are at stake.



Well done to Shane on a top performance considering his recent times.
Hope the body isn't damaged much further as you just don't seem to be capable of giving it enough recovery!


Gavin won by 5 mins and let's face it was prob at 90% for a good portion.
Still nice to race our Olympic hero on the same course and he's a very nice guy to boot so massive respect.
Some have an issue with a Pro winning domestic races.
Me - not so much. Granted he gets to train and recover much more than others, but he also has to pay the bills from such activities.
There's only so far funding and sponsors go so I think it's fair game myself.
Most of us Ag'ers don't race for Prize money. Sure we want to be competitive, but we have day jobs to pay the bills.
I value the opportunity to race against an Olympian much more than the chance to race for a higher slot or cash prize personally.

Limerick hosted a fantastic race once again, and offered fair prize money to boot.
Paying out the Top 5 as well as Age group prizes is great, and paying such good prize money on top is also very fair and I applaud them.

Kilkee remains one of my favourite races, despite the waves having beaten me up twice now, I suspect I'll be back a 3rd time to see if I've learnt from my mistakes!!

El Director

Another year, another Kilkee HoTW My 4th and fastest yet despite my slowest bike. Very happy with my swim and delighted with my run. I just live this event, it is such a challenge. I thought the support was the best I have ever seen in Kilkee.

The standard this year was immense and a serious eye opener. I have a serious winter of hard work ahead of me. The one thing I was very disappointed with was the blatant drafting doing on. Some lads made absolutely no attempt to not draft and tbh a 2min penalty makes it worth it, it needs to be at least doubled. What is do is have a 10min pen...you'd think twice then. Well at least I can hold my head high as I have my own personal standards that I like to uphold. Good sportsmanship being one.

BTW I am on about what I saw which was blatant, not those in wave two that had no choice as traffic got in their way.

Limerick Tri Club and Kilkee take a bow, well done and thanks very much.

bryangiggsy

El Director wrote: »

Another year, another Kilkee HoTW My 4th and fastest yet despite my slowest bike. Very happy with my swim and delighted with my run. I just live this event, it is such a challenge. I thought the support was the best I have ever seen in Kilkee.

The standard this year was immense and a serious eye opener. I have a serious winter of hard work ahead of me. The one thing I was very disappointed with was the blatant drafting doing on. Some lads made absolutely no attempt to not draft and tbh a 2min penalty makes it worth it, it needs to be at least doubled. What is do is have a 10min pen...you'd think twice then. Well at least I can hold my head high as I have my own personal standards that I like to uphold. Good sportsmanship being one.

BTW I am on about what I saw which was blatant, not those in wave two that had no choice as traffic got in their way.

Limerick Tri Club and Kilkee take a bow, well done and thanks very much.

I second that Michael. By far the the best triathlon in the country. My 3rd yr and ill be defo goin back next. Take a bow Limerick TC.

NorthernRaider

Great occasion and a fine race. HoTW pretty much has everything you could want! Congratulations to Limerick Tri Club for putting on such a good event!

The only quibble I have is that having only two waves meant a huge number (350 people) in the water at the one time, which given the conditions seemed like way too many! I've never had to wrestle so many people in a race!:eek: I know it's supposed to be a very tough challenge, but if you did become uncomfortable, the chances are that you would be enveloped by the charging herd as there was barely any space to navigate an alternative passage........

The standard is pretty high too! As a random selection (all individual),Trevor Woods (7th individual); Martin Grealish (18th) Peter Kern, (28th), while Marie Boland and Vanessa Fenton, top two women in NS last year were well out of the top five. One thing's for sure, it's not getting any easier!

catweazle

NorthernRaider wrote: »

while Marie Boland and Vanessa Fenton, top two women in NS last year were well out of the top five. One thing's for sure, it's not getting any easier!

I happened upon Vanessa on the run lying down getting medical attention, she must have been down a good while as she would have been well ahead of me, I overheard the medics asking her not to run and to start putting one foot in front of the other first to see if she could walk. She ignored them and booted off overtaking the lot of us again

One tough woman - great to see such determination

NorthernRaider

Forgot to mention Huffn'Puff's superb performance (even if it confirms he protested too much with his excuses!)

All the same, he and Peter Kern were right about Gavin Noble! He wasn't troubled by Kevin Thornton and probably eased off on the run.

Otherwise, the woman's race looked like a great battle! There seems to be quite a few strong contenders to be national champion. Anna Crooks really is an outstanding runner.

pgibbo

Another fantastic race. The most physical swim I've ever experienced. I even asked myself WTF am I doing here at one stage as I had taken so many kicks and punches. Once it opened up a bit though it was grand.

Huff'n'Puff really impressed based on his recent op and lack of running. Serious respect to him.

Gavin was a class apart and looked unbelievably comfortable on the run.

Seeing Lizzie Lee bound up the hill was AWESOME. That girl can run. :cool: