Athlone Sprint Triathlon 18th July 2009 - By Fraser Preston

Tuesday, July 28 2009 @ 02:04 PM GMT Daylight Time Contributed by: eobrien Views: 400 Athlone Sprint Triathlon 18th July 2009 - By Fraser Preston Third race of the year, a recent 2 week stint with no training and munching happily on burgers & chips on holiday probably hadn’t helped preparation and again injury still an issue, but the day before I had had a break through in what might be wrong though still not in time to make any difference here - anti inflammatory at the ready and off we go ! I’d bottled the full sprint swim last year and was kind of disappointed that the swim was made all downstream as I was looking forward to locking horns with the Shannon currents but in hindsight probably not a bad thing ……. Arrival / Registration: Arrived the night before and went out to dinner with the WAD’s (Wife and Daughter) – the ever loyal fan club, we somehow managed to get the table next to the Irish Elite Squad, so at least I got the pre-race meal right ! Went down to register and couldn’t believe the size of the transition area, went through the usual process and then onto find my spot in transition and out to look at the distance from river to bike for T1 and then distance for bike to run for T2 – my initial shock was a barefoot run of what looked like an eternity but realistically was 400m give or take – this was definitely not going to be a day for PB’s and decided to go and sleep on it ! Met Emmet and Paul from the club and a bit of banter was had …………. Transition: Had a nice 5 / 6km cycle into the race area in the morning and snuck in the back way to avoid the queues found my spot and made a mental note of where to go for T1 / T2, met a good few people I knew and chatted away and got ready and by this time it was time for the quick briefing and then transition was cleared and we were all directed the holding area before the swim. Race: I thought my tactic of trying to be one of the last into the water for the swim might work, my reasoning was that I’d watched the previous wave swimming against the current to stay where they were - how wrong was I when I was making my way out the announcer called 20 seconds, 10 seconds and then we were off, great I thought I missed the start ………. Anyway I got into it but didn’t swim very well at all and after a while I decided I would draft a couple of swimmers in front of me though I was quicker it was just easy that way, once I got under the railway bridge I gave the legs a good kick and was at the pontoon and lifted myself from the water and started the long run into T1 – the WAD’s were there giving it loads at the swim exit as I gently jogged by, up the hill and into T1 – did the usual faffing with the scrambled brain but managed to find my bike no problem. Not a bad transition for me, though the time might suggest otherwise, back out down the hill and out onto the bike course, got going quite well and tried to ignore the fact that it was going to be uphill for the first 4km and that the road had ramps and bumps, we turned right at the Creamery and the road just got worse, I’m just glad I knew this so kept going – out on to the main road was a relief as this section isn’t too bad so I put the head down and watched 3 fellow competitors come past me clearly drafting, so I had my markers and swore that I’d catch them by the end (I did and it gave me immense satisfaction), I faired relatively well on the way out with very few overtaking but picking off a good few which is nice ! I got to the turn around and knew it was time to push it a little and did just that all the way home with a great average speed and picked off many bikes to my delight. Hopped off the bike with a classic slide and wrecked yet another pair of cleats, waved to the WAD’s who yet again were giving it loads, jogged up the hill and on the way passed a very dejected Andy Tully who by all accounts had a nasty crash leaving him with a very strange looking hand, into T2 and spent age looking for a sock that was in my runners when I left but not there at my arrival – great runners on, no socks and prepared for the worst. Out onto the run and started into my usual slow plod, it felt like the whole world was in Athlone cheering and shouting encouragement from all over the place, I dug in and basically kept going for the first lap and a half and then decided to see if I could actually run, to my amazement I had a bit of speed in the legs (for me anyway) and quickened for the last lap where only a few went past me and I actually overtook some runners which delighted me no end with a sprint to the finish ! Overall, I’m not sure what everyone else thought as on some of the other local websites there was some constructive and not constructive criticism of the race around the swim being changed to downstream, the bike being longer than 20km and the run was very short from the timing mat - but I personally thought this was a tough race even though it’s a relatively flat course, transition is nasty, the bike course could be better but the run is great as well as challenging for an old fella like me – I’ll be back there next year looking to beat this years time !!!! Times: 12:54 swim (dreadful) 6:06 transition - hairdryer wasn’t plugged in !! 38:46 bike (happy) 6:16 transition – I never found that sock !! 24:09 run – its an improvement so I’ll take it !!

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Tracked on Thursday, September 17 2009 @ 10:01 PM GMT Daylight Time