Here is an update on a sprint triathlon which I took part in last weekend. The race was in Athy and this would be my second event of this type, since I had starting training 6 weeks ago for the Children’s Hospital triathlon. And while looking forward to it, I was apprehensive about the river swim (750m), as this would be my first real experience outside the safe confines of a heated swimming pool.
The sunshine was beaming down and upon arriving and seeing two fields full of parked cars, I quickly realised that this was a bigger event, than I had anticipated. Actually over a thousand people were taking part from a variety of countries. After registration, we made our way down to the transition zone to leave our bicycles and running gear before starting the swim. The event had been organised that groups started at different times, so as to help spread out the large number of participants. As we were setting up, the first group had just finished their swim and were entering the transition zone. One man from this group, started to change beside me for the cycle stage. With a look of exhaustion from the swim, he started to wrestle the wet suit off himself. Unfortunately for him, the wetsuit was the stronger and in the process he ended up falling flat on his back, with the jeers of the crowd to help make getting up all the more difficult. I thought to myself, maybe I was right to be concerned about the swim.
Our group was called and we hurriedly put on our wetsuits and made our way to the swim starting point. The heat from the summer sun and a 5mm thick wetsuit made me feel like a mobile sauna. That was soon rectified when I jumped in the River Barrow. It seems that Irish water is invincible from the sun's heat. A hundred of us swam over to the starting point and waited for the signal. Thankfully it came quite soon and we sprung into action. There was a huge surge at the start, as the group jostled for position. Arms and legs were flying everywhere and the skill seemed to be in dodging this ‘kung-fu’ styled swimming. Quickly the field did spread out and the focus was now on getting up river. I remembered John telling me the day previous about practising being able to look both sides when swimming. And although I had tried to start doing this, I still could only look & breath to my right. This deficit quickly became apparent as I noticed half way up the river, that I had started swimming at a right angle to the oncoming swimmers. Luckily I didn’t cause a pile up in the river and quickly steered myself back into the moving traffic.
Upon finishing the swim, I staggered over to the transition zone to start the cycle. The cycle was an area that I really wanted to make progress on since the last event. I made it around the 20km of cycle course and was happy that I had managed to keep a constant speed. With the cycle complete, I had two events down and just the run to complete. The run started off by running along the canal and although not appreciated at the time, it was a nice setting. When I got about two km out into the run, I could feel my ears popping, due to the swim which I had completed almost an hour ago. As strange a sensation as it was at the time, I now had the benefit of being able to hear my dog-like panting and my weakening heart pound again, which was a real comfort as it had been a while since I had heard either. Continuing into the run I did feel as if I was making really good progress, as I could see the finishing point in the town up ahead. I could feel the recovery & satisfaction of crossing that line. As I neared, the race marshals were ahead and pointing to the left back towards the canal. My emotions quickly changed as they started telling the runners that we had to do another loop of the canal route (2km), before heading onto the finish. So much for breaking any records.
As a neared the finish line for the second time, I pushed my tired legs on and finally got across it. On the day itself, I was happy with my progress. I had improved since the first event, and the training was starting to show. However this race was only half the distance of what John, Barry & I will need to cover in the charity triathlon in late August and from the tiredness I felt after this event, it is a clear sign that there is a lot more training which needs to be done. We are working hard at both the fitness levels and the fund-raising and between the two, there will be very little spare time between now and late August. But the sacrifices made will easily be justified by the gains we all will be offering to such a worthy cause as Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital.
