Thursday, July 24, 2008

Pub Quiz Review and Results

Go raibh míle míle maith agat, Dziekuje bardzo and a massive thank you to everyone who attended the Pub Quiz at McSorley's last night. We would also like to say a huge thanks to the Michelle and the staff of McSorleys in Ranelagh. McSorleys kindly waived any charge for the venue and covered the cost of the DJ as a donation to the Children's Hospital.

Overall the night was a tremendous success and we raised over €2,300 in Aid of Crumlin Children's Hospital.

Our Lady's Children's Hospital Crumlin is a National Referral Hospital for seriously ill children from every part of Ireland. It has the responsibility of providing the best possible treatment and care for each child.

To maintain the highest standards and to improve services, each year supplementary funding must be raised to purchase high-tech equipment and fund important research projects. Your support also helps in smaller but just as important ways. It allows for something as small as the purchase of a cake and to have a birthday party for children who may be in the hospital long term. It can pay for something as simple as a plug socket (for charging a mobile phone) in the local houses where parents of the children are staying overnight. It is your generous support that will contribute to these endeavours.

As it was with our Triathlon in Athlone you can be as prepared as possible with pens, answer sheets, post its for the table numbers, a wonderful Excel sheet (for team details, table numbers and scores) and backup copies of Questions and Answers; but its not until you jump into the freezing cold water of the Shannon River that you realise how deep it actually is.

After a slow/late start the quiz finally kicked into gear and we got through all 7 rounds in a relatively respectable time. The rounds contained 10 questions each and each round was a specialist round.

Round 1 - TV & Film
Round 2 - Sex and the City
Round 3 - General Knowledge
Round 4 - Lyrics and Music
Round 5 - The 90's
Round 6 - The Simpsons
Round 7 - Sport

Scoring wise 5 rounds came it at a relatively similar score with an Average Score of 7/10. Not surprisingly the Sex and the City Round and the Sport Round were the 2 lowest scored in with a average of 5.6 for SATC and 5.3 for Sport.

From the answers we received on a surprising number of sheets we believe that it is prudent that we clarify a few items.

John O'Brien did not/is not any of the following:
1. Shoot JR
2. Appear Topless in Sex and the City
3. Score the winning drop goal for either the Lions or South Africa
4. Cartman's Father
5. Gollum's Real Name
6. Weigh 13 tonnes, is 9 feet in diameter, and is named after Sir Benjamin Hall
(I took personal insult to this one LOL )
7. Mulder and Scully's supervisor

The raffle took place towards the end of the night and the results can be found here: http://3fatmenandalady.blogspot.com/2008/07/raffle-winners.html

Finally we would again like to express our sincerest gratitude to everyone who attended the event and supported us in raising much needed funds for the Children's hospital. On behalf of everyone involved. THANK YOU.

The results of the table quiz itself are as follows:

Team name

Team Captain

Table Number

TOTAL

Frans Taggers

Fran

23

64

Brain Trust

Tommy Mulholland

28

62

Don't have a clue

Mark McGarry

15

59

The Nine Testicles

Martin McCaul

2

58

Captain Fantastic Unlucky

Michelle

14

55

The Bad Eggs

Joe Diamond

3

54

Ceol

Orla Gordan

11

53

Cunning Stunts

Amanda Browne

1028

53

the biggest c's

Shetland Pony

1030

53

Lilly Whites

Big Baz

1031

53

The Tools

Hillary Murphy

10

52

la Rejection

Craig Souman

24

52

Are You Amarter Than a 10 year old

Marcus Mahon

29

51

The noddy apprentice society

Dave Mulpetter

1029

51

Katie's Team

4

50

The 4 Anna's

Anna G

6

50

Kenga

Bridge Mynes

17

50

No Name

Johnny

25

50

Ruth Curran

1

49

Tommy Rocks

Cillian Feore

12

49

Its not a Flat it’s an apartment

Barry

20

49

Brain Donors

Rachel Holland

27

49

Fenian Architects and Indonesian Lawyers

Marcus

26

47

Mj Quinlan

9

45

FAIL

The Best Man

21

45

Jobs Lot

Carolyn

5a

43

Crap!

Sully

13

42

The Brainiacs

Nigel

8

41

The Smurfs

Aoibhion

7

36

natalie

5b

36


Raffle Winners

Firstly, We would like to express a huge thanks to everyone who supported us by buying raffle tickets over the last few weeks. Your support helped us raise over €1,600 for Crumlin Children's Hospital.

Secondly, a massive thanks to our Prize Sponsors, Microsoft Ireland, Coca Cola and Stena Line.

Finally, the draw itself was done last night (23rd July) at McSorleys in Ranelagh during our Pub Quiz. Congratulations to our winners who were:

1st prise: Gerard McMahon - XBox 360
2nd prise: Michelle Neville - Mountain Bike
3rd prise: Yomi Sanyaolu - Stena Line Voucher

Once again many thanks,
The 3 Fat Men

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children Crumlin

Thanks to our friends in Crumlin we have a video that will give you some insight into the good cause your support goes towards.


Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Ignorance is Bliss.. Yea Right!

Tri@thlone 2008 was a baptism of fire for the two boyos. John and I have been doing Trojan work in the gym over the past few weeks. There isn’t a corner of the pool that we haven’t splashed, we’re onto our second set of tyres on the bikes and the running machines definitely need new timing belts! All in all, it’s fair to say that serious mileage has been clocked up in Total Fitness! Unfortunately, none of the events in a triathlon actually take place in a gym... school boy error number 1!

Saturday 12th of July 2008: 09:12 – Event 1

The first wave of Triathlone 2008 had just departed the pontoon on the River Shannon and myself and John are about to enter the river for our first “open” water swim... school boy error number 2! The contrast between swimming in a pool (4 feet deep!), at a pleasant temperature of 20 degrees and the river Shannon (considerably deeper that 4 feet!), is almost akin to the difference between going on a sun holiday in Iceland or Maritus! Being preoccupied with the cold certainly didn’t help accustom ourselves to swimming in a wetsuit for the FIRST time! By design, a wetsuit is supposed to keep a person buoyant in the water; this was another new experience for us. Just to add fuel to the fire, we had not anticipated the effects water currents could have on our ability to swim upstream! In some cases ignorance is bliss... I think it’s fair to say, that in hindsight, ignorance was of no comfort to us in the river Shannon last Saturday morning.

Saturday 12th of July 2008: anytime after the swim! – Event 2

Considering our adventures with the swim the biking passed without any major hiccups, expect for the hour spend trying to attach the bike rack to the car at 04:00 in the morning! It is worth noting, that neither I nor John had actually cycled our bikes before we left the transition area on our way to Bridewell, 10 KM from Athlone. In the spirit of honesty, I have to confess that I only managed to get my bike at 8pm on Friday afternoon... less than 14 hours before the cycle! A quick shot of air in the tyres and a splash of oil on the chain and we were good to go! Possibly my fondest memory of this triathlon was meeting John in the transition area after he had just completed his cycle and before starting his run. For those of you who know and love John for his extremely positive and relaxed attitude towards everything, you may not have met his alter ego! I quote “I did not spend the entire morning in that flocking river and just cycle 23km to have that flocker abuse me for not having my helmet strapped on correctly...” that was followed by “I’m taking a break now for a few minutes till I calm down and drink my lucozade”... 3 minutes later... “Right, I not running the whole way around this field (transition area), just to get to the flocking exit... which is right there!! Thankfully, the REAL John took control, gave me his wallet and said... “Go and order me a pint and have it waiting for me at the finish line... I’ll need it!” Despair, anger, exhaustion, resignation and sheer joy... All expressed in the space of 3 minutes and really capturing the emotions of a triathlon.

Saturday 12th of July 2008: who’s watching the clock anyway! – Event 3

The run! Serious pain and cramp set into my legs when I tried to run after cycling for the best part of an hour. The head, heart and lungs (surprisingly) were all willing but the legs just weren’t as receptive! It takes a good five minutes or so for muscles to acclimatise to the road and that that stage all I could feel was pain! The huge support from the on lookers was very welcome and greatly appreciated. I can only imagine what Michigan Avenue will be like on the morning of 24th of August... and John, I promise I will definitely have a beer ready for you once you cross that line J

Back to main attraction folks! We need money Crumlin asap... please spread the word!

Monday, July 14, 2008

TriAthlone 2008 - Like a Duck to Water

Websters English Dictionary describes excruciating as “causing great pain or anguish”. Well at 11:40am on Saturday morning in Athlone I found out firsthand what excruciating actually feels like. The Athlone Triathlon was planned as a learning experience for myself and Barry. Having never undertaken an event of this type before our goal was firstly to complete the circuit and secondly to make all the mistakes possible in the hope that we will learn from them and not make such mistakes on the big day in August. As Barry is such a good mate of mine I took it on myself to make all the mistakes for both of us and make it possible for Barry to steam ahead and post a very respectable time.

Our Athlone adventure began at 4:00am on Saturday morning 12th July. Barry arrived at my house in Lucan and we began by racking the bikes to the back of my car. Lucky for us this was not part of the timed event. An hour or so later after a number of failed attempts we managed to successfully get both bikes securely racked and headed off to Athlone. We arrived shortly after 6:30am and made our way to registration and to our individual transition areas. Barry was scheduled the go in the second wave (white hats) at 09:15 followed by myself in the third wave (orange hats) at 09:30.


The swim itself left from the pontoon at the top left of the picture below and went 350m downstream to the bridge. Around the turn and 350m back upstream to the back end of the same pontoon.


As you can see from the picture there were numberous members of the support and safety team in kayacks that followed the participants around the race area and provided assistance for anyone in difficulty or even for those who needed a brief rest. I can’t express enough thanks to these people for helping me get through this section of the race.

For a newbie I severly struggled adjusting from a swiming pool to the open water. It was my first time swimming in
open water and my first time wearing a wet suit for anything other than falling off a surf board. (For the record I can swim 40 lenghts of a 25m pool in just over 45 minutes. So this was not a matter of lack of fitness on my behalf it was more so a lack of preperation). In the open water however I struggled and failed to swim my normal manner (breaststroke). After about 10 minutes in the water and having swolled half the Shannon River in the process I came very close to packing it all in and heading home.

It was at this point that one of the safety team who allowed me to rest by the boat encouraged me and said to “set yourself little goals and swim from one goal to the next until the end”. I took his advice and swam from one boat to the next until suddenly I was half way home. Then I swam from one pontoon to the next on the return trip (right hand side of the picture) pausing at each for a few minutes to catch my breath until I was back where I had started. The whole way along all I could hear were shouts of encouragement from the boats and from spectators. “20 more meters, come on you are nearly there”.

The feeling at the end when I got out of the water was firstly one of complete and utter exaustion. My arms and legs weighed a tonne and I could barely walk back to the transition area. Slowly though I began to feel much stronger and ready to finish this race. A sudden sence of achievement kicked in. I’d just completed the hardest part of my race and its all downhill from here I said.


Upon making it back to my bike I took some time to dry myself, put on the cyclig shorts and had a quick drink of lucozade sport (Sorry Caroline I mean Powerade). Hoped on the bike and I was off. The cycle was the most enjoyable experience of the whole event. 10Km out the “rolling Roscommon roads to the picturesque village of Brideswell” and 10Km back to Athlone. This description doesn’t do this section of the race justice. It was more like a leisurely Sunday morning cycle in wonderfully sunny weather out in the Irish countryside. Having just about recovered from my exploits in the water I made it back to the transition area to prepare for the 5Km run.


I racked the bike threw the bike helmet in my bag and headed off on the short run around the town of Athlone. It is only at this point that you truly appreciate the people of Athlone and the support along the streets. Your arms, shoulders and neck are sore from the swim. Your legs (every part of them) are burning from the cycle and there you are being roared along in a wave of support to the finish line. Everywhere you look people are clapping you on and urging you to finish it out.

At one point in the run I stopped to walk for a few minutes as my lower back was hurting me, when a fellow athlete ran past clapped me on the shoulder and yelled “come on 10 more minutes
and your done, use the hill to get you started again”. Now I’ve played alot of sports in my time and I’ve been shouted at my team mates to keep going or had a manager encourage you at half time but never have I received such encouragement from a fellow participant who had nothing to gain themselves out of me finishing the race. You suddenly get that extra bit of belief and you forget about any pain and push yourself on to the finish line to the waiting arms of friends and family.

Now I didn’t break any speed records aside from possibly the slowest finish of all time in the swim category and possible the slowest transition times ever recorded, but it was truely an enjoyable and enlightening experience. I learned a huge amount about this sport, the do’s and don’t and what I still need to do before I can even contemplate the Chicago event. Mostly you realise that while it may be an individual sport and you are in essence racing against yourself, it is very much a team/family sport. Your fellow competitors will encourage you along and urge you to continue because they know the amazing sence of achievement you get once you cross that finishing line.


One very amusing moment post race was when Barry and I are sitting in a pub somewhere in Athlone drinking pints of water to rehydrate ourselves. When Ruth (Caroline’s sister) who had come all the way to Athlone with Caroline to cheer us on (hangover and all) sat beside me and remarked that her calves were “so sore” from all the standing around. A brief moment of silence were followed by eruptions of laughter.


So the results of the race have came in and I wasn’t far off on my estimate of 2hours and 30mins. I came in 738th position in 2hours and 20minutes. The breakdown of results are as follows:


Pos Name AG Wave Swim
215 Barry O'Sullivan 25-29 yrs 2 0:13:14
738 John O'Brien 30-34 yrs 3 0:45:24

T1 Cycle T2 Run Total
0:04:25 0:43:04 0:06:04 00:22:17 01:29:04
0:09:24 00:54:12 0:12:59 00:18:58 02:20:56


So after 2hours and 20mins I achieved my 2 goals for the weekend. Number 1 I finished the race and number 2 I made loads of mistakes that I need to fix. I have learned that the training I have been doing has actually been of some use and while I have still a huge amount to do it is not completely beyond me. I learned that swimming in a pool is of no reflection on how to swim in open water and finally that the people involved in this sport are some of the best around and I look forward to competing again in 2009.


So now it is on to Chicago and the the ultimate test of character and fitness. We have a long way to go and a long road to get there but I have every confidence in the support from my friends, family and fellow triathletes Barry and Shane that we are certainly on the right path to the Chicago Finish line.