Velvet Strand Race Report

Club member Mark Capillitan took part in one of the first events of the Season at the Velvet Strand triathlon in Portmarnock north Dublin. It was the first running of this event. Mark's hard winter training paid off with an excellent 16th place finish overall, 1hr 10min 41sec, well done to Mark for that.

If anyone's planning on doing it next year, here's a brief recap of the course & race from Mark.

"Swim: the swim took place in a beautiful beach on Portmarnock strand. The sea was quite choppy so they shortened the course by roughly 100m or so. As a strong swimmer I've swam in much worse conditions, especially our own Metalman race last year. But the biggest issue with the swim was that it was broken into 6 wave starts. I couldn't see the need for this, as you've got a huge beach where a mass start would be fine. The waves weren't based on swim ability it was more age-groups, so each wave had a mix of swimmers anyway."


"Bike: the bike route had a number of changes to it leading up to the race...that's never good! The bike leg was a 3 lap route of the main road going from Portmarnock to near Malahide. The best part of the bike leg was that the road surface was billard table smooth, and mainly flat which meant it was quick. I have to say, that was the only good thing about the bike section. It was probably the most dangerous bike route I've ever been on. You can read all about it on Boards.ie here. But basically for anyone wanting a good time on the bike, it was near impossible, because of the 3 laps, you were always going to get stuck behind cars at some point.."

"Run: one of the nicest runs I've ever done. Very scenic with just a few rolling hills. The path was narrow in some parts, but that's not a major issue when running."

"So overall a good event, the bike section was the part they need to improve most which will probably happen for next year!"