Thanks to Ronan Brennan for this report from the Blackrock triathlon held last Saturday; another first open water triathlon, finishing well within the top half of the field:
"On Saturday I headed up to Blackrock in Louth for the Setanta Tri Club annual triathlon. This was its seventh year and proved to be a popular one as just shy of 200 competitors took part, ranging in abilities from seasoned veterans to first timers. Weather was beautiful which helped greatly to create a ' festival feel'. It was billed as a sprint distance on the Triathlon Ireland website but in truth the swim was 600 metres, 16km bike and a 6 km run.
The swim started with all competitors starting off together on a triangular route. This led to a lot of frenzied posturing as we alltried to get into a suitable position (I had my goggles kicked off inthe melee - good training I suppose!!) Later on at the buoys for turnaround it led to a lot of congestion too. I personally would have preferred if there were at least two waves to avoid this.At least 200 metres of the swim was in shallow water, I actually swam past a few who were walking/ running which was strange. Very strange. For beginners or those less confident this would be ideal however for those experienced and trying to make up time it would be frustrating I guess. A 150 metre run then to transition which was actually quite narrow and invariably led to an unnecessary slow exit onto the bike.
The bike route was lovely, flat all the way (small hill excepted), an out and back along a main road. Lots of time trial bikes in evidence. It was my first time trying out my tri bars too so had good craic here! Back to transition again which wasn't as congested as before thankfully and out for the run. At this stage the sun was pumping. Class. The run was a loop of the village and was definitely a full 6km. The start included a nice testing hill which claimed a few casualties early on but soon flattened out for the remaining 5 km. My time was 1:07:54 which I was delighted with and still left plenty of scope for improvement. I wasn't delighted with my sunburn however!! In my eagerness to unveil the Sligo tri club tri suit to the North East masses I forgot to put on sun cream pre race. Hence long jumpersthis week!! Also need to get a race belt too to avoid damaging the suit. Spot the beginner triathlete!!
A nice touch by Chipit timing systems too whereby at end of race you just typed in your race number and you got a printed result of your race. Ideal for the family album! So yeah, a nice race overall, swim unnecessarily congested, nice bike and good testing run. So as all the great writers would say: 'A good day was had by all!! Boom boom."
Full results and photos are up on the Setanta tri club website.
"On Saturday I headed up to Blackrock in Louth for the Setanta Tri Club annual triathlon. This was its seventh year and proved to be a popular one as just shy of 200 competitors took part, ranging in abilities from seasoned veterans to first timers. Weather was beautiful which helped greatly to create a ' festival feel'. It was billed as a sprint distance on the Triathlon Ireland website but in truth the swim was 600 metres, 16km bike and a 6 km run.
The swim started with all competitors starting off together on a triangular route. This led to a lot of frenzied posturing as we alltried to get into a suitable position (I had my goggles kicked off inthe melee - good training I suppose!!) Later on at the buoys for turnaround it led to a lot of congestion too. I personally would have preferred if there were at least two waves to avoid this.At least 200 metres of the swim was in shallow water, I actually swam past a few who were walking/ running which was strange. Very strange. For beginners or those less confident this would be ideal however for those experienced and trying to make up time it would be frustrating I guess. A 150 metre run then to transition which was actually quite narrow and invariably led to an unnecessary slow exit onto the bike.
The bike route was lovely, flat all the way (small hill excepted), an out and back along a main road. Lots of time trial bikes in evidence. It was my first time trying out my tri bars too so had good craic here! Back to transition again which wasn't as congested as before thankfully and out for the run. At this stage the sun was pumping. Class. The run was a loop of the village and was definitely a full 6km. The start included a nice testing hill which claimed a few casualties early on but soon flattened out for the remaining 5 km. My time was 1:07:54 which I was delighted with and still left plenty of scope for improvement. I wasn't delighted with my sunburn however!! In my eagerness to unveil the Sligo tri club tri suit to the North East masses I forgot to put on sun cream pre race. Hence long jumpersthis week!! Also need to get a race belt too to avoid damaging the suit. Spot the beginner triathlete!!
A nice touch by Chipit timing systems too whereby at end of race you just typed in your race number and you got a printed result of your race. Ideal for the family album! So yeah, a nice race overall, swim unnecessarily congested, nice bike and good testing run. So as all the great writers would say: 'A good day was had by all!! Boom boom."
Full results and photos are up on the Setanta tri club website.
