Ive recovered well from my Ironman exploits and got a mail from Brian Crinion regarding the Runways duathlon in Dublin on Wednesday 28th. Sure go on I said.. I convinced myself I needed the workout and it would dust off the cobwebs from my time off. I love hard efforts anyway but He didnt tell me the National champ was coming, Paul Carroll!!- ah well I just have to go.
I wrote a post about all races shouldnt be priorty but I always still want to win regardless of what type of race Ive catagorised it in my head!. Lucky enough Paul didnt show but I had other top guys there to contend with in Joe Lynch and niall sommers. The pace went off hot and I found myself up with the two guys and didnt want the guys getting too far ahead so i had time to reel them in on the bike. I played a more clever approach to this race and raced to win rather the really bury myself. Joe I feel did the same, I just had a little more legs on the bike than him. I think we caught niall in an off night, his coughing and spluttering didnt sound good. I got the win and now had my eyes on Triathy Olympic distance for saturday.
Triathy.
I really didn’t know how things would go here. Competition was deep and the standard in the country has risen but I had eyes solely on myself. More so than ever because everyone was in different waves. I had one guy in mine you might know, Jenson Button, F1 driver. When I heard he was in it I mentioned it to my wife, her eyes lit up and words of “hes cute” came out of her mouth. At that point I think Karen made the right decision to come down and support her ‘HUSBAND’ racing. After all it was our 5 year anniversary. No better way to celebrate than taking her to the race. Who said romance was dead! The boy can race and he didnt show up just for the cameras.
Not to disrespect the other guys on the line but I knew Ruessll White was the man to beat. He is a top Kid and has great potential. I hope he will be the next Gavin Noble who flies the flag at the Olympics some day. *On that note I’d like to congratulate Gavin Noble and Aileen Morrison on there Olympic qualification. It will be a great day for Triathlon Ireland and the athletes and all connected. GOOD LUCK.
I found myself swimming quite comfortably and never felt under pressure, I should of recognized that had I found myself under pressure maybe it would of resulted in a faster swim split. Never the less I exited with Mr Cute as a Button and we sped off onto the closed roads of athy. I quickly got into race effort and didnt want to give our F1 friend a toe. I moved through the field fast as slower waves set off before me. I had forgotten about my crash last year until I reached the first corner. There it was, I had visions of bits of me on the road. Last year I left with 70% of my skin that day. I raced hard and watts were at the top end but hit the corners easy. I really didnt want to go down. I didnt think I could hold it for the full 40km which was right. I slowed for the last 5/10k but I didnt mind as I had to concentrate on the run. At this point I still hadn’t a clue where I was in the race. It really is an all out individual time trial. I met Jenson at a couple of turnarounds and I have to admit my wife was right. He is cute.
I hammered home and a quick transition was needed. Out of practice in the short game my transition was anything but quick. I couldn’t get my runners on but when I did I got up to speed and held a pace of early 3;30km. I was running well, hurting but I think the long game Ive been doing has helped me suffer more. I hit a bad patch around 6-8k but came out of it. The grassy bank was hard to run on and dancing in and out of slower athletes was tiring but we all had to do it and shared the same ground. I finished well and couldnt of given more on the day. I was right in my predication that Russell was the guy. And he was the guy. He gave us a lesson. Well done Russell. Other congrats Bjorn and Steven Early. Triathy put on a great day and to organize so many athletes over the weekend is a credit. This was my first ever triathlon 4 years ago and one always go back to.
BMC
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