The Hook or by Crook Triathlon

Dunmore East, County Waterford, Ireland

1st July 2006

Report by David Astins & Peter Munn

WARNING: although this is long, it could have been so much longer!!

And so it came to pass that ten excitable adults congregated in Fishguard Harbour for the first ever assault by the club on an Irish triathlon.

It was six months ago that some bright spark suggested a European venture (err, I think that was Dave) and whilst all the male members dreamt of Prague or Amsterdam, the girls vetoed this and off to Waterford it was! After months of e-mail to-ing and fro-ing to Ireland (via Mars, or somewhere like that) here we were in Fishguard Harbour - yes, this was it.

Jim had a bad start to the weekend, as whilst parking his car (having left his bike in the safe charge of Karen & Julia), his bike "fell over, we were nowhere near it guv" and he was one spoke short of a picnic. Some people will do anything to get an edge. This was a potential disaster, but Waterford Tri Club would later come to the rescue.

Jim soon gained his composure once on board, when he saw Murphy's at £1 a pint, and was joined by most of the party for that essential pre-race nutrition. With the sea silk like, the fast-cat (= vomit comet) was as smooth as most of our legs, and after 2 hours we disembarked to undertake the 20 minute transition to the terminal building where it was with great relief that we were greeted by the bus and driver for the journey on to Dunmore East, some 1.5 hours west.

After some jiggery pokery trying to get 10 bikes sensibly packed on to the bus, we set off, and enjoyed a calm journey to Dunmore East. The fastest transition of the weekend (see later), saw 10 bikes unpacked, 5 bedrooms located (1 on the other side of "town"), and 13 seconds later we assembled at the Strand Bar for the first "real" pint of the day (apparently those consumed on water don't count according to Pete).

After a hearty breakfast, during which Jim had secured the loan of a rear wheel from a kind fellow from Wateford Tri Club (thank you) registration at the Strand was dealt with swiftly, Dave somewhat alarmed to discover he was race number 1 with a friendly word from the official "that's where we hope you'll finish". Ha de ha. Seeing Dunmore East in daylight allowed us to get our bearings, and realise what a stunning setting it was (imagine Dale, with a really nice view = no refinery, and a pub with an extensive patio overlooking the sea. Oh, and real Guinness).

The heat was building, and after a confused race briefing (it's at the Strand, no it's at transition, oh I don't know) we made our way to the start. Wave 1 (male 20-39) started about half an hour late at 10:30, and Wave 2 (everyone else) 10 minutes later. The swim started at one beach, and finished at another, and judging by the times, which included the run from the beach UP THE CLIFF (Ok, more of a steep path) to transition, it was a tad short. Some of us actually swam from the finish beach to the start beach (about 200m) as a warm up, and Ellie in particular was distressed by the numerous small jellyfish - Ellie, they're only made of Jelly.

Following a non-flow transition (this was a Category C Irish race), the bike snaked down a steep hill, around two sharp bends and out onto the main Waterford Road. Just over 10k later, a dead turn brought us back into a headwind and back to Dunmore East. The run headed back down the same hill, and then off up a long (2k) steady climb, which sapped the energy in the hot conditions. Once at the top, a left and left again brought us back onto the main bike course, and back to the finish - only it was 7.2k instead of the 6k advertised!

We had taken a large Welsh flag with us, and having talked one of the marshals into transferring it to the finish for us, Dave was able to collect it as he finished, and then bring it back for Kev to run in with as he came down the home straight to much applause from the crowd and the commentator. This was repeated as each Pembs Tri Club member came in, except for Karen who was too hot on Pete's heels for the flag to make it back to her.

Ellie stole the show with her excellent win in the women's race, even eliciting an escort for the last 300m or so from a police outrider. Karen completed the "Pembs women are THE BEST" motto by storming to second in the women's vets category. Both received a prize and a bouquet of flowers at the presentation at, you guessed it, The Strand Bar. The prize giving was somewhat emotional as earlier in the week, Caroline Kearney, the top Irish female triathlete and just 24 years old, had been killed in a crash whilst out cycling in the south of France. Winner Trevor Woods dedicated his victory to her, and a friend read an emotional piece about her recent training and excellent progress on the elite circuit. A sad and humbling experience.

Back to the fun, and Karen really took the Michael by also claiming a spot prize of a goody bag of bike bits, which Val proceeded to attempt to wear some hours later (have you ever seen a woman in a David Beckham white vest and earrings carved from bike tyre levers??). Val had even made a local friend during the race (sounded like drafting to us) who bought her a glass of red wine!

Needless to say everyone had a good race against a good Irish field. The first two places went to full Irish internationals which highlights the talent on offer. As well as the two prize-winning girls already mentioned, special mention to Elen Jones who produced the fastest T2 split of the day - 14 seconds! Our North Walian girl took great pleasure in offering advice to the Irish athletes that evening on fast T2 transitions - "I spend hours every night in front of the mirror". Elen had earlier demonstrated her "climb a tree after the race" skills but that's another story.

Some of the club (well, Dave and Julia) endured the agony of England losing to Portugal on penalties whilst all this was going on, isn't it amazing how many Portugese supporters live in Ireland??! But this was not to dampen the high spirits of the Pembrokeshire Tri crowd who kept going in the Strand, and then at the Spinnaker, where we were treated to some excellent live music from Karen (not our one) and her mate. Val even went to have a deep and meaningful conversation with an anebbriated Irish gentleman, and one picture I'm sure captures him proposing to her! Mr Brown was laughing, but was it with despair??!!! The girls continued to put the boys to shame by being the only ones to get up and dance, but Jim finally succumbed and before we knew it nine of us were giving it all they had (Kev remained as the audience!). Kebabs on the patio followed for some and it's all a bit hazy after that (I do remember that the Kebab shop, nicely located between the pub and our B&B, had a full menu dedicated to chips - how did they do that???).

The following morning saw a "fun" swim from the Strand, 400m or so with a prize for the closest to the predicted time. Not content with winning yesterday, Ellie pulled it off again with first place (a voucher for a lunch venue, again another story), with Dave 3rd and Elen 4th also picking up some nice prizes. Boomshanka! From that point everyone did what they wanted, some going cycling in different directions, and others chilling on the patio.

After that it was simply a bus ride to the ferry terminal, a long and arduous walk from the ferry terminal to the ferry, a ferry crossing, and a walk to the car in, you guessed it, drizzle. Welcome to Wales. All in all this was a fantastic weekend. Pete did a marvellous job making it happen. At around £150 (ferry, bus, entry fee, B&B, food & beer) it wasn't cheap, but an experience not to be missed and worth every single penny (cent). We'll be back.

On a final note it's worth mentioning that we received a wonderfully warm welcome by the Irish people we met, a special thanks to Barry Murray and everyone at Waterford Tri Club for helping us out (before, during and after the event) and making us feel welcome. We hope we reciprocated by being good ambassadors for our club and Wales.

Hopefully a few snaps of the weekend will appear here soon. Compromising photos are available for a small charitable donation.

To view full results and race report, please click here.