Waterford Triathlon 19th, June 2010.

Report by Peter Munn

After a years break and due to public demand the Ireland trip was resurrected with 11 hardy souls taking toforeign shores to fly the Pembrokeshire flag. With no fast cat crossing til early July it was the leisurely 4hour crossing partaken with the seas flat as a pancake, it made for almost as smooth as passage as the free flowing Guinness.

We met our driver and the pressure was on, you see Dave was pressing to get to a telly fast for the 4 yearly torture that England usually put their fans through in the World Cup. 90 minutes later we were in Dunmore East, with us staying at 2 B & B’s just 50 yards apart.

All plans that some of us had of showing Dunmore virgins Nic and Geth the transition area and run course were discussed very briefly and an executive decision was made…..straight to the Ocean Hotel for some grub and beverages. Oh and yes England didn’t disappoint, a brilliant 0-0 against Algeria much to the delight of the Irish contingent in the pub.

The weather all weekend was scorchio and race day started with a hearty breakfast with a very sensible start time of midday. Why do all mainland triathlons start at stupid O’clock? We all moseyed over and set up in transition with 500 others. The quality of the field looked pretty good with most other people sporting a club kit of some sort and after the briefing it was time to go with a 2 wave system, all men under 40 off first followed by everyone else. It really was quite inspirational with huge crowds gathering at the start and as the hooter went off there was a crescendo of applause and cheering and that was just Mandy.

With over 200 in each wave it was by far the roughest of swims I have ever taken part in with chaos at the 3 buoys, everyone was so aggressive. It was great to exit the water, the only problem was the monster climb up to transition which left you rather tired.

The bike course was after the initial pull out of the village quite flat with an excellent road surface. What was really cool was the fact that the marshals stopped all traffic, which bearing in mind there being shedfuls of cyclists on the road, was most helpful. There was a nasty climb back into transition and then the bit I was dreading, yes the run. I’ve had calf problems for last 2 years on and off and the first kilo metre was 3 hills one after the other. They were hell but after that I think my gel kicked in, I actually passed a few and had a tremendous last 200 metres having being passed the Welsh flag and running up a people filled street. I realised after it’s the longest I’d run since 2 years ago at the same event. Made a note to run more.

The support from the crowd was excellent but I think Mandy drowned out most of the crowd with a series of horn blowing, duck quacking, bell ringing and general encouragement. Thanks Mandy it kept me going.

Everyone had a fab race with Dave, 2nd vet even with a dickey calf. Ellie, 2nd lady overall and Karen, 2nd in her age group picking up prizes to tumultuous applause. The relay dream team were unlucky coming 4th out of 15 teams, a superb effort from Sarah, Geth and Nic. Ian and Alex had their usual close race with Al having a good bike, Mark also zooming along on his stealth bike.

The rest of the trip involved a bit more drinking, eating, cycling and general relaxing and merriment and a good time was had by all.

Results for Club members: