Gael Force West 2012
Average HR 148
Max HR 170
Total Calories 3,800
Kevin’s Garmin Log for the event
This was my third time doing Gaelforce West, being from Mayo I’m always interested in doing races back west and dont think there is anyway I can now leave this out of my list of must-do races every year. My first time in 2010 I didn’t have a specific time in mind and did it in about 5 hours and 45 mins. Last year I was hoping to take about half an hour off that time and get in under 5 hours 15 minutes, I managed a time of 5 hours 2 minutes, which I was thrilled with for about 5 seconds until I started thinking “Pity I couldn’t break the 5 hour barrier… next year!”
For the day before the race I decided to take the full day off work to get down and register early on the Friday, for the previous two years I’ve taken a half day, leaving Dublin at 2 o’clock. As a result of the famous Galway city traffic and the time spent waiting to drop the bike at the first transition area this normally means a total of 7/8 hours in the car before getting home to Castlebar leaving little time to carb load and get 8 hours sleep! So this year I arrived at registration at 12 o’clock on Friday and didn’t have to wait at all to drop off my bike and then had time to enjoy the scenery on the beautiful drive back to Castlebar via Louisburgh.
The morning of the race was an early start, my wave was 6 o’clock which meant I had to get up at 5 to be in Westport for the bus at 6 to get to Glassilaun beach for my race start at 7.30. My legs were feeling a little tight from a run the previous week so I was a bit worried about the first run which is around 13k long, half of which is a trail run, but the race started well for me. I took off at a good pace and after the first ten minutes I was around tenth in my wave thinking I was feeling good. But this was short lived, there are lots of hills and my calfs started to feel very tight by the time we got to the trail section of the run, my pace fell back and I started dropping places fairly quickly but I kept pushing myself knowing that I’d have time to take in some food and water at the end of this run before the kayak across Killary fjord. I still finished the run about two minutes quicker than last year which made me think a sub 5 hour time was definitely on course, plus it was shaping up to be a really nice day so the rain and wind I was worried about wouldnt make an appearance making a possible good time more realistic.
The short 3k run after the kayak was draining as most of it is across bog but once we got onto the road I knew that it wasnt long before the bike which would be my strongest part of the race. Most people choose not to use bike shoes for the cycle but I much prefer to have them and decided that the time I’d make up in the cycle would justify the decision to use them. I was pacing myself following one guy running into the transition area and managed to get in, change into my cycling shoes and get out of transition before him which I was happy with and gave me an extra boost for the start of the cycle. I knew my legs would be fine on the climb in the Sheefry pass, which according to my Garmin varied between a 5% and 15% climb, thanks to the training I’ve done in the Wicklow mountains over the last month so I didnt hold back at the start. Early on in the cycle however I passed the scene of a bad accident between two cyclists, it happened on one of the straightest pieces of road for the cycle so it must have just been two wheels coming together. When I was passing it the ambulance crew was just picking up a stretcher with one of the cyclists who was in a full neck brace, I hope it was just precautionary and nothing too serious.
The rest of the cycle went well and I made up plenty of time and places but by the time I got to the bottom of Croagh Patrick I didnt think I had the energy to make a quick climb and descent, which turned out to be true. My climb was about 2 minutes slower than last year but surprisingly my descent was 5 minutes quicker, despite all the time spent cursing my legs which at that stage felt like they were about to burn up.
Once back on the bike there is a difficult trail for the cycle down to the main road, on this I saw enough people come off their bikes to realise the best way to get down was to get off the bike, throw it over my shoulder and try make my way to where the road starts. On the short cycle back to Westport I was feeling great, after nearly 5 hours I was close to finishing and the positive feeling helped me push a little faster and pass about 4 people on the road over the last 2km, I dropped off the bike, quickly changed back into my trail runners and ran the last 700 metres as fast as I could. My final race time was 4 hours and 51 minutes so I achieved my aim. I was delighted for another 5 seconds, until I started thinking that I should really have been pushing for 4 hours 30, next year I suppose.
Written by: Kevin Derrig