Hell of the West – 11/07/2012
So there we were…finally at the big one! The early morning alarm call in February to register was a distant memory…one that rang like ‘what the hell were you thinking?!!’ around my head! It felt a bit like was 6th year again and I was facing into the Leaving! Only this time had studied a bit more consistently thanks to someone else having control of my plan and thus saving me endless hours of highlighting and filling things in using many many different colouredy pens, leaving me with no excuse but to actually get out there do it! Thanks Alison!! The panic really kicked in Friday morning, had a look at the Limerick Tri website for old results to see what was the average time was of last person over the line/last Pulse person etc to try calm the nerves, 2011 looked hopeful…2010 not so much! Once we got on the road I began to relax a bit, I had put in more training for this than anything I’ve ever done so I think this may have been some of the pressure I was putting on myself too. Secretly, although I knew the goal as a first-timer should be to just to complete it, I wanted to justify the work I had put in by giving it a decent go and coming away pleased with the result.
We got down nice and early on the Friday so I asked Maura to head out and drive around the bike/run course with me. This turned out to be invaluable as my bike computer is very temperamental and decided not to clock distance for me during the race so having the landmarks was a godsend! Down to Naughton’s then for a huge dinner but hey if you can’t carb load the night before a big race where’s the fun in it at all?!!
Morning of the race dawned and there was that nervous moment of pulling back the curtains to see what conditions there were to be faced. Not the worst…grey and windy but not the hurricane status of last year, phew! Got my breakfast into me just about – the water down there is rancid! No offence meant to any Clare folk…I know it’s probably just me being too accustomed to the Dublin chemicals! My porridge didn’t dissolve properly and it was a bit of a struggle to force it down. Bottled water going on the essentials packing list, every race brings a new addition! Usual triple checks followed to be sure that have everything packed (finally had to tell myself there was nothing left TO pack!) and it was off to transition!
Transition was set up that all the Pulse people were racked together which was brilliant. It meant there was lots of chat, plenty of people to ask those little questions to and no time to get full on nervous. It did take some of us a frighteningly long time to make the connection though…maybe not the brightest club…let’s blame the nerves though!
The start of the race was a disaster. They kept us all in a ‘holding pen’ as they called it. Wave 1 was sent off first and was well in the water while we were still being held back in transition. Halfway down the beach they came across the tannoy telling us to hurry up and run to the water. Someone said it was because the tide was going out. As people began to walk into the water many were asking if it was a beach start or we’d all be gathered together and started from the kayaks. Nobody really knew what was going on and suddenly we realized the people in our wave up in front had started swimming. I was barely knee deep in the water and there were plenty behind me. Chaos ensued. Weaker swimmers were up the front, stronger ones at the back, people had not positioned themselves as they would have had they known what was going on. I got one or two decent thumps to the head! The buoys were also ridiculously small and difficult to see if you came up anywhere but the crest of the wave. Although there were certainly plenty of those! It took me a while to find my rhythm but I settled in and coped ok with the swell. Was thanking my stars for all those rough Mondays in Killiney which had really set me up for this. I even quite enjoyed the swim. I had no idea of my time but I knew I must have done ok when I heard surprise to see me in Noreen’s voice and Maura just ahead of me in transition! To have those few minutes of an advantage coming out of the water is a great help. Before the swim I had watched Enda oil the outside of his suit up to his knees/elbows and, a quick quizzing as to why, (wetsuit basically slides back over itself as you peel it off), had me grabbing Sharon’s baby oil and doing the same…wetsuit came off like a dream! Made for a good improvement on my T1!
Decided not to bother with any extra layers over the Trisuit for the cycle and if I got cold that would just make me work harder! What I didn’t realize until I got onto the bike was that I had managed to unzip said trisuit along with my wetsuit!! So the minute I stretched for the handlebars I was sporting a fabulous backless number!! As if Lycra wasn’t unflattering enough! Feck it though it was staying like that as far as I was concerned! As I mentioned already the computer wasn’t working so I had no idea what my distance was. There had been lots of warnings given by the experienced folk about the big hill soon after coming out of transition so I was ready for this with the bike in a low gear. It was just a case of ploughing on then. I am not the fastest on the bike by a long shot so people started streaming past me, when an old lady on a hybrid went by there was a stern resolve made that there would definitely have to be a lot of work done on the bike over the winter!!! I had decided I would take my second gel (first was 10mins before swim) at the church which I knew was about 8k in. Thanks to a complete downpour and hail storm I missed this church and was at Doonbeg before I knew it. The surface was really bad through the village so I waited til after to attempt the opening. I had a water bottle on the tribars which was brilliant – I confess I only drank from this and didn’t risk the grab of death for the other one on the frame! I will continue to practice though Alison I promise! I tried to keep my pace (which thankfully was working on my computer) up around the 30kmph mark as much as possible. This dipped on the hills but otherwise gave me a good focus. Mary was just in front of me too so I decided to try keep her in sight as much as possible. I have a tendency to dawdle like a Sunday driver if I don’t concentrate! I clocked 52kmph on the down hills…holding on verrryy tight needless to say!! I also used the tips from James of looking around the corners/keeping wide and was now grateful for that shower in Corkagh Park that had us practicing in the wet too. Once was through Doonbeg and coming back around the loop there was a strong headwind as I made my way back towards Kilkee but it was relatively flat (as far as I can remember) until those killer hills at the end. I’d imagine there are sailors who would have completed them with better language than the dialogue going through my head. I honestly fear at times that I suffer from cycling-induced Tourette’s! I think I probably could have pushed harder overall but there was a certain fear of the unknown about it that I didn’t want to blow up either. And while I found the hills a challenge they were still doable so was pleased by that – god bless Alison’s spin classes! My biggest relief was getting the bike back into transition in one piece, success enough in my eyes…I have been cursed over the last few months with mechanical problems. I took my third gel when I did manage to see the church on the way back out.
As I racked my bike I noticed Sharon and Caroline W coming in around the same time. This gave me a boost as I figured I must be doing ok! Crappy T2, I forgot I put my Garmin into my runner and shoved the hoof in on top of it thus ramming it right into the toe! Reaction times being a bit slow anyway it took me a few seconds to realize why my foot wouldn’t go in and then what seemed like an age to fish it back out! Finally got it sorted and set off up that b*tch of a hill! Sharon was gone off ahead of me and Caroline passed me shortly after while Kathy breezed passed me about 1 or 2k in. I was slow going up that first hill and the legs were screaming but I pushed on steadily and they began to loosen after the first 2k. I got into a steady rhythm and a guy from West Clare Tri decided to tag on. The company going up the hill was a good distraction. At the turn around point I felt that the race had been beaten and it was (literally!) all downhill from here! I upped the pace and tipped down not wanting to blow out either. Once we got down the final hill to the coast road I took the brakes off. And as I passed a girl from Wicklow tri her gang started shouting at her to take me…red rag to a bull I’m afraid! The 2 of us powered home to the finish and I crossed comfortably in front of her…take that Wicklow!!!
I was over the moon to see the clock read 3.36 when crossing the line as I really had no idea of how long I’d been out there. My secret super-ambitious goal had been sub 3.30 so I knew I’d nailed that when the 10 minutes off wave2 had been subtracted. When I got my time and realized I’d come in at 3.24 it was even better! It was so satisfying to feel like you’d really earned that Cava! I felt really proud of myself for the achievement not to mention beyond grateful to Alison for all the plans and help she had given over the last few months. I am psyched to keep up the momentum and continue to improve as it has really shown me what consistent training can do. I would not have thought it possible 12 months ago, when standing on the shoreline supporting, for me to have even completed this race never mind to be doing it within touching distance of the rest of the girls (the part-girl part-machine contingent excluded obviously!). I loved Liz’s mantra of ‘as the race gets longer I get stronger’ and I think I shall be borrowing it on a regular basis! Next year I hope to be there again after another successful winter of base training even stronger, fitter and ready to do battle with Hell again!
Written by: Hilary McKeown