BALLYRAININ

9:00 am

Current conditions: very heavy rain and gusty winds

Text from Gavin, Superstar, O’Kane – “Lough is like an ocean, what a sh*t day”. At the time I was just going through Garvagh and considered doing a u-turn and hopping back into bed for a few hours sleep, but convinced myself that the organisers would cancel the swim, have a wee duathlon and all would be well.

9:30 am

Current conditions: Still very heavy rain and gusty winds

Jeepers, creepers. The Lough really was like an ocean. There was no way that the original swim course would be viable and the organisers were franticly trying to come up with a “plan B”, the most viable of which appeared to be to shorten the swim to a 400-600m lap of the marina. I mentioned this to Ann Paul and like the rest of us, she was chuffed that we did not have to spend too much time in the washing machine that was Lough Neagh.

10:30 am

Current conditions: Yup…very heavy rain and gusty winds

Conal Heatley donned his wet suit to check alternate swim directions and eventually decided that the there were viable separate exit and entry points within the marina allowing for lapped swims. I made a mental note to avoid Ann for misinforming her regarding the swim distance.

11:30 am

Current conditions: You’ve guessed it - very heavy rain and gusty winds

Organisers announced that the modified swim would now occur within the marina and that the 3-lap course will be approx 1200m, with the bike and run course remaining the same as previous years. The only difference noted is that there are now speed bumps on the main road into Ballyronan village that would affect fast bikers, but this was not something I had to worry about.

12:00 pm (ish)

Current conditions: Wet, but no wind under the water (other than competitor generated)

Unlike my previous races here, the race was a single wave start, so 300 odd people fighting for the same limited space in the marina made it my most claustrophobic swim ever. Even though the field spread out a bit as time went on, I managed to get punched or kicked on all 3 laps. Still though, as I was using this primarily as a hard training day I was quite happy to exit the water in around 24 minutes. As we exited the marina at a different location than originally planned, the run into T2 was quite long my poor feet were in bits as I hobbled across the pebbly tarmac

12:30 pm

Current conditions: Horizontal rain (or was it hail ??)

Took a good 4 minutes in T2 getting on a fleece-lined top (I know, in the middle of August!), headscarf, and socks before heading out onto the bike course. The first 3-4k per lap was great with wind behind, 2-3 k of OK with gust coming sideways and 3-4k of pain against the wind. Against the wind, the rain was blinding me and I hade to slow on the downhill section. For me, the cycle was the low point of the day as it was then that I realised that I had still not fully got my cycling legs back after Moraviaman. Ahead of me, Ann was motoring along impervious to the conditions, Simpson was going well, and looking good (in a manly way, I should point out), Chris Doherty overtook me on his new De Rosa bike (nice wheels) and the other O’Kane idiot was spotted out on the course too.

1:50 pm

Current Conditions: Not even going to mention it

Finally on to run course, which offered a bit of protection from the wind. Format was 4 x 2.5 km out and back laps with a 50 metre long “puddle” to wade through twice each lap! Was going reasonably well, but it was hard to judge as the only other competitors left at this point were the hardcore loonies. Finished in just around 49 minutes for a total time of 2:43, but time was irrelevant in these conditions. Chris Doherty came in a few minutes behind to finish his first ever-Olympic distance race under the worst conditions I’ve ever participated so well done to him.

3:30 pm

Current conditions: Don’t care. It’s lovely and warm in my car

Overall for me, this was a good hard training session in weather that is becoming a bit too commonplace here. Under the circumstances, the organisers did a great job, although I personally think that the swim section needs a rethink, especially as this is the second year that a mass start has been employed. The race was well attended, and as usual Triangle had lots of representation. A summary of names and times is posted below. Well done to all.