GROOMSPORT HALF IREMAN

FRIDAY EVENING – Take me away

With 5 children, mealtime at the O’Kane household is like feeding time at the zoo, and cleaning up the aftermath is a daunting task to say the least. Therefore on Fridays we get a take away to give Roisin and myself a break. The boys love spicy food and hence it was an Indian all round. I know I will pay for this later, especially as I ordered chilli chicken bhuna………

ACCOMODATION – Millisle Mafia

Decided at the last minute that unlike last year I would stay in Bangor as opposed to travel down morning of the race. A quick Google threw up a few B&B numbers. The first guy informed me that he had no room at the inn and that there wasn’t a chance of getting accommodation anywhere in the area because there was an “iron-thing” on the next day. Took a chance and phoned a 2^nd B&B. A lovely lady answered and said I was out of luck, but told me to phone Margaret who might have a room. “You make sure and tell her that Mary gave you her number as we help each other out”. Margaret didn’t have a room, but informed me excitedly that May definitely has a room. “You make sure and tell her I gave you the number as we help each other out”. May did indeed have a room and asked me what time I’d be down in the afternoon. I let her know that it might not be till 9:30 pm and she asked if I could make it after 10:30 pm as she was going out for her dinner. Worked out just grand and was I snuggled up and asleep by 11:00 pm

RACE DAY – Grunt, snuff, snort, burp, oink

Woke up with a heavy stomach. Wonder what could have caused that? Start the gorging ritual, which this morning included banana, muesli, 4 slices toast, 2 croissants, orange juice and ½ gallon of coffee. Reckoned that would be sufficient to prepare myself to attempt a sub 6-hour assault of the course after having done a 6’17” last year.

SWIM – Conal the barbarian

Transition opened at 7:30 am. The intensity level went up a notch as Peter Jack was given (or did he find!!!!) a microphone at 8:00 am in the morning. PJ managed to be subdued for about 27 seconds before taking things up another few notches, and in the process ensured that all of Groomsport would be awake in time for race start. After the usual briefings etc, we were marshalled to the beach. The water didn’t look too bad and at 9:10 we were off on the first of 2 laps.

Once out in the open water there was definitely a swell and it was pretty hard to see the buoys. However the first lap soon passed and as I approached the shore could see that I was definitely in the top third of the field. My heart sank then when I looked at my watch to see that 22 minutes had elapsed. Completed the second lap, and was really gutted to find 45 minutes had gone by. Was even more confused upon entering transition to find most of the bikes still there. Grabbed the bike and on to the 2^nd leg after a few words of advice and encouragement from Adrian Devine

It later transpired that there was a considerable swell so swim times appeared to be about 10-12 minutes longer on the whole last year. Alistair Bratten also had the look of a naughty schoolboy, but the less said about that the better. Anyway it is irrelevant, as the conditions were the same for all competitors.

BIKE – Capped in Donadgadee

The course was the same as last year and consisted of three 31 km laps around Groomsport. For me, it was very eventful. Lap 1 was to plan. On lap 2, as I was going through Donaghadee, a wheel cover came flying off a car travelling in the opposite direction and missed me by about 2 feet and the guy behind by a few metres. On the dual carriageway section of lap 3, an impatient driver tried to gain time on other motorists approaching a roundabout by performing an overtaking manoeuvre on the inside lane and would have hit me if I hadn’t slammed on the brakes. As I started up again from a standstill, the cyclist behind pulled up to check I was OK. ”F**k, I though you were toast there mate” were his exact words (he must have been a GP given his diagnosis of the situation).

With respect to splits, I completed the first lap in 1’06”. As per plan, pushed it harder on the 2^nd lap, but this only resulted in a 1’08” ??!!?? On lap 3, my back started to hurt and my time fell off badly to 1’10” resulting in a 3’24” split, almost 1 hour slower than the fastest bike of the day.

RUN – Kebab King

Into T2 where I had the 40^th fastest split of the day. (Summarises just how average I really am when my I have to look to transition times to find my strongest discipline).

Out on to the run course and hooked up with Kevin Murphy for about 1 km before I had to jump behind a bush to empty my bladder. Did not push too hard and was feeling great for the first 6 km or so. However rumblings commenced thereafter, and as I completed first lap in 1-hour dead, I had to make a detour to the toilet. Many, many days (or was it weeks) later, I re-emerged feeling the worse for wear and from here on in it was downhill. The last 12 km were a mixture of run & shuffle, not helped by the magnificent afternoon sunshine and I completed the 2^nd lap in 1’15” for a run split of 2’15”and overall time of 6’29”. By the end of the race I had blown up in every sense of the word!!!!

SUMMARY – what I did in school today

Overall a great race again this year with superb organisation overseen by Conal. Also, great value for money, and the organisers give out the best goodie bag on the Irish circuit by a long way.

I found the going a lot tougher than last year, and took 12 minutes longer as opposed to my goal of taking 17 minutes off. However I learned quite a lot from it including:-

1. Periodization - I planned the Ironman in June right to the nth degree of detail, but did not apply the same discipline to the 2^nd half of the season and need to be more diligent next year
2. I need to improve on the bike. This will be the focus of winter training
3. Don’t eat curry the night before a big race. Obvious I know, but has to be stated
4. Don’t enter a race where Conal is in charge of the swim (only joking on this one, although I do seem to remember him being at Ballyronan this year)
5. I am convinced PJ has a microphone in the boot of his car. You just never know when you might need one. Can you imagine it at the side of the road – “ladies and gentlemen, I have a flat tyre, lets get ready to rumble”.

What I haven’t worked out just yet is if I am stupid enough to enter next year, especially if it is full distance as looks likely at this point.

RESULTS – You the man, Paul

On the day, there were a total of 207 starters and 196 finishers. In addition to all the volunteers on the course, triangle had 7 competitors and overall times are provided below. Well done to all

Although I have yet to meet the man formally, the moment of the day for me was the outpouring of emotion from Paul McErlain as he crossed the finish line. Now there is a guy who really took something from the race. Isn’t that what its all about?

OFF SEASON – come dine with me

For the next few weeks, I will be taking it easy and letting fat boy escape. In order to facilitate this, I plan to assess a few establishments over the coming weeks and have devised a competition to aid this effort (why do triathletes have to turn every activity into a competition?). I will give everyone the results next time we are in a race together, although you may not recognise me as I expect that I will comfortably be topping 16 stone on the scales…yeah