Another great race report from David Heaney. Keep em coming lads..!

Second race of the year for me and planned as a warm up event before I attempted the 70.3 at Challenge Galway. With a sea swim it would be perfect practice to iron out any issues I might have and get a feel for a race with a sea swim.

With an 11.30 start time, it allowed for a decent prep and didn’t call for an ungodly hour to get out of bed and shove food into me. The drive down from Dublin was made all the easier with the dynamic sounds of the Red Hot Chili Peppers new album (fairly underwhelming I must say!)

Coming into Waterford the clouds gave way and the sun started peeking through and it looked like any potential rain would stay away for sure.

Arriving into the picturesque village Dunmore East to a beautiful beach and, calm waters and sunny day quashed any pre-race nerves I had.

A field behind transition provided ample parking and space to get the gear sorted and I plonked myself beside a couple with the coolest black lab I’d ever come across threatening the race prep and my usual in the zone mood pre-race with his curiosity and exhaustive interest in my race gear. I found myself explaining to him the benefits of suit juice, why I was using so much take tal powder and the nutrition plan for the race, he was little help in hindsight!

Set up in transition was straight forward, bike spacing could have been a little further apart considering the amount of space available, but I suppose that’ll always be a complaint like a restaurant which seats people too close together, you just have to get on with it.

I’d made a school boy error at Tri Athy a few weeks previous, opting for no socks and maximum tal powder coverage, which didn’t work and left me with some blisters. I tend to agree with the nice lady who pointed out my blood heels to me at the finish that it was probably due to the heat, and not a case of being a total muppet, having never tried it before. She easily saw through my guff but was kind enough to keep the slagging to a minimum. Long story short I chose socks this time, and as I wasn’t focused on time, just getting a run out and avoiding any cock ups before Challenge Galway, I made my peace with the fact that T2 might be a slightly slow one.

Race briefing was at 11 am in transition, and was all very straight forward, there was mention of a few jelly fish that were spotted, but nothing untoward. We made our way down to the beach, about 500m or so away for the start. Into the water for a quick warm up, the water was surprisingly chilly, as it had been fine in Howth the previous Monday night for the Howth Challenge Series, so that was a surprise.

Hooter sounded just after 11.30 am and we were off, the swim passed with no major incidents, the water was very calm and I was making good progress. I really need to work on my sighting, the Garmin clocked 925m of a swim, very annoying, but overall happy with the swim time. I need to give myself a break and be happy with how far I’ve come with swimming considering I could barely swim a length back in Jan

• Swim time 17 mins, happy considering I swam extra

There was a nice winding climb to T1, like a mini Tour de France mountain stage, and I was able to pass a few people, and commence the process of removing myself from the rubbery clutches of the wetsuit. That final part of getting your feet out of the wetsuit will never be pretty or in any way seamless for me anyway. Threw on the helmet, grabbed the bike and made for the mount line. The first 250m of bike was all steep downhill into the village on uneven and gravelly road, so was careful here. There was a nice hairpin in the village and after that it was a straight out and back course, along main road. I’d planned to use this race as a warm up, but all thought of that went out of my head as I hit the bike hard. It’s my strongest part of any race and the competitiveness really comes out, so I ploughed ahead hard. My aim always on the bike, is that no one pass me and I was able achieve that. I climbed a lot of places on the bike, around 30 which I was happy with. There was a slight head wind on the way back and got stuck behind some cars and a tractor (roads weren’t closed, but were nice a wide) which cost me 2/3 mins.

Again the last section of the bike back into transition was the hairpin in the village into a steep climb, few people got caught in the big ring unfortunately.

I was really encouraged to see only a few bikes in transition, when I say a few I really mean less than 50 maybe (always the optimist). Bike racked, socks and shoes on and flew out of transition, the socks were not as time consuming as I’d thought. My feet had dried well on the bike so that helped, lesson learned, lots of talc on the bike and socks for the run.

• Bike time 36.15, happy, but could have been few mins faster if not for that tractor!

The run was out and back, down the same steep hill into the village but turning right instead of left for the bike. The first 1.5/2 k was all up hill, and steep in a few parts, this messed up my calves a bit and they were on fire as I reached the top of the hill and onto the flat. I found the calf guards not really helping me on this outing, maybe the placebo has worn off. It took me a slow 500m on the flat to sort out my aching calves before I got into a rhythm, which annoyingly allowed 4 guys to pass me, but I kept within a few metre of the last guy and let him pace me. It was good knowingly that the last 2k would be all downhill so at the turn around I opened up a little bit and maintained a high pace, higher than I’d intended but I felt good and it was only a short run so I kept going, all previous intentions of using this as a practice event gone, I was looking for a decent time now.

Arriving back into the village was brilliant and all the locals and other supporters had lined the village street and there was a really good atmosphere, and none of the sometimes anti-climax you get at some races. There was lots of well-wishers and intrigued people looking at these Lycra clad mad people holding bananas, especially walking passed the local bar with a few sheepish, possibly envious glances coming from faces hidden behind pint bottles, if only they knew the envious looks I had on those pint bottles.

• Run time 23.48, not happy at all with this, but it’ll do for now and considering the pace I want to maintain for Galway it’s exactly where I need to be, so that’s a positive

Overall I was quite pleased with a time of 1.21, which is 8 mins faster than any previous Sprint I’d done, so making progress. As ever a bit critical of my performance in the swim, which I can improve on and frustrated with the small hold ups on the bike, some things are just out of your control unfortunately.

It you haven’t tried this race before I’d really recommend it, I’ll definitely be coming back, great setting, well organised and brilliant atmosphere.

Onto Challenge Galway this weekend, to attempt my first half Ironman distance, at the moment I’m a mixed bag of nerves, excitement & trepidation further exacerbated by the 42+ page race brief I received this week, the logistics of the weekend are incredible, the race will be the easiest part of the weekend by the looks of it.