Ironman Galway 70.3 – 04/09/2012
Saturday morning, driving down to Galway I’ve managed to sqeeze my bike into the car around 2 TV’s, a computer, quilts, towels, pots, pans…maybe trying to move house the same weekend as doing a half Ironman wasn’t the best idea. Well I hadn’t put much thought into doing this race and I’d put even less effort into it. I was in great shape for the Ironman in Frankfurt just 2 months earlier, but in the 8 weeks that followed my total training was 2 10km runs and 2 races. I had forgotten the names of the staff in Westpark and got to know the names of the barmen in O’Donoghues. My local Borza’s also recorded record profits in August. Preparations were far from perfect.
This time last year I remember watching all the Pulsers head off to Galway to take on what seemed like an impossible challenge. I couldn’t get my head around the distances given that at that stage I hadn’t yet managed to finish a sprint race without having to stop on the run and walk! Now 12 months later I’m driving down the M6 to take on the same challenge. I was so unprepared, but I knew I’d still have just about enough fitness left to get through it and still be able to make it out for a sneaky shandy afterwards.
Registration was straightforward and met some of the Pulse gang there. Took a little abuse for having my Ironman Frankfurt bag on, but to be honest I would have worn the finisher t-shirt, wrapped the Ironman towel around me while drinking from my Ironman pint glass and eating a cookie made with my m-dot cookie cutter if I had the chance! Yeah…milking it!! Anyway, then I went over to transition to rack my Ironbike 🙂 Packed up the transition bags and it was now that I realised how unprepared I was – I had no food with me for the race but managed to find 2 gels in the boot of my car which I strapped to the bike. My wetsuit was sitting in the back window of the car, exactly where I left it the previous Saturday after doing a race down in Limerick. I had no socks for the run and my bike computer wasn’t working. All this would have freaked me out normally, but I just didn’t seem to care and was totally relaxed.
I had booked into a hostel for the Saturday night as I knew I’d only be in bed for a couple of hours and my little 4 bed dorm was lovely. Got some grub, had a pint with my brother in the Quays and basically just tried to pass the time until I could go to bed. At this point the weather in Galway went from average to absolutely miserable. The wind was blowing a gale and the rain was incessant. Fears of another shortened course were starting to grow and I just didn’t want to have to go through 6 hours of absolute misery. All the forecasts were saying the weather was going to change over night and a relatively calm, warm day was coming…fingers crossed!
About 8:30 I decided to go to bed and watch a movie or something on the iPad until I fell asleep. Shortly afterwards though my 3 Japanese roomies piled into the room and that was the end of my quiet evening. We all say hello and then I start furiously googling how to say “I hope you’re heavy sleepers” and “I might snore a little from time to time” in Japanese. They asked if I minded if they took a quick shower before bed and I thought that was very polite to ask. 2 fucking hours later the second girl is only coming out of the bathroom and heading for the hair dryer. I didn’t get to say goodbye when I got up at 4:30 the next morning, but I can only assume I had my revenge, keeping them awake all night with my industrial level snoring.
Downstairs the night porter is chatting to 2 pissed girls who are just coming home from their night out. He’s asking me if I’m doing the race and wishing me luck which was nice. The girls though are looking a bit confused and straight to my face one asks “A triathlon?? Can you do a triathlon with moobs??”. Fuck you sweetheart, fuck you very much!
Got through the different road closures on my way to Salthill and managed to get parked in Leisureland right beside transition. I was really early and hadn’t had any breakfast so I strolled down to a cafe that was open and got a bacon and sausage bap with some scrambled eggs – not your typical pre-race breakfast, but I figured I was so screwed for the race already that a dirty greasy breakfast wasn’t going to make things any worse.
Transition started to fill up with people and the cries for tape, elastic bands and pumps could be heard all around. We stuck our number tattoos on our arms and made the last few adjustments to the bike. There were a few nervous faces, but the Pulse crew all seemed in great form and ready for the day. I was looking forward to seeing how they all did – some were taking this distance on for the first time and others were here to go again after the disappointment of having the swim cut short last year. A few brave souls had even crawled out of bed early to support too which was brilliant.
It’s about a 15 minute walk from transition down to the swim start, but unfortunately I found this out about 20 minutes before my wave was supposed to start! Managed to make it down in time and met Mark, Orla, Triona and Kieran there getting ready, so after some manly backslapping and good luck wishes Kieran and myself headed for the water with AC/DC’s Thunderstruck booming out. The water felt nice and warm walking in which is always a worry, but we swam out to the starting point making sure not to swallow any water and waited for just a couple of minutes before we were ready to go. There was a great buzz from the crowd of supporters that had gathered and because we were the first age group wave to go we had all the other athletes there to let a big cheer as the hooter went. Did about 20 hard strokes and then got a thump on the head – not to worry, these things happen. Another thump in the same spot. The guy to my right was doing breaststroke for some reason and with the 3rd strike he managed to knock my goggles down onto my nose. Right, not the best start but it’s a long day, just fix the goggles and get on your way. The water was really nice and we had some gentle waves pushing us along as we swam the longest stretch. I thought the buoys were very difficult to see, but just follow the group and it’ll all be ok. At the end of the long stretch parallel to the beach we had to round a large buoy and as far as I knew we had to head for the swim exit, but the group seemed to have done a full 180 around that buoy and were swimming back in the opposite direction to where we had just come from. It was all a bit confusing and not very well explained or marshalled – one Pulser may have politely mentioned this to one of the kayakers during the swim, Triona Ryan I’m looking at you!! Ciaran Magee was so enthusiastic in his swim that instead of doing a 180 around that buoy he did about 270 and the next time he lifted his head all he could see was a lot of hats coming rapidly towards him! We all got through it anyway and made it to the swim exit. 45:51 – my slow swim was just down to me being slow though so I can have no complaints really.
It’s a decent run back to T1 but there was loads of support on the road at this stage cheering everyone on. Got a great roar from Mark Kelly and saw Joe Lynch just as I was turning up into T1. “How’s Aoife getting on Joe?”…”Yeah, she’s doing great Karl, keep going” – bless him for just going along with me because Aoife was in a wave about 35 minutes behind me so had probably just started at best. T1 was just wetsuit off, helmet on and chamois cream applied. My bike was racked right at the end of one of the rows which made it really easy to find so I was off out to the mount line in no time. T1 – 5:28 (seriously, it’s a long run just to get to T1!!)
Got out on the bike and the there was a bit of a headwind but I still kept the speed up. Given that I didn’t think I’d have much in my legs having done no training I decided to just go hard on the bike and then try to get through the run as best I could. Felt pretty good all the way out and kept the speed around 32km/h most of the way which is great for me. Started to feel tired just at the turnaround though and was worried that it was all going to fall apart, but when I checked the speed I was going at 38km/h and not pushing all that hard. I dont know if we were just really sheltered from the wind on the first half or if the wind just picked up a bit on the way back, but I was flying all the way home. My legs were really tired but there was a real boost from being able to hold 38km/h, even if it was wind assisted. It’s also good seeing the other Pulsers from later waves bombing along and cheering you on. Everyone that I saw looked really strong on the bike and the times back that up, some great performances. I have to say aswell that the bike course is really nice with mostly flat roads and a good surface. The scenery once you get out into the country is beautiful too and the locals were out in front of their houses cheering and clapping all morning, it was brilliant. With about 15km left on the bike I caught Kieran Hopkins which I was well chuffed with because it meant I’d made up 7 or 8 minutes on him on the bike. I was well fooked at this stage though and really struggling to keep the legs pushing but gave it socks for the last bit as I knew whatever chance I had of staying ahead of Kieran on the bike, I had absolutely no chance on the run! Got back into town safely and hopped off the bike really happy – delighted with my 2:41:41 bike split.
T2 meant racking the bike first and then double timing it down to the tent to get the runners on. As I came into the bike area I saw a few lads get turned back from the tent as you had to rack your bike and then run around the outside of T2 to get to the tent. I wouldn’t have had a clue about that so their mistake saved me a few seconds there as well. Got into the tent, grabbed my run bag and tipped out my runners. It was just at this moment that I remembered I had no socks. I knew it wasn’t going to end well but no choice but to get on with it now. T2 – 3:17.
Right, so it’s running now isn’t it. I dont really like running, nor am I very good at it, but they seem awfully keen on it at the end of triathlons so I guess I have to do it. I started off at a good pace for me doing the first 2 or 3km at 4:50 pace. My plan was to try to hold 5min/km pace as long as I could and just trundle along after that. The run was a 7km loop which we did 3 times and I got through the first lap on target and was actually enjoying the run with all the supporters really giving all the athletes a great boost. After about 8km though Kieran had managed to catch up with me. I knew he’d catch me but I had hoped it wouldn’t happen so soon. He ran up along side me and with a simple “I’ll see you at the bar” he moved away from me. I was resigned to dropping off completely but managed to stay within a few hundred metres. I was struggling now on lap 2 and Derek McCabe and Paul O’Callaghan were running together and passed me at about the 11km mark. I got some coke, water and a gel at each aid station and that livened me up a bit so I got my act together. Whenever I saw a Pulser I gave some kind of shout of encouragement, but poor Triona couldn’t see me when I roared at her so she just looked confused and frightened!
Paul, Kieran and myself in our “sprint” finish
With about 3km to go I pushed on as fast as I could go which unfortunately wasn’t that fast, but I was passing loads of people and knew I was only 15 minutes from home. Then I saw Kieran running along side Paul O’Callaghan in the distance so I was bursting myself to try to catch them. It took me about 1500m to make up the distance, but I caught and passed them with about 500m to go. As I was coming up behind them I decided that I was going to just keep on going at that pace and try to hold it to the finish. I said something to them and told the lads to come on with me. I just stayed at the pace I was doing which I thought was supersonic speed, but was a crawl really. After about 10 seconds there was still no sign of the 2 lads so I thought “jaysis, I might actually have this”. Just then Kieran eased up beside me and just said “Sorry Karl, I cant let you have this one”! Bastard just disappeared up the road. Obviously Paul couldn’t hear me so he got a surprise when I past him, not least because I have certainly never passed him on a run before. He told me later he saw me pass and then Kieran ran off and he just thought “no fucking way”! He took off after Kieran and I tried my best to “sprint” after them but I had buckled myself trying to catch them in the first place so I just couldn’t stay with them. There was a super atmophere from the crowd with the 3 Pulsers coming in together and the anouncer cheering the two lads on who had a great sprint finish with Paul just pipping Kieran with about 20m to go. A great way to finish a great race. My run was 1:49:40 which I was delighted with and 5:25:58 overall was way beyond what I thought I could do as I was aiming for around 6 hours.
After the race we went for our post race meal which was a manky chicken burger and chips from Supermacs. I stared at it for a while and made a few attempts at eating it, but my stomach was just saying no.
I wasn’t supposed to stay down in Galway that night but Triona managed to twist my arm and offered me B&B so I stayed out in her mum’s place. Produced a bottle of wine from the car for her mum so I was welcomed in 🙂 Watched the Dubs get a hiding there and then into the Kings Head at 7:30 and it all went downhill from there. Pints, Rum, Jagerbombs…messy! It was Triona’s round and I asked for a Heineken just like the previous 5 rounds. She came back a while later with 3 Captain Morgans and Orange. I finally convinced her that I really dont drink spirits and even said I’d just get my own pint but she wouldn’t have it. Up to the bar and as punishment for not drinking the drink I didn’t ask for I got a Jagerbomb. Everything goes kinda hazy from there. There was some arse annoying Alex’s girlfriend, but it was ok, because Alex had brought his BFF along who sorted it all out…you had to be there! I talked a lot of shit to a group of Americans, threw a few glances at a group of girls at the bar, but I think I probably just looked retarded 🙂 Ah they dont know what they’re missing!
All in all it was a great day and there were brilliant performances all round from the Pulse crew. Congratulations to Ian Farrell, Orla Jordan and Felipe Victorio for qualifying for Vegas. Also, Aoife Lynch had a brilliant race and won her age category finishing 5 minutes ahead of 2nd and over 30 minutes ahead of 3rd! Unfortunately, she still finished about 2 minutes behind me though – I did have a 35 minute head start I’ll grant you, but as far as I’m concerned, I beat her. Stick with it Aoife, you’ll get there 😉
Galway is definitely a race I’d recommend to anyone interested in going a bit longer than Olympic and even to those starting out in triathlon, it really is an achievable goal and one you wont forget! If at all possible though you should stay with Triona’s mum as you get gorgeous chicken curry and freshly baked Ironman cookies, nom nom!
Best of luck to the gang heading to Kenmare this weekend to take on Lost Sheep, expecting great things!
Written by: Karl Gohery