Challenge Lisboa 2017 – Niall Connaughton

Challenge Lisboa – 8th May 2017

I started writing this report on the flight home, the next morning after the race. Still full of the joie de vivre of a great race and great company from my fellow Pulsers.

The idea of doing Lisboa had taken hold after Dublin 70.3 last year. We had a Facebook training group for those doing Dublin and once that was over, the natural question was ‘What’s next?’. Chris Donohoe along with a gang from Pulse had done Lisbon the previous May and after describing the terrible weather but otherwise great race, a good chunk of the group decided to sign up. This was short lived however after most jumped ship to Ironman Barcelona!

I spent most of the winter training with my local cycling club, and after a bad Dublin marathon last October, did very little running aside from 5k’s here and there and occasional Pulse track sessions. I hadn’t swam at all since the previous August until last March due to a lot of work travel abroad.

I said to myself I’d sign up and not set a time target, only to enjoy myself and finish the race. I’d then put the head down and train more seriously for Dublin 70.3 in August.

Race day wasn’t long creeping up and with six or seven swim sessions under my belt and a half marathon two weeks before, I felt I had enough to finish in a reasonable time (by my own standards!).

We booked a family holiday to Spain leaving the day after I got back so I decided to rent a bike over there and not have any hassle with reassembling a bike several times. After five months of trying to rent a bike through the two ‘official partners’ and getting nowhere, I googled ‘Lisbon bike rental’ on the Tuesday before the race and got a 56cm bike (far smaller than my usual 62cm) – I decided in line with my relaxed approach that it’d be grand.

I made the list of what I had to bring and packed it all into a carryon and headed for the Airport. The rest of the Pulse gang were looking at me funny but I was happy I had everything. I was sharing with Leon Shakeshaft and his daughter Bianca, who seemed to have brought every possible piece of kit, he was taking it far more serious than I was though so I wasn’t panicking!.

We had a great apartment right next to transition and as the whole event is centred around the Marina, it was very handy to just pop over whenever we wanted.

We registered, dropped in the bikes and decided to take the opportunity of the practice swim – the swim is in a sheltered marina and temperatures were around 18c – so we had a lovely 1km swim which settled any anxiety there might have been.

We went to the race briefing, met Nay Deveaney and her partner Chris and also Kim Hickey & Vincent Galvin – had a chat and all seemed happy and prepared for the next morning. Back to base and an early night in store.

We all met up in plenty of time the next morning and already it seemed like it was going to be very warm. I positioned myself at the very back of my swim wave and even with a couple of detours, I hit the very shaky transition ramp at around 39 minutes and felt fine. Into transition and volunteers were helping you take off the wet suit and pack up your stuff etc.

Out onto the bike course and as I jumped on the tiny bike, the saddle turned 45 degrees north which made an already uncomfortable position very uncomfortable, the Pizza Gods were telling me something I laughed to myself. I spent the next 30ish Km mulling whether to pull in and try and sort the saddle and worrying it’ll drop completely if i touch it, until at the top of the hill at the turnaround point, I spotted a pale red haired guy with freckles, who I decided had to be Irish, having some bike trouble. I jumped off and we both did some rudimentary tyre kicking trying to fix his problem but had no joy. He gave me an allen key for my saddle, decided his race was over and even offered me his saddle. I headed back out and felt much better right away. The weather seemed nice and cool and the three lap out and back course had some lovely scenery of the Lisbon coast. The other Pulsers all seemed in good spirits and looked strong so I put the head down for the last lap and got back in around 2.57ish and still felt fine. In transition I asked one of the volunteers unpacking and packing my stuff where I could get suncream from our support crew of Bianca & Chris and he started rummaging through bags until he found some and gave it to me!

Started the run and felt strong, did the first few km at 5min pace but when I got back to the turnaround point after lap 1 I nearly didn’t go on, the heat hit me in a bad way. I got plenty of water on board and decided I’d throw a bottle of water over my head at every aid station and try stay away from gels, coke, red bull etc. The run course consisted of 4 x 5km laps and the middle part of each lap seemed the worst in terms of the heat – there was little shade and I was fairly struggling in the heat. Once I turned the half way point on the last lap, spirits were lifted and I was never as happy to see the finish line! I met Bianca, Nay, Chris & Leon and we all managed to get into the finishers zone and spent the next few hours sitting together in the shade, enjoying the free beer and food and this time was great craic as we all just relaxed and had a laugh together. Kim Hickey put in a fantastic performance and won her age group so she & Vinny were hanging around for presentations etc.

We all met up for a great meal and more beers that evening in a Portuguese restaurant which was on the run course, and that capped off a very enjoyable few days. This was my first foreign race and am hoping to do a full Ironman in 2018 and this gave me a good insight to the logistics etc.

For anyone thinking of doing a 70.3 race abroad, I’d highly recommend Lisboa. Everything around the arrangements, logistics etc just seemed to work and seemed easy. Everyone seemed on the same page just wanting to go out of their way to help you. It was great spending a few days with the other Pulsers and I’m already planning for 2018!.