Lough Cutra – Rob Ross

Lough Cutra 2015 – A Textbook Approach to Falling at the First Hurdle

Having joined Pulse tri club at the beginning of this year, I’ve been training and preparing for my first race. I decided to make the Lough Cutra triathlon in County Galway my first, as it is part of the Castle Series, which I’d previously heard of.

After much deliberation I decided to push the boat out and enter the Olympic Distance (what’s the worst that could happen, right?).  Leading up to the race, I read up about tapering and decided to abuse it and take a good couple of weeks off to relax. After all, I had been jogging round the block quite a bit earlier in the year.

So then came race day. Another Pulser, Christian Jones, picked me up at 5.30am to drive down to the race. As it happens I’d been woken up at 5.15 by my housemates who’d just got home from their night out. So I received a merry good-luck hug from them on my way out the door. During the drive I began to wake up and think about the race ahead. Nerves started kicking in – what had I signed up to?

We arrived at the race with plenty of time to register and pick up the race pack. We then returned to the car, got the bikes out, pumped up the tyres and prepared for the race. I was astonished by how quick the time went during the pre-race preparation. Before we knew it we were rushing to get our kit into the transition zone and join the race briefing before heading into the water.

The swim went well, despite someone drafting off me for what felt like the entire thing. I then got out and headed over to transition. Seeing as it was my first race I took my time in transition to make sure I had everything I needed for the bike section. I also got a little side-tracked and started chatting to another first-timer about the weather and the Six Nations.

Then onto the bike section. As I was cycling along I began to realise just why people love this sport. Feeling the kilometres roll past while enjoying the views of County Galway was a beautiful experience. Oh the optimism! My friend Christian overtook me on the bike section and called out he’d see me on the finish line.

Perhaps it was my inflated sense of optimism from the beauty of the scenery, perhaps it was my inability to perceive the potential hazards of cycling, but somewhere along the way I merrily cycled down a steep hill without giving it a second thought. Before I knew it I was going pretty fast with a bend at the bottom of the hill. What happened next I don’t know, but I have a feeling I was still grinning like an idiot when I cycled over some gravel on the bend and slammed onto the road.

Next thing I knew I was picking myself up from the road. I could see my bike was in pretty bad shape and the rear wheel was jammed. A marshal came over to me to see how I was, handed me some water and radioed for a van to come pick me up. The van driver got my bike in the van and then drove me off to find the paramedics. It was only when I was sitting in the van that I realised there was quite a lot of blood on the right hand side of my body and that I couldn’t lift my arm. After the paramedics cleaned me up they told me that I had probably broken my collarbone. How embarrassing!

So I went to find Christian on the finish line, without my bike and sporting a lovely new sling that the paramedics had given me. After he’d complemented me on my new fashion accessory, he drove me back to Dublin so that I could go see a doctor. After it was confirmed by an X-ray that it was indeed broken, we went back to my house where my housemates (who’d woken up and almost recovered from their hangovers) had cooked us some steak and chips.

It later turned out the break was bad enough to require surgery to put a pin and plate into my collarbone. This meant that my first season had come to an end before it had really begun. My highly optimistic but hopeless triathlon career must be put on hold until next year. Oh well, best get jogging round the block again soon I suppose.