In the land of the short-sighted, the contact-lensed man is king!!

By Enda Traynor

Chatting to Derek Organ before the swim, we got to talking about the plight of being short-sighted as a triathlete… Derek was of the opinion that contact lenses under normal goggles was the way to go, whereas I was sticking to my prescription goggles in the water and putting in contacts during transition!

As I fumbled for many, many minutes during transition, I thought back to that conversation and imagined if Derek could only see me now… of course, he could have seen me perfectly because he had contact lenses in but presumably he was long gone at this point, unless he had had to fix a puncture, have a three course meal and maybe perform a 15 minute HIIT workout during transition, so long was the time it took me to leave T1!!

So, where does one buy normal goggles?!!

I also had some “fun” on the bike course… about 5km in, I looked over to see some poor girl discussing a broken rear derailleur (the same issue that wrecked my road bike a couple of weeks earlier) with a marshal at the side of the road and I thought well thank god, at least I’m over my own personal struggles (“contact lens-gate”) and it hadn’t cost me a DNF! Of course, 30 seconds later my chain came off on the first hilly bit of the day and I feared the worst!!

I pushed the bike to the side of the road, stayed calm, told myself this was character building and got to fixing the chain, while also stopping to give the thumbs up to a passing Piranha! The chain was badly wedged in between the front ring and the frame but after a couple of minutes of bike-mechanicing (that’s a word, right?) I got it fixed and got on my merry way!

After that, everything was plain sailing and the run course was great, with so many Piranhas passing in all directions, running together for parts (thanks Caoimhe) and cheering from the side.

Having been with the club for about 9 months, it was great to get out and race in the Piranha colours for the first time! It was also my girlfriend’s first experience of a Piranha crowd and she loved seeing the group cheering each other on… and booing people from rival clubs… was she the only one doing that?! 🙂

And last but not least… the #TeamMarlon guard of honour finish was the perfect end to the day!

Well done Marlon, and well done all Piranhas who made the trip to Carlow!