Kilkee 2011

By Matt Coughlan 

 Its been a while since I did a race report so here’s my take on Kilkee 2011.

Firstly well done to Jen on her 2nd place. Again the ladies of the club are showing the way the business end of the races!

Last week I did Dunmore East and as usual the timing was done by UK based Stuweb timing. They have a pretty good website where you can link the
results from previous races and compare etc. Having done the race 4 times was nice to see the improvements or otherwise as I’ve gone along. Was
also interesting to compare finish times relative to finishing position.
Essentially what I took from it was my run times in races hasn’t increased in line with how I think my running has improved. My bike had improved
each year but probably too much meaning I was going too hard on the bike and wasn’t able to do run like I might have been expected to.  So then
with Kilkee coming up I decided to the same with the 3 results I have from there (2006/2007/2009). The stand out leg was the run which was still
stuck on 43 minutes again with big improvements on the bike and run it seems to tie to results in dunmore. hold back on the bike and should be
able to get alot more out of the run.

So despite promises of fine weather, it was pretty clear waking up it was pretty windy. a quick listen told you so. Stayed in the room as along
as possible and got down to the transition. it was pretty packed by the time we arrived but with the spots numbered was no problem. Briefing done
we headed to the swim start. It was probably the scariest swim start I’ve been in (including ironman). The space was really narrrow and everyone
was really aggressive. I swam for what felt like ages with my head up pretty scared to put face into water. Someone kept grabbing my shoulder and
was only waiting for them to push me down and swim over. Eventually got to clear water. Once we got going the swim felt short while doing it
and looking at the times pretty certain it was. Spotted a few familiar faces on the swim into shore including James who has been flying in the pool
all year. 23.01 up to T1 with James right beside me. James still didn’t have his wetsuit zipped down and was struggling finding the chord so I
obliged and he asked me to help. Suffice to say James was out of T1 ahead of me! last time I’ll be doing that.

the aforementioned wind was at our backs pretty much for the first 20k out. its easy to forget when flying along how hard it will be into the wind 
on the way back. It was pretty tough going. I’ve made the mistake in the past on inclines against the wind when it seems like you are hardly
moving to push hard. This time I tried to remember it was the same for everyone and just do what you can do without going into the red too much.
the hill up to kilkee was pretty tough and tried to recover on the downhill into the town. Myself and James did a bit of back and forth until I
passed at about 15k or so and stayed head. But I knew coming off the bike he was going to be coming after me – esp having lots of running done
during the year. I had decided to take it easy on way out being mostly uphill and against the wind to leave plenty for the way back. And so it
was about 3.5k in he caught me. I said ‘well done’ as he went passed and he said best of luck. I’m not sure what was in his head at that stage
but I Was sure it was a case of making sure Brian O’Sullivan didn’t come by me like in 2009.

Its funny how the mind works but I was suddenly able to run that little bit faster as soon as James were going by. I saw the 4k sign and said to
myself to try stick with him until the turnaround and see how it goes. So I got pulled along by James who was maintaining a decent pace. Got to
the turnaround and we began to make our way back to the town. While definitely a bit easier with the wind, upping the pace meant it didn’t feel
too much like it. Met a few of the Piranhas on the way back. Met Casso BOS and Rory while we were still running together. Down the steep hill
through the water station I Was beginning to feel really rough. I felt I needed  a gel or something but wasn’t sure I had the time. James upped
the pace and wasn’t able to stick with him. I decided I needed the gel and knocked by as much as I could. Amazing how delicious the gel is at
that stage! James had stretched out a lead of maybe 25 metres or so. I had pretty much given up. But then we take gels for a reason and felt a
bit of life come back. Thanks to a bit of encouragement from more Piranhas picked up the pace a bit and could see I was making some ground back.
This in turn gave me more encouragement and on the second last down hill into the town I was close enough to make a move to go by. Unfortunately
for James he had given it all and I was able to stay ahead. Having dragged me up the hill to the turnaround I felt a bit guilty just going by. I
waited at the finish line and we cross just a second apart in 2.21.03/2.21.04.

Its hard to compare the swim but I was 2 seconds faster on the bike and 2 minutes on the run – an overall improvement in PB including the swim of
4 minutes. It shows how much James has improved that I did that and still only barely stayed ahead.

Well done to all the other Piranhas who did really well. Jen was once again flying the Piranha colours on the podium with a superb second place.

I’m not sure what it is about kilkee but its such a great race to do. There’s no registration/transition check-in  hours before the wave start or
hanging around etc. Its a really tough race on the same course each year and there’s always lots of Piranha’s and people from other clubs down
there that make it.Even the new roads make it alot easier to get to! Thanks for LTC for again doing a great job on the race.