Race Report: Mallorca 70.3 – Piranhas in the sun

By Aileen Flynn. 

What I had pegged as my pre Roth prep race turned into a great day out!

A group of club mates- some of whom were competing in their first ever triathlon- wtf!!, jetted off to the beautiful island of Mallorca bright and early Thursday for the Saturday race. Despite being in the “Magaluff end “ of the flight (in the midst of hen parties and stags) we resisted the early morning flight beers and read our race briefings.

One of the best feelings is stepping off a plane into a warmer climate than the one we left a mere 2 hours previously….can’t beat it! Nick picked up a few of us at the airport and we drove the bike course straight away. So organised Mr Walsh! There was a long climb which I recognised from a previous holiday a few years ago so that was comforting. The downhill that followed wasn’t so encouraging – it was going to be slow and cautious for me with all those hair pin turns. The route took a surprising turn down some poor road surfaces for quite a section which was disappointing as I had envisioned smooth tarmac Mallorca roads throughout- it looked like puncture city and I wasn’t happy!

Its amazing how the time goes so quickly in the couple of days pre race- and before you know it you are stepping up to the start line.

I must admit I felt really relaxed and optimistic about the race ahead. I’d had some problems physically in the week leading up to the race but thankfully it was all “alright on the night”. The swim looked so straight forward, flat and calm with markers every 150m- impossible to drift off course.

I almost missed the race start as I was busy watching the pros set off- (I’m not good with distractions) but I managed to elbow my way up to about the 5th row back before we set off. All 600 of us!

The swim was great, 30 mins- I felt like I was working hard and moving out of my comfort zone a bit. This is something I find hard to do on the swim and only ever feel like I have the one gear. By the last 200m I was waning and thought I may have over cooked it. I passed a fair few girls running up into transition. Overall T1 was uneventful and I located my bike quickly. I spotted Anne O’Leary ( 8th most influential woman in Ireland- hot off the press!) in transition so I figured I might have done a better swim than normal…yes!

Out onto the bike ( 2h39) – this is where I had hoped to catch some of the faster swimmers and perhaps some of the slower pros…I had a good battle with some other girls over the first half of the bike and managed to catch a few people by the top of the first climb- 2 pros which gave me a real boost of confidence! They all caught me on the downhill though but I had a fair idea that I might catch up with them again …all going well!

I passed them and a couple of more pros on the long flat section back to T2 and got off the bike feeling happy with the race so far and totally buzzed. It was a hot day out there so the visor was a certainty for the run (I had drank 5 bottles on the bike and stopped at every aid station which I think was key in how I was feeling overall).

The run was 3 x 7 km loops (1h28) with a run along the beach and then a loop up the main road past our hotel- Astoria Playa Adults Only! The support on the run was astounding with lots of Irish supporters and highly vocal random supporters picking up people’s names from race numbers and tri suits- it is such a boost to feel support from the crowd and I totally lap it up!

By this stage I was starting to see lots of the Piranhas on the course and we were all shouting words of encouragement to each other.

On my 2nd lap I was joined by the leading lady Lisa Hutthaler who I tried to stay ahead of for her last 2.5 km. This gave me another boost as she couldn’t pass me out and was giving me some words of encouragement too. Not so encouraging were the heckles she got from some of the supporters- she had served a 2 year drug ban in the past and is back racing …this made me even more determined to keep ahead of her!! I knew I had picked up my pace with this distraction and was praying to God that I didn’t blow up over the remaining 7km. I ran her to the finishing shoot and off I went to get the rest of the run done.

Overall it was a fantastic race , I felt it went really smoothly and am delighted with the result! I know a few things I’d like to improve on for the next one..but that’s what keeps me coming back for more 🙂

Congrats to all the Pirhanas for getting over the line and to everyone who came to the prize giving …I know most of you probably wanted to curl up and recover but it was so nice to have a gang there to celebrate with!

Well done to my roomies Linda and Jane- Jane who figured she should have got more of a reaction post race than I did considering she was actually out on the course longer than me!! And Linda who, as always, put in a storming swim. Bravo! Well done also to Jen on her first pro race of the year..the best is yet to come!

Big shout out also to Gearoid for taking notes on my pre race nutrition plan! I’ve learnt a lot from hanging out with Miss Duffy when it comes to low residue pre race nutrition.

Getting some pointers from Andres Raelart below…