Race Report: Mullaghmore

By Kevin Leavy

Having put the memory of the miserable rainy day that was Rosses Point three weeks earlier and having tracked the weather forecast all week it soon became apparent the conditions would not be ideal on the day. Strong blustery wind on an exposed course.

Mullaghmore is a picturesque place in the northwest on the limits of what may be deemed a splash and dash race. Leaving Dublin and feeling groggy but excited at 5:10 am it didn’t look too bad but there was a bit of a breeze. The breeze is the one thing I hate about racing. At least with hills you can see the top whereas with the wind it is unrelenting and I am not what could be deemed a powerfully built athlete.

As usual too much gear was brought doubling up on everything (or so I thought) two helmets, two sets of wheels, two sets of breaks in the event that it was too breezy for deep sectioned wheels and the aero helmet.

Driving through Carrick on Shannon at 6:20 I had to pinch myself as there was a road (run) race in action. What time must this have started. Haven’t they heard of this wonderful piece of furniture called BED?

Oh dear….. Arrival at Mullaghmore was met with strong gusty winds and heavy blustery showers. I can’t complain. Unbelievable as it may seem, I have been doing triathlon since 2008 and this was the third time that the weather gods appeared to be on holidays. 1st things first, get the timing chip, race swim hat and the exciting goodie bag….. What, no goodie bag? And a pants t-shirt.

Early arrival gave me a chance to do a recci of the course. I took the opportunity to take the bike out and cycle most of the course to get an idea of how strong the winds were, what the road surface was like etc. Man it was windy….. A couple of strong gusts and I was almost in the ditch. No matter decision was made to stick with the deep wheels and the aero helmet. I have come to learn with the peacockery of triathlon it is better to crash out looking good than to finish looking bad.

Transition was set up which indicated that there could be a big turnout for the event but with the poor weather it didn’t look like there were that many out. Free racking which is always a disaster. I much prefer to have a numbered system so you can’t get it wrong nevertheless I picked my spot based on a couple of obvious land marks. Practiced by run in from the water and from the bike so I was very familiar with where I was going each time.

I got a chance to see a few of the other competing Piranhas Niall McD, Orla Montague, Vivienne Fenton and Fiona Hillary and exchanged pleasantries and words of encouragement.

Time to suit up and get down to what looked like a fairly calm sea. Triathlon is not really for the bodily self conscious s there isn’t much left to the imagination. Uh ohhhh….. My tri-suit is busted. Of all the things I did double up on why didn’t I bring a spare tri-suit. The zip was broken in the fully open position and with the thoughts of the race directors briefing comments still fresh in my mind around the issue of public nudity I knew this wardrobe malfunction could be a problem. However bad the onesie tri-suit is no-one wants to see a fully open suit on a 39 year old with a furry belly…. A few safety pins and ready to go but this was not going to look like Liz Hurley in ‘That dress’.

Down to the sea for the start. Held for what felt like an age and then off….. A choppy but arrow straight swim with no turns. Every time you tried to take a breath despite the direction of the face was coupled with a mouthful of clean Atlantic water. Visibility was fantastic which meant you could see lots of small jellyfish. I always wonder what it would feel like if you were to inadvertently swallow a jellyfish. Lots of time to think about this now but better think about getting a move on here.

Exiting the water the malfunctioning tri-suit was still holding together, just….. Uneventful T1 out on the bike and getting into the rhythm pretty quickly. Decided to try and focus on a higher cadence and save the legs on the outward part against the breeze. Biking would be my weakest discipline and I would traditionally lose place. But guys were suffering out there and I managed to pull back maybe 5 or 6 places before the turnaround. A quick look up and the view of Niall McD on his cracking new Argon only seconds behind me…. Game-on. I’m not going to let him catch me or if he does he is going to have to work for it.

T2… Aaagghhhh!!!! Disaster!!!! I’m pretty anal at practicing my entries and exits from transition on race day so I know exactly where I am going. However on return I could not see my running gear. WTF!!!! I ran around what felt like an age trying to locate my stuff. ‘I know where I left it what is going on??? Calm down you plonker, it’s not like these are of any use to anyone else. There aren’t that many guys out there with size 8 feet’. I eventually located my runners under someone elses junk (wetsuit & towel). In a serious ‘humour’ at this stage I legged it out of T2. My head was fried. I was so angry that I had lost so much time having worked so hard. 400m later I threw the toys out of the pram. Much to the dismay of a small bunch of supporters I just pulled up and threw my race belt off muttering furiously to myself. Clearly the supporters felt that with a bit of encouragement I could be coaxed back into the race as they called out to me that I was doing really well. My response was a thousand yard stare. Probably looked a bit mad with my clothing coming apart at the seems but not quite in the same guise as the ‘Hulk’

Good results from the other Piranha’s on the day however after my tantrum I wasn’t the best team mate in the supporting stakes 

Lessons
1. In sport everything doesn’t always go your way and today it appears that very little did. There are many things outside of your control and you just have to get on with it
2. Even though you may think that you are stuck in transition for lengthy periods you are so in the zone that it appears time is running away from you. When I looked at the results and my DNF I was surprised to see that I may have only lost about 90 seconds to 2 minutes whereas in the heat of the moment it felt like about 4 minutes
3. Leave the dressing up to the professionals. Trying to replicate what the celebs wear in Tri gear doesn’t work too well. I’ll leave the looking good to others, those who can actually pull it off.
4. Where did that puppy come from (splat!!!!!) ‘Let me tell you about the most wonderful place in the universe, doggy heaven there are mountains of bones and you can’t turn around without sniffing another dogs butt. And all the best dogs are there Old Yeller and about 8 lassies’. Ooooops Sorry…..