RP by the RD of DCT

By John Wallnutt

So here I am siting on a beach in Koh Phangan in what I can only describe as paradise. Warn flat sea for swimming in and as I do my best impression of Daniel Craig as 007 getting out of the water and walking up to my beach bed I remember Ellen Euro had demanded I write a report on DCT. I’m not sure how this is going to run as its unlike a regular race report but our PR guru and future chairperson must be obeyed.

I suppose DCT2013 was 5 years in the making. In 2009 I was fairly new to the club and Greg was RD and I helped on the bike course. In 2010 I looked after registration for Matt and then in 2011 I put my name in the hat for RD and somebody decided to give me the Raines. And so it began. In fairness I took on an already established race which always filled to its max and had been run and organised very well. In 2011 I just wanted to continue that and hope I didn’t make a mess of it. It all went well with Gatorade as our sponsor and it was the first year Vodafone got involved by having a number of staff at the race. After the 2011 race I knew I had unfinished business and put my name forward again for 2012. I wanted to make a few further changes. We also had a change of sponsor from Gatorade to Vodafone and rightly so , they wanted to be more involved. By now we had sorted the negative press we had about water quality. We moved transition into the field beside the boat club and had a wedding on the day before just to make things interesting. After a lot of stress and very very very long phone calls with the Bride, Brides mother , Garda boat club and so on it all just about worked out. The 2012 race event won race of the year at the TI awards. But even though I did not fully intend to put my name forward as RD again in the cold light of day I knew I still had some ideas on how to improve the event further and again knew there was unfinished business. So I put my name forward for a third time for the 2013 race and as soon as it was confirmed Mags started looking at booking a holiday !

The race starts for the RD as early as November when you have to apply for National series status and you can also apply to national champs which I did. We managed to get both. It goes quiet for a few months and then in march I need to start booking items. Updating the event management plan , looking at clothing ( lead time of 16 weeks for best price) organising artwork while liaising with Vodafone, chasing new sponsors, checking we are booked with Garda boat club and booking with the OPW in the park. The list goes on.

As Race Director you spend a huge amount of time organising. Sweet talking members ( into doing some jobs ) as well as sponsors to give you free stuff. If you remember to do everything from race numbers to port a loos, from steward lunches to Athlete dinners, from PA to repairing the swim booms, from ordering barriers and skips etc by the time race day comes you are more or less sorted and you just have to step back a little and trust those you have asked to do things and hope they are as keen to get it 100% right as you are. That’s where Piranha succeed. As a club in general we do not race DCT. We accept this and offer our services. This is what makes it a great race. If the RD does his job well and has everything in place then each and every piranha Team leader or steward are equipped to do their part.

For the 2013 race I will be honest I wanted it to be as good and look like an ITU race. The course is we have is class with a river swim so no chance of it being cancelled. A bike course different than any other with its 5 laps of twists, turns and hills on closed roads as well as a beautiful cross country run.
No changes were needed …….sorry did I mention closed roads ? First curve ball hits in July after a second meeting with the OPW and the Garda when I am informed they ( the Garda) can no longer issue a road closure and I need to get an official road closure permit from DCC. As it happens Anne O Leary contacts me not long after this meeting to let me know she had been speaking to the future new Lord Mayor of Dublin so I knew if we I needed any help I could make that call. A fee of €2375 and a night of writing up a 14 page road traffic plan later and the application was made 7 weeks before the race. All going well and with no objections I would get approval a week before the race. I did not consider a negative reply !!

As it gets closer to the race ( 3 weeks out ) things start to arrive at my house on a regular basis, so regular that fast way couriers delivered something for my son the week after the race and the delivery guy says to me “well how did the triathlon go ? My front room fills up with firstly the race numbers and stickers, then swim hats, 1000 bars of chocolate, 1000 race t shirts and head buffs, stewards Polos and run tops, then wet suit wash and 800 earphones and it went on. By the time Friday before the race arrived I needed a very large van to collect everything as well as collect 3 pallets of drinks, bars, massage oils and gels elsewhere. There was so much in the van it was on its knees. We just about made it out to the boat club after a slow and worrying journey (thanks to van driver Steve Eustace). We got everything unloaded and into the hall for goodie bag packing. When I saw it all together it was mad and very impressive. I knew this was going to be a goodie bag to remember ( HotW eat your heart out, bar has just been raised !)

You might as well take Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off on race week as there is so much to do. After the race sold out I got tons of emails from people asking to enter and some of the excuses were priceless and gave me a laugh and they kept coming right upto 2 days before race day. There were 2 sisters who gave me a sob story about one sister losing weight, coming out of a bad “situation” etc etc bla bla bla and after about 4 emails I caved and gave them 2 entries after 2 others had cancelled. Do you think they bothered to say thanks on the day …..NO THEY DIDN’T. You get all sorts emailing you but by far the worst offenders are the top end competitors and of the top ten finishers in the men 5 were late entries and in the girls 3. It’s hard to say no when the pressure is put on and then you might get bad press and some bitching so you just have to reserve a few spots but I for one feel its not fair on the regular joes.
On Thursday I meet up with Bernard at 12 noon over in Vodafone and we get as many of the 125 Vodafone staff signed in and are done by 3pm and the 2 of us rush back to the day job ( or is this the day job now Im not sure!!)
After the Friday drop of a goodies in GBC it really starts to ramp up and I know I will be lucky to get more than 5/6 hours sleep over the weekend. Friday night is spent checking and rechecking. Answering emails, making sure the stewards list is sorted and bag packing, registration is ready to go and the course build is all on track.

This year Saturday was especially exciting as Leo’s now infamous map of transition. We had seen a mock up at the stewards meeting 3 weeks earlier but this new map would be to scale draw on cad and in 3D and interactive ( ok last 2 items are not true). He duly produced and with his bob the builder belt on he went about his job of building transition. There was a stand off at one stage between Leo and Deccy about who had the better belt thankfully Eusty 1&2 stepped in and all was ok !

As I arrived on Saturday at 10am I had a gut feeling this was going to be a good event. We had a super course and a stacked field of athletes as well as a big number of newbies doing both Olympic and Super Sprint. Everything started smoothly as bag packing proceeded to registration while outside the hall we had the irish army building the bigger pontoon and our swim team placing the booms on the river. Grass was been cut, barriers, portaloo’s and catering were being delivered. The lock up was steadily emptying as transition was built and racks numbered. Up in the phoenix park Casso and Judy were laying out their bike and run courses. Clipping trees back, sweeping roads cutting grass, having hay bales placed, again the list goes on. In one part of the bike course we had the new FANZONE . The original idea for this came from Casso after last years race and during a conversation over coffee so credit where credit is due. Not sure we did it as he thought but the Fanzone team of Joanna, Hugh, Shona and Petrina did a great job and it got a great response. One item of note is we had promised high kicking all American Pom Pom girls and we did have them lined up but late in the week they cancelled as none of the little blighters wanted to get out of bed that early ( we realised then they were all 8-14 year olds) Hugh has promised to either find a crew or do this himself along with a few other Piranhas !
As the day progressed and we got to mid afternoon all the goodie bags were packed and registration was in full flow. Everyone seemed to be impressed with the set up, flow through system as well as the offerings from different sponsors. The swim course and pontoon where finished and transition was built. I did a walk through with the TO Eamonn Tilly to make sure e did not have any problems on race day and all was good. Finally left the place at 10pm to get home for a bite to eat, load up the car with last minute items and try and get some sleep.

After a chicken fried rice from the local on the way home I settled down to watch he hangover part 3 in the hope it would stop me mulling over the 100 or so things running through my mind. Eventually I headed to bed at 12.15 only to wake at 2.15 and BING, that was it, awake ! So I got dressed and headed downstairs and eventually left the house at 4am.

Arriving at the GBC at that time is very much the calm before the storm. The place is empty, quite and calm. I usually take some time to organise myself and set a schedule for the day. Normally it runs something like this

5am review race and steward briefings
5.15. Make sure breakfast is organised and ready.
5.30 car parking make sure we keep 18 places for VIPS
6 am Piranha / steward briefing making sure everyone knows everyone
6.30 meet with TO and MO and check all is ok with team leaders and no course problems
7am PA set up, MC. Run through, late Reg, transition opens, athleltes on site
Next 90 mins disappear with this that and the other and then transition closes
8.30 welcome and race briefing Olympic
9am race starts ( stress levels start to fall)
9.15 on to quad bike ( Tks Tadhg) and out on to course to check bike route is ok and everyone is in place
9.45 back to HQ for start of wave 4&5
10am race briefing for super sprint
10.30 super sprint start and 10.40 last wave in the water .
11am finish line in time hopefully for the first male and female home.
11.30 am Media stuff
12noon chat with all the sponsors, physios, competitors and get an ice cream
1pm results
2pm last competitors
3pm prize giving
3.30-4pm final clear up and maybe a beer or 2 !

As the minutes tick by and the sun comes up and you realise your luck is in again and we are going to get another dry sunny day as it is the only thing you cannot organise. Then the gun goes and the race has started, the nearly 5 hours since I have arrived have disappeared in a flash and suddenly all the planning is now a reality with Ireland’s top triathlete ploughing through the water of the Liffey with all in pursuit. It’s not until I see the last competitor out of the water that I can start to relax and enjoy what I have managed on the day. There is a very real responsibility and one that weighs heavily on my mind and any other RD and that is to see all competitors out of the water safely.

In no time every competitor has either finished or is somewhere on the course. I really enjoy this part of the day as it gives you time to relax a bit and I make my way to the finish line. This year we had the added voice of Joanne Murphy who has been MC at a number of Ironman events. Herself and Tadhg hit it off and were a great double act. I stood a little back from the finish line and took it all in and well god damn it I was proud. As I stood there many athletes that walked by thanked me for a great race and event. They were not thanking me they were thanking Piranha but it did make me feel very Proud, very proud indeed. Gavin Noble comes over to me and says it as good an event as any ITU race ………mission accomplished !

The day continues with athlelte after athlete completing the race until the very last person gets over the line. At this stage all the competitors have gone from the finish line and the area is being packed up but as the last person approaches the finish line all the Piranhas stop and clap him over the line, I know this because I got an email from him after thanking us ( he also suggested he should have got a medal which proves you cannot please everyone)

We finally get the results sorted and I can proceed with the prize giving. After few final words its all over for another year.

It has been a long month a longer week and a very long weekend. Those who have gone before me like Ray, Jason, Greg and Matt are the only ones who know the amount of work involved as RD of DCT but we all knew we would have the full support of the membership of piranha. I have enjoyed, really enjoyed being RD for DCT and will no doubt use this experience going forward. I would in closing describe it as like doing an Ironman…..it takes over your life for the bast part of 9 months , you train and train and train for this out event and on the day you just hope it all comes together and when it does you know it ALL BEEN WORTH IT !