Christie parkrun is an out-and-back along the River Bann in Coleraine. There was a warm welcome from the team and ticked off another C for the pirates challenge.
What better way to end the triathlon season than with a tip in the Atlantic Ocean?
There was no accommodation available in Westport itself so we ended up staying outside of the town in rural County Mayo. The internet download speed was 500 mb/s. This is what happens when a country invests in infrastructure.
The weather wasn’t particularly kind and it rained heavily overnight but eased off to on-and-off showers. But thankfully I had my support team with me so I had a robe to wear until just before the race.
The swim was in the harbour and a chilly 12 degrees C in the water. I was nervous about drowning and freezing to death and had a rocky first third of the course as we wam the first side of a triangle. Then we turned and swam across the bay with the second third going face on into the waves. The final side was easier but seemed to take forever so I was pleased to get out of the water.
A big thank you to the water safety crew for looking after us. The water temperature was unpleasant but I have definitely had worse and the group warm-up before the race really helped.
it is a fantastic bike course. It is an out-and-back along the Wild Atlantic Way. Relatively flat and I never felt like I was going into a headwind, but did feel like I had a tailwind on the way back. The view was beautiful across the bay with Croagh Patrick on the other side.
The run goes up the greenway out of Westport. That means it is uphill but only gently so you can still run a comfortable pace both ways. There was an aid station at the turn around point and despite the poor weather, I was so warm by this point I went for the old cup of water over the head before making the return journey.
My overall time was:
1:26:53
And my splits were:
| Discipline | Time |
|---|---|
| Swim | 12:02 |
| T1 | 5:50 |
| Bike | 42:43 |
| T2 | 2:00 |
| Run | 24:15 |
That was good enough for second place overall! With the important caveat that there were only 19 of us in the try-a-try distance. They did have prizes for the top three men and women, though, so I came home with a prize!
It’s a lovely event if you don’t mind a sea swim and want some fantastic views packed into a sprint distance.
Lough Ree is a lake in the middle of Ireland. It is where I did the Two Provinces Triathlon in July. But where that took place in Lanesboro at the north of Lough Ree, this took place at the opposite end, as Coosan Point just north of Athlone. Which is great because there is a motorway all the way to Athlone.
I think the water temperature was higher than the air temperature. Nice to get it in before the autumnal days bring the water temperature back down.
Lake swims are usually the easy option compared to sea swims but the weather is not always kind on the far side of the Irish sea. There was a real chop on the water. Not as bad as Lough Cutra, but comparable to a calm day on the sea. This was my second weekend in a row racing, after Lough Key last weekend, so I was hoping for some confidence and an ability to go for it in the swim.
Alas, no. The chop really took me out of my front crawl and it made it feel like hard work. Hard work reminds me that if I stop swimming I will drown, which leads to a bit of panic. It did not stop me, though, and towards the end i did get into some front crawl. We then turned back directly into the waves, though, and that was that.
As we got out of the water, the rain started to come down. Most of the cycle was in the rain which made it difficult to see through my sunglasses. But otherwise a nice ride: a few lumps but no real hills. Three loops of the same course, so once you had completed one lap you knew what to expect. The rain eased off as I came into T2.
The run was an out-and-back along the same road that the cycle course initially went out on. I felt good on the run: I was maintaining a strong pace without feeling it too much. That said, it is always hard work and I was delighted to see the finish line. Which came with a well-stocked array of water, milk, biscuits, buns and crisps, as well as a voucher for a complementary burger from the burger van.
My overall time was:
1:16:16
And my spits were:
| Discipline | Time |
|---|---|
| Swim | 9:40 |
| Bike | 36:31 |
| Run | 22:42 |
Transition was fully neutralised so my leisurely T1 cost me nothing. The bike course was 17-18 kilometres which is why I was so snappy there. My watch had the run a little short, too, but maybe that was just the trees.
We were well loved after the whole way and there were loads of marshals on the course. Thank you to everyone at Athlone Tri Club, and to
Derek Fox and Toine Siebelink for the photos!
In addition to the support, I really liked that they had our names on the bibs, and that all of the stickers were bright yellow. It is the club’s colour and makes the stickers look much more interesting than the plain white ones.
Lough Key is a beautiful forest park located in Roscommon. I am looking to avoid sea swims so it was worth the drive over for what is the first of a few end-of-summer/autumn races I have lined up.
Being in a forest park they have a visitor’s centre with proper indoor toilets, which was a luxury. I wasn’t feeling great on the drive over, though, and had to stop a few times meaning I got there a bit late and was in a rush to set up transition, misplacing my neck protector along the way.
Luckily, it was a short swim (200m) that I took easy for the first half and then a bit faster on the way back. Despite the cool conditions, the water was warm enough.
The cycle route was fantastic. It was extended to 23 km to allow us to do one complete loop of the lough. Some of it was behind trees but other parts climbed up onto the hills and gave us a beautiful view right across the lough. Tough side winds, and a final head wind, made for some hard work but well worth it for the views.
The run was similar, going alongside the lough before turning in land a little to come back. Things were going well until 2 km in when I felt a sudden pain under my arm. It didn’t stop me from running and I finished in good time, delighted to have completed another event.
My total time was:
1:33:31
And my spits were:
| Discipline | Time |
|---|---|
| Swim | 8:32 |
| T1 | 5:34 |
| Bike | 52:20 |
| T2 | 2:02 |
| Run | 25:01 |
After the race, I headed over to the first aid station so they could take a look at my arm. The paramedics suggested it might have been a bee sting. Nothing serious but I ended up in the ambulance for 30-40 minutes while they checked my vitals and what not. Thank you to Andrew and Mags for taking good care of me.
I finished the day with some food from Paddy Paella. Thank you to everyone at Lough Key Triathlon and all of the volunteers who made the event happen.
The Grand Canal Way parkrun is located in Tullamore. As you might guess, it is an out-and-back along the canal. You go out for 1,500 metres, the back, then out again for a shorter 1,000 section. Nice and flat, as you can imagine.
It was cool and rainy the whole thing. Everyone was very friendly and kept apologising for the weather. They didn’t seem to believe me that this was my ideal running weather. Thank you to everyone who made me feel welcome.
I didn’t realise it at the time, but this was my 50th parkrun in Ireland. Unless you ask the DUP, you insist I have only done 47.
Bala is a town located in the middle of North Wales, at at the north end of Bala Lake. Importantly, they have a parkun and it is one of the four required to complete The Full Ponty challenge. I ticked off Pontefract in June, so this is the second one I needed.
The course is an out-and-back along the river with a turnaround point at the lake. You do this twice before finishing. I had had surgery a few days before so no running for me, but I had a delightful stroll along the course with the hills in the background and the lake at the end.
Another S for my snakes challenge!
Sligo parkrun has an out-and-back section before opening up to two loops of a bigger park. There is a slight hill here, but nothing compared to Temple Newsam or Cabinteely. And on the plus side, you get a beautiful view of the hills in the distance.
Sligo is a picturesque place and I stopped on the way back to take a few pictures.
Our first base camp for our road trip was the seaside town of Portrush. Long beaches, fish and chip shops, arcades, the whole classic British seaside town feel. It also had a parkrun. With Portrush being a summer hotspot, over 500 runners turned up for an out-and-back along the beach. The sand was firm enough under foot but there were some wet bits to run through. A lot of runners did it in bare feet.
After parkrun, Venla and I built the first of many sandcastles.
What better way you could spend a Saturday than running through the Dublin Mountains?
The Trail Festival is run by the same people that run the Dublin Mountain Backyard Ultra and takes you through 30k of hilly terrain with the option of doing one, two, or three loops.
The run starts at Kilmashogue Forest and goes straight up. There were about 30 of us taking on the 30 km single loop and I soon found myself at the back of the pack. The uphill was a lovely wide gravel track but also uphill. The downhill was single track and I’m not much of a trail runner so I didn’t pick up a lot of speed there. Luckily, there was a two-kilometre road section into Glencullen that allowed me to catch the back of the pack.
Trail is a word with a wide definition. Once we were through Glencullen, we ended up climbing a steep bank (I would have completely missed the turning if I hadn’t seen others) and then onto what the locals called the “bog road” where the path disappeared and we were running through small bushes. Then there was a small gully with a river at the bottom and ropes to help us climb down. The ropes did not save me and I fell over twice here.
We almost made it back onto the Wicklow Way track before turning again towards a trig point at the top of the hill. This offered spectacular views of the whole of Dublin Bay and Wicklow in one scene.
Here we got into the real bog. I stopped on what I thought was a solid bit of mud and found myself above submerged up above my knee and had to climb my way out. At around 15k, Dublin disappeared behind the hills and I felt panicked about being in the middle of nowhere even though I knew it was just over the horizon. That was an unpleasant half an hour.
At around 23k we came down into ZipIt where there was a water drop. I had brought enough food and drink for five hours but was drinking more than expected so glad to be able to refill my bottles. Then it was straight up the hill again and towards the finish. I was tired by this point and started stumbling over rocks a lot but luckily did not fall.
The final two kilometres were downhill again and my quads were on fire as I descended. I managed to find the correct turning point, which I was quite proud of, as almost everyon else that finished came in the wrong way. Very glad to be done. I’m not sure I had fun but I’m glad I did it :D.
It’s coming home… again!
Great resilience from England coming back from deficits in all three games in the knock-out stage. I thought Spain did themselves proud of the final. But the solid passing and ball control never converted into more than one goal, so the result felt fair enough.