The coastal town of Dun Laoghaire was the setting forthe annual Ironman 70.3 event on Sunday the 25th of August which allows both professional andamateur athletes to compete on the same course.  Blackwater Triathlon Club was representedon the day by Harry Feeney, Peter O’Brien, Gearoid Murphy, and Kevin O'Farrell.Harry and Kevin gave us an account of their trip to Dublin. We reached ouraccommodation on Saturday 24th at approximately 11 am. From there on out thingsgot very real, very fast, with all 4 of us attempting our first ever middledistance triathlon. Our first port of call was to get registered. Theregistration was a very fast and well-organised process, all doneelectronically, with plenty of people at each desk. Here we received ourwristbands and sports bag, stickers, hats, transfer tattoos, and all otherinformation. We chose to go to the earliest race briefing which was directlyacross from registration. Again this was very well organised in a theatre hallof the Lexicon building. The briefing took the full hour, but everything wascovered in very good detail. We were especially excited to hear the bits where theybroke the news to us that we would be climbing all day on the cycle. After awander around the merchandise shop and a few customary purchases later, it wastime to get our bikes and transition bags ready. This was the main differencecompared to other races we have competed in. You’re given 3 bags for your gear;one for the bike transition, one for the run transition and one for after therace. Every competitor changes in the transition tent. You do not have a choiceto leave any gear or clothing beside your bike on the day of the race unless itis on the bike in a compartment. Everything you take off you in transition hasto go back into the bag you need for the transition you are in. After somecareful packing and repacking, we were set to go to transition.

It was a short walk to transition, where there was amore than usual bike check and a strong verbal ‘Are you happy that your bike isin safe working condition?’  With bikes as far as the eye could see, itwas very clear that the first rack was for the Elite triathletes. Their bikeswere on a different level to the majority of the other bikes. We checked ourbags into transition also. Here we received our timing chips on the way in. Thetransition tent is cosy, the bags all get hung up very close together, with theintention that transition will never be too busy at any one time with peopleout of the water at regular intervals. Again everything was orderedsequentially by race number so it was easy to find your area. Out the back ofthe transition area, we could see the first leg of the race. Nerves werestarting to kick in but now it was time to relax and get some rest.

Race day was a 5 am start for the lads with theprofessional men and women’s event starting at 7:00 am and 7:02 amrespectively. These were followed by the first of the amateurs before lowvisibility due to fog brought proceedings to a halt for 40 odd minutes becauseof safety concerns of the organisers. The swim commenced shortly before 8 am. Unfortunately,with the time delay, the swim leg was shortened to approximately 950m, whichresulted in a sprint swim. Water was very clear with a temperature above 16degrees, so very comfortable. With the shortened swim, T1 was a lot morecongested than expected. The cycle, which contained almost 1400m of climbing,was a one-lap circuit through Powers Court, onto Roundwood via the Sally Gapand back to Dun Laoghaire for the second transition. As expected with thisamount of climbing, average speeds were lower than usual, but maximum speedswere a lot higher also. Conditions were a lot different up the Wicklowmountains. Fog and heavy mist on the Sally Gap with headwind reduced visibilityto 20-30m at times. This may have actually helped keep us cooler rather thanoverheating. The descent out of the mountains was very fast, but luckily atthis stage, safe gaps had emerged between athletes. Road conditions were verygood, and safe, with the exception of the through road in Powerscourt wherecaution was needed there as the tarmac was slippy from not being driven on or usedvery much. The support around the course and through all the different villagesand towns was excellent and helped keep our spirits high as the day wore on.The run consisted of three laps around Dun Laoghaire Pier and town and wasmainly flat with a few short inclines. Weather for the run was slightly cloudyand warm. Here, again, the support all the way round was great. With the coursebeing a 4-mile loop, there were always people out cheering the athletes on. Itwas a great feeling running to the ramp on the final lap and enjoying thesupporters lined up along the red carpet. The hardest part, excluding theactual running, was probably seeing everyone relaxing and eating cones on thepier, yet knowing there was still a lot of running to do before we could do thesame.

Ironman 70.3 Dun LaoghaireAll in all a very successful day our for the BTC crew, even more so considering it was their first attempt at the distance. Gearoid was the first Blackwater Triathlon Club man home in 5:28:45. He was the first in his age category in the swim section and 6^th fastest overall in the swim on the day! Next was Harry in 5:35:49 and then Peter, just a few minutes later, in 5:39:34. Kevin suffered quite badly from cramp in the run section of the race, but still managed to get across the finish line in a very good time of 6:31:10. Well done to all four of them.