Pembrokeshire Tri-Athlone

TriAthlone has a special place in my heart. It was the first triathlon (2012) I ever signed up for back in 2011. It was the first triathlon I ever did with a spectacular hangover, and it was the first triathlon I got to repeat  a year later and see the gains of a year’s training (or observe the differences of not drinking heavily the night before… potato tomato).

It is an epic event, starting with a river swim into the central Irish town of Athlone, followed by flat cycle on closed roads (that’s right – you need not only sign up for Ironman for such a privilege), and a closed road run through the streets of Athlone, well supported by locals. With such a set up as well as the option to do Super Sprint, Sprint or Olympic it is a big attraction for novices and serious athletes alike. Despite having moved to Wales, and being distracted by the huge selection of events in Pembrokeshire alone, I knew I was always going to go back so back at some stage.

So last year, jaded by the ever rising costs of a certain Weekend event with Long Courses in it and controversial moving & clashing of dates by a certain Activities organiser from Wales, I took to the Pembs Tri Chatter page and ranted about going back to Ireland for this great event instead, with an open invite for anyone to join me. This generated a surprising amount of interest, which culminated in Dave Astins, Alex Cooper and Ian Cooper signing up from the triathlon club.

On top of this, I was in the 3^rd year of a great tradition of inviting my housemate and good friend Alex Price to do an event that he would do absolutely no training for, so it was only fair I invited him along too. (As it turns out, due to college distractions and possibly a subconscious gesture of solidarity with Alex, I followed a similar training plan). This turned into an ‘Ireland trip’ with our friends Ange and Flo, and new friends (our German Lodgers) Ben and Jon. So we now had 5 participants and, with Flo’s assertion that she had “had some fun making some banners”, 4 supporters in our travelling posse.

Alex of the Cooper variety had secured us some great apartment accommodation on the outskirts of town, where we all convened after a day of ferrying and driving across from Wales on the eve of the race. We all went out for a nice dinner in town followed by a quick visit to a suitable pub to sample the local Guinness. Sober and sensible conversation was had by all and luckily, (possibly inspired by David’s sensible approach to race preparation) we did not repeat the drinking exploits of 2012 and were back at the apartment before midnight.

The race was a surprisingly late starter with the waves for different distances commencing between 3 and 3.30 in the afternoon, which led to a pretty chilled out race prep morning for getting everything in order before heading to registration in town for about 1. The race pack came with lots of nice goodies with the standard race numbers and stickers, including supporter stickers which ultimately ended up plastered all over the Germans. Flo’s supporting banners would remain a mystery until we were out on the course.

[L - R] Myself, Alex Cooper, Alex Price, Ian Cooper, David Astins

2018 had been a glorious summer, and today was no different, and after setting up everything in transition on the quay road next to the river, we waited in the shade of the trees in the riverside park. As last minute preparation where underway, I suffered a bit of a mishap with my new club trisuit. The zip failed spectacularly, with the zipper utterly stuck at my chest and an exposed belly underneath. This was in no way a comical sight, nor was it highly amusing for everyone in the surrounding area who saw it , so I figure there is no need to go into that in further detail. After about 15 minutes of struggling with the zipper and a brief discussion on testing the race organisers lenience on exposure (my nipples were not showing afterall), I opted to wear a tri club running bib which I had luckily brought with me. A wonderful start to the day!

Some pre-race zipper trouble - nothing to see here!

Within no time, the race start was upon us and we were making our way upstream to the race start along the riverside park. I made the mistake of putting my wetsuit completely on before this journey and was sweating buckets in no time in the 28 degree dead heat. Also I was wishing I had remembered flip flops, as my feet were proving too delicate for the gravel paths.

Aside from all this slight adversity, I strangely wasn’t looking forward to the swim. Despite being on top swimming form coming into April, I had been struggling with my new wetsuit as well as grinding shoulder problems, meaning I was generally 2 – 3 minutes off pace on what is usually my strongest element of the race. I had been hoping to swim without a wetsuit to free up my shoulders a bit, but the race organisers had changing their ruling on it THE NIGHT BEFORE from optional to compulsory. I was not bike fit either and had been struggling with a calf problem all week so was also apprehensive about the run…… Otherwise I was excited by the race ahead!

I exchanged best wishes with the other lads and got into the river for the stationary start. My plan was to try pace myself off David and hope my shoulders held out. This immediately proved to be futile as I couldn’t get beside David for the race before BOOM, race began!

I started off light and quick. I immediately pulled away from the guys surrounding me and knew I was in the lead pack. The first section was upstream to a marker buoy, then across the river to another, before doing the last 800m downstream to the exit pontoon. I felt good to the first buoy, alright to the second. Then very quickly did not feel good at all! My shoulders were done. FECK. Suddenly sighting was exhausting. Breathing was exhausting. I held onto the group I was in and tried to hold a draft, but it was getting more and more difficult. My diminishing form had me swimming more side to side now, and my back was feeling it too. Jaysus. We passed under the landmark railway bridge which meant we were getting close to the pontoon. It felt like an age. In the past this had properly felt super easy compared to other triathlon swims, but my body was properly failing me.

Me [blue arms] trying to keep with my little pack

I flapped out of the river onto the pontoon like an injured penguin and ran off the pontoon into transition with the grace of a disorientated seal. I took my time in transition trying to get some composure back. I heard a bit of commotion from my right and saw a marshall running over, “hey, what the hell are you doing?!”. I looked to my left to see a fellow athlete, who for the sake of discretion I shall call William Nopantsman, in an inappropriate state of undress. Let’s be honest here, he was completely bare arse naked, not a care in the world. All of a sudden I felt the urgent need to leave with my bike. I left Willy and the marshal to discuss the triathlon rules concerning indecent exposure.

Alex Cooper Swim Exit

David Astins swim exit

Me, Swim exit, fucked!

Ian, swim exit, surprised!

Alex Price Swim Exit

Swim Course [click to go to strava link]

I couldn’t get comfortable on the bike at all. My back and shoulders were wrecked and my calf was already playing up. On top of this there was no breeze at all. Just heat. At least the course, an out and back (and out and back again for us Olympic heads) on closed roads, was flat. Or so I thought… my undertrained and overweight body had a way of telling me I was battling against a slight incline – a special skill, you see. No matter, I would get the benefit of the slight descent on the way back so I kept battling away keeping what I felt was a decent speed.

The great thing about an out and back style course is you can see where everyone is.  Shortly before the bike turnaround I saw Dave come the other way, looking focussed. I hadn’t been paying too much attention to the return cyclists, but I could tell he was doing well, definitely 2^nd or 3^rd. Surprisingly, despite my condition and lack of bike fitness only one or two cyclists had passed me. This and the fact that I had counted very few cyclists coming back implied I was actually doing alright, top 20 most likely! Plus soon I would turn the corner onto this slight descent and REALLY get going…

After a tentative u-turn at the turn around point I made 2 grim realisations:

1. There was in fact a breeze, a reasonably strong one in fact, and it had been gently helping me along all the way out to this point, and now I faced 10km of headwinds
2. There was a LONG line of cyclists directly behind me, who were all just about to pass me!!

FECK.

I battled my way back, and sure enough the steady stream of passing cyclists had well and truly commenced. A bit dispiriting but hey ho, I had not come into today with high expectations – just get through it and enjoy the day. Little highlights were seeing the other guys on the course and exchanging words of encouragement. It became a little less easy to tell how well people where doing as the course got diluted with the sprint and super sprint participants, but was great to see them nonetheless, the Pembs Tri kit really standing out and looking great too!

After rounding the roundabout to start the 2^nd leg, it very quickly became evident that my legs were cooked! More overtaking, though I did manage to pass one or two myself. Woot woot. Then I ran out of juice, literally, before the three quarter mark. In the scorching heat I had drank all my 1.5 litres of go-fast drink. I couldn’t handle this heat at all. That’s it, I decided, I don’t think I’ll go to Kona.

Cycle course [click to go to strava link]

I stuttered back into transition and again completely took my time getting changed. I could tell already that my calf was not going to play ball, in fact it was already completely done for, so I was going to have to limp my way around the course like some kind of lycra clad pirate.

I turned the corner from transition onto the streets of Athlone and the heat hit me like a ton of bricks. There was (legitimately this time) not a breeze in the town, there was the heat of the mid afternoon sun, there was the heat of the tarmac. And did I mention I was completely dehydrated from my juiceless last quarter of the bike? And my that body was completely banjaxed? 400m into this 10km and I was not in a great place (mentally, that is - Athlone is a lovely place!). Very soon though, my mood picked up for ahead of me I saw our supporters group out in full force. Ben, Jon, Flo and Ange, homemade banners out and possessed by the spirit of Tenby – they were by far the most animated supporters out there and became the highlight of the course not just for me, but for all participants. Also, with the nature of the run course, which snaked in and out of Athlone's commercial streets, they managed to position themselves where we could see them 3 times on each of our 4 laps! They were amazing, I wish I had the energy to reflect their support!

Our supporters, doing us proud!!

Dave, Ian and Alex with the supporters after their exploits

The rest of the run was a real struggle, the extremities of the course took us out beyond the centre of the town where there was less support and less to distract from the sweltering heat. We just had to get on with it. But mercifully the course was still relatively flat. Oh, to be fit on this course – you would have a good day! I saw Dave Astins at various points looking strong. I did not see so much of Alex and Ian as the sprint had the luxury of finishing a good hour before us, but saw Alex of the Price variety looking strong and spritely on lap one. Lap two and Alex wasn’t looking so spritely – “calf is gone too!!” he laughed at me – we were the banjaxed brothers now. Lap 3 and I actually started to get a bit of rhythm (read: I didn’t walk so much). The guys at the feedstations were not only throwing cups of water over the athletes but pouring straight from the 3 litre bottles too – this definitely helped my condition as well as giving me a nice squelshy sound as I pottered around the course.

Ian, strongly finishing the sprint

Alex Cooper, working hard!

David Astins, powering to 2nd Overall, 1st in Category!

Alex Price, rejuvenated by the support banners!

Me, getting all the support I can from Flo!

A very squelchy me, just after some feedstation water pouring!

The finish line was located in the pub quarter of the town, and everyone was out on the street giving the whole place a party atmosphere. As I passed through this area, I saw Dave, Alex C and Ian who shouted words of support including “last run to the finish!”. “1 lap left!” I shouted back….. Awkward. It did spur me on though, as well as our epic support team and seeing Alex P on the course, approx. ¾ of a lap behind. I had way more enthusiasm to push through the last lap than the first, and broke it down to the 3 times I would see the support posse, the 3 times the feed station would splash water on me, and the few times I would pass Alex. After I passed the supporters the last time, I put on a push for the finish line. I really picked up the pace and must have almost looked like I was actually running at one point! It was a great relief to get through the finishing arch and nice to get a finisher medal for my efforts too.

Run course [click to go to strava link]

I lingered at the finish line to wait for Alex,  though may have also been slightly been influenced by my motivation for moving any more than I had to having completely diminished! My simple goal today was to get in under 3 hours and I was delighted to have done so, despite everything. Alex was in within the next 20 minutes, and shortly afterwards our whole Pembrokeshire crew was with us. We had a group photo under the finishing arch, giving one of the last finishers the most surprising finishes he could hope for. Everyone was certainly very aware of the Pembrokeshire presence on the course, with many people coming up and thanking the guys for their support on the day.

A Pembrokeshire Welcome for one of the last finishers

What a great team!!

Dave flew the flag for the club also, finishing 2^nd overall and 1^st in his category. Myself and Alex did our purpose as sweepers at the back representing the full spectrum of abilities (or adequate preparations!) within the race. Ian and Alex Cooper did great in the sprint category too, with Ian finishing pretty high up.

While I can’t say I was delighted with my own personal performance, it was great to be there as part of the club and everyone got on great for the weekend. There was dinner and drinks that evening in town, and a whopping big irish breakfast the following morning before everyone parted company. I feel Athlone really left an impression on the guys and equally the Pembs Posse left their impression on Athlone too.

It will be an official club event next year, and I really hope we can get some good numbers for that and have even more craic! Come on Pembrokeshire Triathlon Club, you know you want to!