Well, onto what was billed as the toughest race of the season for me.
I was not particularly looking forward to the swim as it looked choppy and hard. But it was the same for everyone so hey.
The bike was billed as having tough hills and it was a longer bike at 45k before leading to a tough 5k uphill and 5k downhill run.
Now Kilkee is a long way away so our club had organised houses to stay at and we all headed down Friday for 2 nights to make a weekend of it.
Just as well as it took near on 3 hours to get there.. Arrived at race hotel for registration and met up with club mates staying in same house. The goodie bag was decent, a nice technical bike t shirt complete with rear pockets To mark the occasion. Snickers, energy bars, drink and the like made it up.
So race numbers and hat collected, off to the house for some pasta carb loading and sticker up bike.
Had a good laugh with club mates and we were all set. Up early for some breakfast and a peak out the window saw rain and wind in abundance. The view of the sea also suggested choppy waters so this race was going to live up to it's name!
We headed down to transition and set up our bikes. I got some elastic bands for my bike shoes for the first time as wanted all the help I could get. The swim started abruptly and then it was hell for leather. My goggles got knocked off twice, I tread water to fix and got shoved around. So that was the first 200m and it was quite rough out there. I got to the first buoy and wasn't sighting very well so Swam a little breast stroke to stay on line. Back to front crawl then and across to second buoy before returning to shore. This was a tough swim and I struggled. Out of the water in 30mins and off out on the bike. The elastics did their job and I started to put the power down and pass as many as I could. There were some clear drafters in full on groups but not much I could do about that just try to race my own pace. I found the bike course easier than I expected. Hills not as hard as billed and it was really the wind on the way back that was the toughest part.
I seemed to make good progress and into t2 in good time. Again on with socks as it was a 10k run and up hill for first 2k then eases a bit to the half way point.
Impressive views of the sea from the top as you run along the cliff.
I reached the turnaround point and the top 2 women had caught me and were chasing me down. This despite my 10min wave headstart! So I was about to get 'chicked' and though my legs fought a bit it was inevitable.
My run had been ok but not good enough. The good thing was no stomach cramps this time. I noted I didn't drink much of my 1 bottle on the bike, and had just 1 or 2 gels so this seemed to help.
I finished in 2 hours 37 mins and was relatively happy for my first hell of the west.
A great atmosphere at this race and many stayed for party afterwards. Worth the drive down and bad weather that's for sure!
My swim again being the main let down and run needing improving.
Armed with this info I set about trying to improve slightly for my next race (just 1 week away)...
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