Ironman Cork – Part 1 – The Build Up
This trip would be my first Triathlon outside of mainland Britain. Although we aren’t flying and I didn’t have the added worry of using a bike box, it was still enough of a change from some of my usual race routines to keep me on my toes. A busy week at work also meant I was feeling quite disorganised and a bit unprepared. Alarm was set for 03:30am in order to set off around 04:45am for Holyhead but I was that excited I woke naturally at 02:30am and couldn’t get back to sleep. I say naturally but probably my brain working overtime about had I packed everything, and thinking I’d arrive at the swim start without my goggles.
As you would hope for from any good fire fighter Alex Dalton arrives at my house bang on time at 04:45am (less blue lights and sirens) and off we go along with Bev McGonagle to collect Dave Roocroft. Injury has meant Alex now can’t race on Sunday, but credit to him he still ensures he comes along to support. 05:00am we are in the fun-bus, bikes on the bike rack and covered well with a brand new £75 bike cover and the “Road to Cork” is very much happening.
The journey to Ireland is as straight forward as we would have wanted it with no traffic or ferry being delayed. We battle through some rush hour traffic on the Dublin ring road and start the last leg towards our Air BnB in a small town called Dungarvan which is approx 2.5hrs away and just 25mins away from Youghal.
On the drive down we start hearing on the radio news that the Irish Met Office have issued a yellow weather warning ⚠️ for Friday night from 4pm to 3am with strong winds and heavy rain expected. These winds and rain would arrive with the name of Storm Betty. Just before we arrive in Dungarvan, the radio news announces that the weather warning has now been upgraded to Red. The storm clouds were definitely starting to brew above us. Betty was getting impatient I think and was about to go full send!
A quick stop off at the Air BnB where we meet our roommates for the weekend Triathlon Dan and his partner Liz. Triathlon Dan is racing the 70.3 on Saturday and is back for redemption after a snapped chain on the bike last year caused him to lose about 30mins on his bike leg. He has just been to rack his bike and is venting slightly about the attitude of a technical official in transition who would not allow him to cover up his gearing and groupset although Betty was on her way for dinner. 15mins later Andrew Kelly and Georgia Francis arrive.
We go to uncover the bikes and get them off the van to see that the brand new £75 bike cover has shredded to almost nothing and was probably acting as a sail on the drive from Dublin to Dungarvan. Bikes are fine though which is the important bit! Bike cover straight in the bin!
Dave, AK and I head straight to Youghal to register before the cut-off at 6pm.
In the registration tent we meet Tom Rigby and Kerry Rigby who are local celebrities in Youghal given Tom’s exploits last year, and they have been volunteering. Tom is sat eating a packet of crisps and tries to say he’s been working hard all afternoon and we have just caught him on his only break of the day. The current “King of Youghal” doth protest too much we feel.
The wind and rain have definitely picked up and the registration marquee is almost lifting off the floor. Ironman Staff are quickly deflating the IM arch outside and bringing other props inside from the elements. After registration is out of the way, we quickly jump back in the van out of the rain as Bev races around the corner to pick us up. Parking spaces in Youghal are already scarce and it isn’t even race day.
An announcement is made by IronMan that due to the weather conditions the 70.3 swim will be moved from the Strand area of the Youghal coastline to the more protected Youghal Bay area. The drive back to Youghal definitely justifies Ironman’s announcement. Hard, driving, sideways rain is battering the van and the wind can be felt all around. This continues well into the night, but all seems to be cleared as we awake on Sat morning.
I see a notification on my phone though. It’s a video update from Triathlon Alex live from Youghal (see video) telling us that the 70.3 has been cancelled and pushed back 24hrs to the same day as the full. This time the reason is due to debris on the bike course in the aftermath of Storm Betty that needs to be attended to.
Dan, Alex and Liz make it back to the digs. The rest of us had planned on getting a quick bike and run done in the morning before heading into Youghal to watch the run leg of the 70.3. The cancellation took some time pressure away and Sat became a lot more chilled. Weather had improved so a quick 30min bike ride followed by an easy 20min run with Dan was the order of the day. Just enough time for Dave to moisturise his legs with some of Georgia’s face cream, then into Youghal to soak up some of the Ironman atmosphere, rack our bikes and have some lunch.
Youghal was buzzing. Irish flags, green white and orange bunting and IronMan flags adorned on every house, shop or tree. This town definitely loves that IronMan are in town and welcomed all athletes with open arms and, as they say in Gaelic, “Cead Mile Failte” (Hundred Thousand Welcomes) for everyone of us.
We rack our bikes at T1 which is near the swim exit. The swim start is approx 1km further down the coast. We look at the exit and entry points in transition. There is still a bit of a breeze in the air and notice some 70.3 bikes have fallen over. They still have a 2nd night in transition to contend with the elements again.
After racking we finally manage to find a decent cafe for some lunch. During lunch IronMan send out an email announcing the itinerary for the following day with both races at the same time. The plan is that the 70.3 will start at 06:30am – 30mins prior to the start time of the full at 07:00am. No major dramas apart from Ironman also announcing that the 70.3 swim would revert back to the original location and won’t be in the Bay Area as they announced on Friday. We bump into fellow clubmates Paul Sanderson Stephen Clough Thomas Peck and Neil Peck in town and say some hellos. They are all preparing for the 70.3 and have been impacted by the postponements
Back to the property and the usual pre-race routine (and faff) kick in. Nutrition prep, eating, nutrition prep, eating, nutrition prep and some more nutrition prep.
Everyone in bed for 10pm ready for their 4am alarms to be going off. It’s almost go-time!
Ironman Cork – Part 2 – Race Day
This race had a scheduled start time of 07:00am which felt like a proper lie-in compared to the 06:00am starts at races like Lakesman, Outlaw and IMUK. Alarm went off at 04:00am and pre-race meal of overnight oats pre-made by Dave Roocroft. Over this weekend Dave demonstrated that he’s not just a top age group triathlete, but that there is nothing he can’t do with a porridge oat, some milk and his secret ingredient which he won’t like me sharing on here.
Arrived in Youghal around 05:30am, we all parked in a church car park effectively at the top of Windmill Hill and although we hadn’t been praying to the weather gods there was no sign of any rain, there was definitely still an element of wind in the air. Nothing too concerning at this stage. I’d just done IMUK 7 wks earlier and the headwind along the eastern side of the loop along the Roman Road to Darwen was a lot stronger than this.
Down to transition, sorted out my nutrition on the bike. Pumped my tyres up. Transition and surrounding areas quite busy given both races now taking part simultaneously.
The usual queue for the portaloos for my final “business” before the race and first thing I noticed was that lots of 70.3 athletes were still queuing for them also and it was 06:20am. When I finally get out of the portaloo I say hello to Peck senior and Peck Junior Thomas Peck who are waiting for the portaloos. Their race was supposed to be starting at 06:30am. The walk to the swim start was about 1km away so thought they would be pushing it (and not just in the toilet). Then started the walk to the swim start. Mini emergency for Stephen Clough who left his goggles at his accommodation. Luckily Porridge King Dave had a spare pair for him.
Stopped on the way to the swim start to get our wetsuits halfway on, have a photo with Dave and Andy and an announcement is made that the 70.3 is being delayed by 15mins to 06:45am. I feel glad that this gives the Peck’s more time in the portaloos, we then continued on our way towards the start……..
I’m going to be very careful with my words in this next section so will describe the events of the next hour or so as factual, and how I saw things and how I was impacted. I’m not going to put forward any opinions of what I may think should or should not have happened.
The walk to swim start from transition involves walking up a main road on a slight incline before the road levels off and then a descent down to the swim start. When you reach the brow of the hill you have a great view of the sea and beach for a few miles down the coast. The first thing that I notice when we reach this view is the the sea looks a bit more turbulent than it did down by transition.
When we get down closer to the actual start, we meet King and Queen of Youghal Tom Rigby and Kerry Rigby who are behind the sea defences (or wall as it’s more commonly known) signing autographs. We share some jovial comments about the waves and reference IronMan Tenby 2022.
While we are talking and deciding whether or not to zip my wetsuit up fully at this point or not, another announcement is made over the speakers saying that the Full swim would be reduced to 1900m. This would allow Ironman to have all of their on-water safety resources condensed in a smaller area to increase safety in the water. At this point I’m just happy it’s a shortened swim, not due to the conditions of the sea, but because I just hate swimming. I just want to get in the water at this point and get the race started. As Ironman have to wait for their safety teams to be repositioned, the 70.3 race is put back again now to 07:00am with male and female pros to be set off first before the 70.3 agegroupers and then full athletes being set off afterwards. No specific time is announced for the start of the full race, so we are unsure of the gap that will exist between the races, and how the faster full swimmers potentially catching the slower end of the 70.3 race.
The Bolton Wolfpack arrive at this point with one of the race favourites
George Martindale bouncing at the prospect of a shorter swim and Ryan Snee is raring to go as I’ve never seen him so excited 👀! Time for a quick Teal Army/Wolfpack group photo.
The announcements are now saying that the athletes should self seed based on their expected swim time. Nothing unusual about this. This is what happened at both IMUK races I have completed plus Tenby in 2022. However, I couldn’t see the usual signs anywhere to indicate where I should stand if I felt I would have a swim of 1hr 20mins. Due to the volume of athletes waiting to get in the water it was difficult to move through everyone to get to the other side of the wall. Dave, Andy and I along with George Martindale and Ryan Snee decided to climb the wall and drop down on the other side. This actually put us right in the middle of 70.3 athletes still waiting to get going. We were quite near the actual swim entrance and had a great view of the pros getting going from where we stood. We had a bit of a chuckle at how the male pros were dealing with the waves. One of them seemed to be veering way off to the left which didn’t look like the natural line to take towards the target buoy, and we made a few comments regarding poor sighting. Female pros went off about 2mins later with similar challenges. Then the 70.3 age groupers were set off and this is where thinks just started looking a bit mad. We could see some green (full) swim caps getting into the water along with the red (70.3) swim caps and were unsure if we were all just being set off together so we started moving forward just to see if we could get going. When we got closer to the start we were asked to wait and let the 70.3 athletes go first so we stood to the side and waited. With over 1250 starters in the 70.3 it took quite a while for the athletes to get in the water.
Bearing in mind that our race was due to start at 07:00am I looked at my watch and it was 07:40am and I was still stood on the side of the water not knowing when we were starting. Some 70.3 athletes were starting to walk back past us and it looked like they had got in the water, maybe had felt the first waves and then made the decision to turn back.
Even at this point, not once did it cross my mind not to get in the water. I could see that the sea was rough, but I kept referring back to IronMan Wales last year. Those waves were rough. The swell/chop was tough to deal with, but I got through it and got through it twice to do the full 3.8k swim as it is a 2 lap swim route with a n Aussie exit.
After all of the 70.3 athletes had left the shore it looked like mayhem in the water. Large numbers of them clearly seemed to be pulled away from the direction they were swimming in. It also looked like a lot of them weren’t making it to the buoy and were just cutting it slightly short and heading towards the swim exit.
Shortly after this an announcement was made on the microphone that the route would be altered again for the full and rather than leave the shore on a 45° angle to the right hand side towards the buoy we would have to swim directly out towards a bouy that was closer to us, get round it and get to the swim exit. The swim was going to be mega short, and by this time I was hoping it would be mega quick.
30secs countdown started…….move forward in our queue and into the water we go.
To be continued……
Ironman Cork – Part 3 – Swim and Bike
Swim – Distance? – Time 24:08
The first wave hit me whilst I was still standing and nearly sent me off balance. I wasn’t going to let the next one do that. As it came towards me I dived straight into it and just started swimming in the direction I thought the buoy was. I could feel myself being lifted up and down as each wave came by. I just kept turning my arms and focusing on breathing at the side opposite to where the waves were coming from. Tried to sight the buoy a few times but couldn’t as the next wave coming would obscure the view.
Finally got far enough out through the waves to where they weren’t breaking as much and noticed that I had drifted to the left a bit like the athletes in the 70.3 race that I had witnessed.
I could see the yellow of the buoy so adjusted my direction and pushed on. This was swimming against the current but finally got there. Got round the buoy and after a few strokes to get clear of it all of a sudden the water felt calmer and I could get into my usual rhythm. I could see the line of buoys that would lead me to the swim exit so off I went.
Every 5secs or so I could feel the current giving me a little shunt forward. I had never felt this sensation before. If I timed my stroke right and caught this shunt with a decent pull on my stroke, it actually felt as if I was being propelled forward at great speed. I focused on trying to match my stroke rate with the undercurrent in the water. I couldn’t believe how quickly I was getting to each buoy. This is what it feels like to be able to swim I was thinking 💭
Finally I get near the swim exit ramp and can see more green caps which was the one thing I couldn’t really see when I was on this return leg. I make my way to the ramp see that other people are now stood up in the water. Relief to be here and I stand up also and walk to the ramp.
I see a man being treated by paramedics on the swim exit ramp. They are giving CPR. The man doesn’t look great. I go past hoping that he comes round and make my way into T1. As we are getting changed the general topic of conversation amongst everyone in the tent is about what they had seen on the ramp getting out of the water.
Garmin GPS tracked the swim at 1350m. Nowhere near the full distance expected when we arrived in Ireland and for what we have trained for. I’m glad it was shortened. I managed it, so did many others, but clearly not everyone did. I wouldn’t have wanted it to be much longer.
Bike – 5:45:34
I set off on the bike and within the first mile go past an athlete wearing a tri-suit from the local tri-club in Derry, Northern Ireland where I am from. I say hello, introduce myself and then set off from him. A new Facebook friend made after the race. The Lone Wolf Matthew Pemrick from the WolfPack/TriCentral left T1 alongside me. He moves ahead of me on the drag out of Youghal. I decide to sit back but keep him in my sights.
I’m feeling good on the bike. We head into a headwind initially but through a mainly flat, flowing section. I’m feeling that good with avg power and speed feeling easy that I start to get complacent. At mile 6 I take a 90° corner way too wide and way too fast. Brakes slammed on hard, rear wheel fishtails, currently having flashbacks of Tenby last year when I crashed out at 105miles. Luckily this time the road has a ditch, hedge and field on the other side. Over the handle bars I go into the ditch, through the hedge and land with my bike in the air and one foot in the field. I’m a lucky guy. I have a large gash on my right shin, but a deeper cut on my left elbow. My bike is fine. I wasn’t going to DNF today. I needed to prove to myself I can do an Ironman outside of Bolton. I get on the bike again and set off. Lone Wolf now nowhere to be seen.
The rest of Lap 1 is spent working my way through 70.3 athletes. I catch up with Brian Rigby from NW Prime Coaching. Share some pleasantries with him, wish him luck and move on again. I finally get back to Youghal and prepare for my first attempt at cycling up Windmill Hill. At this point I cycle past Thomas Peck who is pushing his bike on a flat section. I’m unsure as to what has happened. I find out after the race that he has a puncture at 51 miles so ran the final 5miles of the 70.3 bike route with his bike before starting the actual run. Wow! 🤯
I approach the right hand turn that takes you straight into the climb at Windmill Hill. I shift to my small front ring. I then shift to what I thought was my small ring on the back. Oh no! Shifted the wrong way. In the wrong gear. Hit windmill hill and couldn’t turn my pedals. First attempt up Windmill was a hill sprint interval run! As Ryan Snee will admit. Running up Windmill on Lap 1 is a right of passage!
Lap 2 was a lot lonelier. It felt harder in the wind, I think due to the lack of 70.3 athletes providing shelter from the wind who only had to do 1 lap. Made it past my crash scene safely and back to Youghal. Cycled up Windmill Hill this time, turned left, and basically free wheeled down to Transition. Fir those interested I cycled up Windmill on Lap 2 a full minute quicker than it took me to run up it!
Given the crash and the run up the hill I was really pleased with a 5:45 bike split over the 112miles. The course isn’t as flat as you think, with 3 decent climbs in there, but has some great long sections where you can pick up speed.
Ironman Cork – Part 4(and final part) – Run 4:46:08 and Summary
Came off the bike 14th in my Age Group and had a split from triathlon Dan as I left T2 saying I was 90secs down on 13th Place. I set off with hope that I could work my way into a Top 10 spot in my Age Group and seemed to be holding 5:30/km pace relatively well. However any hopes that I had of that becoming a reality were soon dashed.
As I reached around 5k my right groin became really tight. This was the leg that had taken the impact on my bike crash earlier in the day. I now couldn’t take any sort of wide stride without any pain. I was reduced to jogging at around 7:00/km pace and walking for a minute or two. I could easily have thrown the towel in, but all I could think of was my DNF at Tenby last year and how I felt after that. I was finishing this event even if I had to walk the marathon.
As I plodded around the streets of Youghal and would talk to other competitors on the route, I became aware of the tragedies that had happened earlier that day. I also thought about the gentleman I had seen on the swim exit ramp and how he wouldn’t be finishing. I was going to finish this race.
The motivation to finish became even stronger each time I completed the solitary out and back section of the run which meant I was entering back into Youghal town centre. That part of the run was just immense. For the criticism that I’m sure Ironman will receive over their management of the swim start, they cannot be faulted for how they put on the run event in Youghal. Fully closed roads, barriers on either side, at times 4-6 deep outside some pubs. Supporters from all over encouraging every stride I took as they sipped from their pints of Guinness. It takes a lot to beat running through the middle of the street with people just calling your name!
A competitor then ran with me for a bit and said that “The Tom Rigby” had cheered him on and called him by his name. This guy was on Cloud 9 due to the acknowledgment by the King of Youghal.
Then every time I ran past the “Aldi Mile” or “Tri Preston Alley” as it became known in my head it was immense. Bev McGonagle, Alex Dalton, Kerry Rigby , Tom Rigby, Gary Hill, Liz & Tri Dan were there and doing everything in their power to get me to that finish line. I couldn’t have done it without each and every one of them. Thanks again!
I finally got to head down the red carpet and came in at 11:08:55. It’s hard to say if I think I had a bad day or not. With the swim being shortened I do believe that it probably saved me an hour on my overall time. If I add that hour on, and had a finish time of 12:08 I probably would have been slightly disappointed as I went there with a goal of sub-12hrs. I finished 27th in my Age Group which was still in the top 30% but I would like to have improved my 19th AG position that I achieved at Bolton.
However, that’s me being overly critical of myself and 12:08 would have still been a massive PB for me over the full iron distance so I’m not going to complain about it.
We’ll see if this event ever goes ahead again in Youghal. It is scheduled for 2024, but let’s see what the fallout will be over the next few weeks before everything is confirmed. I’d definitely go back if the timings worked.
The people of Youghal took triathlon support to a new level for me, mainly led by their King, The Tom Rigby.
The group of clubmates that I travelled with and stayed with also made it a decent weekend too. I look forward to the race weekend special that I’m sure Triathlon Dan is putting together. He has hours of footage from our own Triathlon Alex, that I’m sure he’s doing his best to condense into a 10min YouTube video. It will be a blast.
Final summary is that we all left Youghal/Dungarvan on the Monday a bit deflated given the unfortunate news regarding the two deaths, although we had all had an epic weekend.
Whatever the outcome I just hope that no other individuals have to suffer too much.
RIP Brendan Wall and Ivan Chittenden. Condolences to their families, friends and clubmates
Gerry
