Tom O Dowd - 2nd overall

I’m back working today in the shop but still buzzing after Saturday. (Exposure http://www.facebook.com/pages/exposure/341807064283).  Its one of my favourite races in one of my favourite places so first and foremost; sincere thanks to the race organisers – The Young Family, Mona, Siobhán and all the crew it was another classic, already we have had a stream of people through the shop singing its praises and vowing to return next year to this epic event.

 

With this race falling late in the season it’s always hard to know how things will go. I had quite a few events in my legs already between Triathlons and bike races so peaking and tapering are usually optimistic aspirations by this stage of the year. Unlike a lot of people competing though I’m lucky enough to live near by and had managed to train on parts of the race route. This is a big advantage.  

 

The weather on Friday was ominous; monsoon type rainfall greeted us as my good friend David Sands and I travelled back for registration. We had agreed to avoid race talk on the journey.…who were we kidding! Ha ha we spent a full hour discussing what the fastest line was down of the top of the reek! Despite the wiley folk of Met Éireann predicting a reasonable weather forecast it looked unlikely at this stage. I dropped my bike off and its funny, been more accustomed to triathlon racing I kept walking away from the bike thinking I had forgotten something. Home afterwards for food and an early night The Source Code on DVD - maybe I should have picked something a little less thought provoking!

 

Alarm goes off at 3.45am; I had managed to sleep a bit. Porridge at that time of the night is always hard work but it works for me so I forced down a bowl full. The bus journey was a funny case of déjá vu with all the usual suspects present. Paul Mahon? Anseo; Micheal Forde? Anseo; Noel Brady? Anseo…and so on. For some reason it strikes me there is a really nice crew of characters on both the adventure racing and triathlon circuit at the moment, which is making the experience all the more enjoyable – definitely the kind of Spartans I would like by my side heading off to battle!

 

Despite the early rise I actually didn’t feel tired at the start line, maybe this was to do with the spectacular setting that is Glassilaun Beach along with the weather playing its part. And then we were off, the pre-race strategy of taking the first run easy - straight out the window as I tried to keep Padraig Marrey, Micheál Forde and Niall Somers in sight. (Will someone please tell me what it is about postmen been elite athletes in the west of Ireland – Padraig Marrey in Ballinrobe and Ja Fallon up in Tuam??) Speed merchant Eamonn McAndrew from the triathlon world was also leading the charge at this stage. The dry surface was notable as underfoot conditions along this section had been very slippery earlier in the week and what about the Killary as a backdrop? Where else would you be! My Salomon Speedcross trail running shoes also deserve a mention here – you can’t beat them!

 

I kayaked a lot in my earlier years (Ní bhuaileadh an diabhail Aquaspóirt An Spidéal agus UCG Kayak Club!) and while it only constitutes a small part of the overall race I felt it really set me up for the remaining sections. I arrived into the Delphi transition along with Micheál Forde and exited it in the lead just ahead of Bruce Duncan and Niall Somers. I wasn’t comfortable with been in the lead at this stage with so much racing still to do.

 

We worked as a group in the early stages of the bike but all my training with multiple Rás Veteran David Brennan of Castlebar Cycling Club definitely put me at an advantage as I started to pull away on the first of the many hills. Again I was concerned about this; the year previously I had shared the entire bike route with Ironman 70.3 Galway Race Director Ruaidhrí Gerraghty which was a great partnership. I time trialled the remainder of the bike course on my own very grateful of having negotiated the first off road section with my Continental Gator skin tyres still intact! PowerBar Gels, Kinetica Gels and Zyms for my water bottle took care of my dietary requirements .

 

Niall Somers, Peter O’ Farrell, Padraig Marrey and Bruce Duncan all arrived as I stepped on to the soft boggy section at the bottom of the Reek, I couldn’t help laughing at the fact that here I was a year later in the same place at the same time with almost the same people! Croagh Patrick is a slog FACT! As someone famous once said if you can make friends with pain you’ll never be lonely and this rings through for the Reek section. Peter Farrell went by me almost immediately like the mountain goat that he is – also worth noting here that he is an absolute gentleman. As Peter began to open a gap I desperately wanted to hold on to 2^nd place but I knew I would have my work cut out as the Marrey Cycles sponsored athlete was hot on my tail, Padraig is master on the mountain and no doubt many of you have read of his exploits here in the last 12 months. The descent was cat and mouse and I managed to maintain a slight advantage going into the dreaded skelp section. I’m not sure if my Specialized Tarmac SL was designed for this kind of riding! Peter was out of sight at this stage and I entered the final transition of the day at the Quays in Westport along with Padraig. A short 1 kilometre run followed and I just about managed to make it home into 2^nd place an improvement of one place on last year.

 

Colm Staunton, winner of last years http://www.westportsea2summit.ie/ was a notable omission from the starting line up and he would definitely have been causing trouble at the front if he wasn’t recovering from injury.  Also a mention for my big bro and main training partner Fergal who was swimming the Frances Thornton Memorial Galway Bay Swim on the same day ( http://www.facebook.com/galwaybayswim ) with the rest of the crew in Galway – the lengths that man goes to avoid running up hills ha ha!