Peter O Farrell - Overall Male Winner 2011

My good friends Rob and Grainne were married on Thursday and like all well prepared grooms his speech was a litany of thanks. It’s a good example so............My girlfriend Orla took me across Norway and Sweden on a cycletouring holiday giving me bike strength, IMRA and Rathfarnham WSAF provide amazing races and clubmates to hone the running, Wheelworx give me great support and technical assistance, The Youngs, Siobhan, Mona, Ciara and all the team at Killary Adventure Centre give us all a superb race in the magnificent west of Ireland and the very generous people of Westport open their hearts and their generosity to the influx of visitors every August for a festival of fun and adrenaline. The race wouldn’t be a race without class opposition and this year we had a strong field. Noelie Kavanagh and Eoin Keith were notable proven absentees but it was going to be a savage battle.

The weekend starts with registration at Killary and then Delphi and the small touches and organisation are improving year on year with free tea/coffee and biscuits at Killary and a clear system to manage the difficult logistics of placing 3000 bikes on the side of the bog at Delphi. I got that out of the way relatively early as with the best will in the world there is always a queue there later on Friday evening and then it was off to book a spot on the GAA pitch at Westport House campsite. I’m always thinking about the food before a race and the thoughts of scrambling around Westport competing with 3,000 racers+friends all looking for pasta didn’t appeal so I’d made my own pastamush on Wednesday which made for a very restful Friday evening.

The two weeks camping with Orla on Holidays had me very used to the tent and so a good sleep was had before the 4.10am wakey wakey. In previous years I’ve had the relative luxury of sleeping in Paul Mahon’s van but the lovely Hilary had claimed both his heart and my spot in the van this year! New buddies Niall Somers and Anthony Frazier were also camping and they drove us up to the bus for the 5am drive out to Glassilaun Beach and our 6.30am race start. Niall was excited about the race and rightly so, he’s having a super season and I’d marked him down as the probable man to beat. I had no knowledge of Bruce Duncan, apart from the fact he was good enough to be shipped in for this race and was a serious savage over the longer distances. Paul Mahon’s prerace formguide over on www.msai.ie gave me a good idea of who the main contenders were and what their likely strengths were. I was very relaxed on the bus on the way out, I had a plan, I knew what I wanted to do, I knew when I wanted to eat and drink, I knew there would be much hardship on Croagh Patrick and I knew Martin Bradshaw would start like he was in a 5km roadrace as he’s a great hillrunner.

I’d like to say I was cool, calm and collected from the start but the sad truth is I just couldn’t go at the pace the first run started at, even if I wanted to. The speed the lads took off up the first few kilometres was unreal and I was back in 40th place with the doubts raging away in my head as always in the fast first 6km of this race. “Two layers was stupid, it’s too warm, you’re sweating too much, you’re miles behind, mountain shoes on tarmac, why are all these lads I don’t know killing me?” Not quite the sound of music..Eamonn Hodge didn’t really help by noting to another runner that he was happy enough if he was only going at my pace. Last year’s winner Padraig Marrey was miles ahead and I still couldn’t see Niall or Tom due to the other athletes between us. Anthony Frazier with a ridiculous woolly hat was 100m ahead and not coming back to me so I consoled myself with the thoughts he must be sweating like a beast in there. As we headed up away from the fjord 3 runners with a nice short staccato style jogged past and put a good gap into my group. I didn’t quite consider quitting but to say it didn’t help with the doubts would be the understatement of the day. According to my watch I should have been warmed up by now and passing lads but there was still a lot of race to be run so I just kept going with it and slowly but surely the lungs opened up, the calves hurt less and other athletes started coming back to me. Onto the kayaks in 18th place and I got my first huge boost of the day, the leaders were not as far ahead as I’d feared. A brisk paddle across Ireland’s only fjord  taking the occasional break to drink from the bottle I’d carried and I hopped out of the sit on top in much better spirits in about 11th with determination having banished doubt for another year. It just appears to be something I have to go through at this start before the fun of racing the rest of race starts. C’est le vie..

I had a good second run, caught a few more lads and arrived into the bike section with Padraig Marrey and behind 3 leaders, Tom O’Dowd, Niall Somers and the English raider Bruce Duncan. The 3 lads were working together and Padraig and me were working together chasing them in joint 4th. Padraig has had an amazing year with the 12 ascents of the Reek in 24 hours amongst others fine achievements so I hoped my newly cycletoured legs would match his less cycled legs and that appeared to be the case as we worked well together both taking turns pulling at the front and slowly eating into the lead of the group ahead. Onto the big bike climb of the day and the 3 lads all split up which was the second big boost of the day for me as Padraig and myself came back together quickly after the climb and fast descent and once again worked well together eventually catching Bruce. I put a good dig in just as we caught him to make sure he had to try hard to catch onto our coattails. He’s a good racer so of course he did. The 3 of us worked for a while until the bogroad shook things up again. Padraig quite simply ignored the rutted uneven rocky muddy surface and kept cycling as if he was on tarmac and instantly dropped me and caught up 120m up to Niall. Bravo.  I said a silent sorry to my poor delicate carbon framed road bike and put on more speed myself and slowly caught back up to Padraig on an easier section.

Onto the Reek - Tom in front, Niall in second and myself and Padraig joint 3rd with Bruce 5th close behind. Off we went jogging along through the initial “flat” section which can suck you in both physically and mentally as the ground is both soft and actually not flat at all so even a slow shuffle is pretty good going along here. As per usual with all the blood in the legs and none in the head we all head for the straight up option like moths to the flame, the zig zag may be more efficient but when there are lads ahead you tend to chase them! I had a good climb, I am supposed to be a hillrunner after all and finally pass Tom half way up the cone. I’m onto the top in 1st place for the first time in 3 hours of racing. Big Boost numbero 3. We pass John Shiels, a friendly face from the hillrunning and a fine photographer. Not a chance of me trying to emulate his trademark hillrunning leg kick photo. Tom and Padraig and Bruce all have better descents then me, who’s supposed to be the hillrunner?

The great strong bursting hope of winning and the almighty fear of Padraig or Tom doing a repeat of last year on me are mixing well and with the constant thoughts of the two lads working together and closing me down I head off on the bike and find some more to give on the skelp. It feels easier than last year which is big boost number 4 of the day. I’m calm, collected and very very determined. No horses or closed gates or killer vans or Padraig shaped apparitions block my path on the fast fast descent to the main road and then I hammer it back to the quays with very strong emotions coursing through my system. Winning this great hard race again would be very special but I can’t count my chickens just yet as I pass the place where 3 years ago I passed Padraig struggling with a puncture and dropping from 1st to 4th in the process. I can only really relax and enjoy it when I get off the bike and see the finish line after the short run into the finish. It’s a great feeling to hear my name on the PA and I soak up the sheer fierce joy coursing through my body in those final few steps before dutifully dibbing out and giving Mary Young a sweaty hug.

It has been a brilliant race and with a final burst Tom O’Dowd sets up second place with Padraig in 3th. Padraig’s time was a few seconds quicker than his winning time of last year which shows savage consistency and Tom has knocked chunks off his 2010 time leaving the same top three as last year.

I await next year’s formguide with interest as with another improvement like this Tom will hammer the times for the newer extended course. Niall Somers will have learned a lot from racing the course and has the class if it all goes well for him on the day. Padraig, myself and the likes of Eoin Keith will continue to have close battles but there’s serious talent out there and the day it all clicks for them is the day the mythical fast early starter just keeps going and doesn’t come back.

Thanks again..