Lough Ree ‘Monster’ Triathlon is a club race run by Athlone Triathlon Club and is located in the scenic (and more importantly – sheltered!) cove of Coosan Point. I looked at this as the final triathlon of the year and a great way to book-end the triathlon calendar. I wasn’t disappointed, the atmosphere was great from the marshals guiding people into the carpark in the morning, through registration, a bit of craic with the race-briefing and generally a fantastic atmosphere for the morning – well done to all at Athlone Triathlon Club.
Coosan point and Lough Ree is a fantastic location, in terms of scenery but also it’s actually a great location for so many triathlon clubs and there were clubs from Longford, Cavan, Dublin, Offaly and GTC was well represented by the lads below:
Swim
First off, a big thank you to Trish, who maybe felt sorry for me being the (literal) butt of everyone’s jokes at Loughrea triathlon with a massive tear on the (as Trish would say, the technical term is…) gluteus maximus of my wetsuit. It really is impressive how much wetsuits seem to shrink in storage every winter! Anyway, tip for all triathlete’s – dental floss, a sewing needle and some wetsuit glue (or tec 7) -stitch it from the inside and cover the stitching in glue – job done. Not only did it survive the swim, it came through a dogged T1 unscathed!
Back to the swim, the swim was really sheltered and a good wide start gate made it one of the most enjoyable swims of the year (I still managed to get boxed in at the start but once I got a bit of room, I was up and moving!) and I got around in 15minutes. The lake itself still showed signs of low-water from the dry-spell and was about 3-4ft lower than normal but it didn’t really effect the swim apart from a few reeds to the face in the very shallow parts. Great swim for anyone looking to do a try-a-tri next year, the swim is shallow and the club really seems to look after the tri-a-tri participants.
Bike
The bike was a 3k out, followed by a ~4k loop 3 times and then the 3k back to T2. The loops were technical enough especially as other waves merged onto the course – if it was wet I wouldn’t have liked to see some of those turns on a shiny good road surface.
The bike course was fast though and its just a pity it was all over after 18k, I could have kept going out there but alas 28:51 and a 36.1km/h average and it was all over just that little bit too soon.
Run
The run was what I guess actual runners would call an honest course, I’d call it lumpy! There wasn’t 200m of flat road in it so I found it hard to get going. I met Ruaidhri and Martin on the way back claiming a nice 1-2 for GTC! Back to my own race, finally manged to get the legs pumping and negative splits all the way home (it was 4.7km) in 20:12. Slowest triathlon run pace of the year but enjoyable all the same.
After
It nice to hang around and again, credit to Athlone triathlon club for creating a friendly atmosphere (the marshals in transition were great craic). And I would recommend this as a great race to close out the triathlon season. Big shout out to the GTC lads who were there – always great craic and encouraging to everyone around. Finally, thanks to my wife Joanne who, not for the first time this year, took up the role of GTC photographer, hype-person and loudest supporter on-course!
Too early to start mentioning duathlon season? Miriam I promise I’ll turn up to at least some track session this winter!
