South Coast Adventure Race 22nd October 2011

A picture paints a thousand words! but just in case it does not! (added new, 9-12-2011)

• The 2011 south coast race was one that i had been targeting all year, and thankfully i had trained hard over the summer, done the speed work and long stuff, i had done 3 or 4 races prior to it with the sole purpose of sharpening up and getting used to race pace again. The evening before i signed on and i was a ball of nerves to be honest, i had tapered really well before hand and rested up for 2 weeks, i was bursting at the seams with energy and excitment! 
• Anyway we dropped the bikes in the middle of no where and then the kayak to the rowing club and i headed home, i had a nap during the day and did not feel tired, so it was 1 am before i was in bed, the norm for me before a big event, i slept well and got up and had 2 fryed eggs on toast with some ketchup, was down with a pint and a half of vit c fizzy up as we call it in our house, the drove on down to skibb on my own and had a cereal bar and coffee an hour before the start, i got to the pavillion in skibb and met Sean Murran running around looking for his shorts, his wife save dthe day but he ended up in the 3rd wave when he misplaced his chip! I had decided to use a mix (with water that Gill had given me in April and brought it with me on the bus and sipped it away, it was called megapower i think and is actually made in shannon, ireland, i dont really know what is in the stuff but good god i really felt it worked, must get more of it especially for events under 2.5 hours, it might send you out to fast for ones longer than that.
• I was off in the 2nd wave, i was a little dissapointed with this but decided to give it my all and if i was on a good day well then it should not matter what wave i was in. As it turned out i think i could have held the winner on the first run and for a long portion of the bike, but ultimately he would still have beat me, looking at his splits, so it made no real difference in the end. I started with acouple guys i recognised and thought i would have some good competition on the run but after 1 km i simply floated away form the 80 other people i started with, i was in disbelief as i felt the pace was very comfortable. 
• Later i would guesstimate that i was doing sub 4 min/km pace on the very muddy paths, that had large holes of water every half mile, basically i was in my element and flew down any tricky bits. I hit the bike, making a 10 sec error in judging where it was! no matter, but still, i was a full min ahead of the guy behind me, but in the actual real scheme of things i had no idea where i was although i did suspect that i was well up there. 
• I hit the bike hard for a couple miles making sure i was out of sight of the second place guy, then i settled into a steady pace, it was pissing rain for lots of it and the wind seemed to be head on, no matter what way we turned. The cycle was hard ish but i made sure not to go into the red, i was probably operating in the high 150's low 160's for all of it, so comfortably hard, i wanted an even effort so no surging or sillyness. The coombe hill, i walked or actually jogged most of it and this was to avoid the 180 plus heart rate that i would need to hit to cycle up it. With the hill run on lough hyne coming only 15 mins later i would be in that zone soon enough.
•  I knew starting the hill i was flying and but i still hit the hill conservatively and aimed to run it all and have no walking, i did manage that, just the tops steps were hard, and i did my patented 'come on, Donncha' roaring at myself, which works so well i find, i did scare the crap out of a few people though, as usual!
• At the top i knew it was time to move it into top gear and i flew down the hill, only slowed by having to urinate on the run! the first time i have managed to do that after many attemps! I got to the bike and drove as hard as i could up the hill out of lough hyne, it hurt like hell and i had to change down to a fairly easy gear a spin my way through the pain, i hit the transtion at the kayak and took a 4 min time out, which was available to everyone, then after my wife had lined up the kayak with the marshals i powered the kayak around the short course, beating all by 2 mins, if only the kayak was 4 or 5 kms ??
• The last bike is short and i was trying so hard on it, driving for home, the cramping started here and when i hit the final 400metre obstacle course i was drawing on all my mental strenghts and only when i crossed the finish line did the cramping take over, i was freezing and Billy my cousin tok me to the massage tent and after 10 mins of rubbing and shivering i could walk. No showers working but to be honest i am not sure could i have managed one with out help! Why the cramping? well the liuids were minimal and i only had one gel, dropping the other on the first bike! it was taped onto my top bar and simply fell off with the rain and wind. This probably wouldf have helped but the effort was such that over 2 hours 30 mins that it was always going to hurt, especially with the terrible weather.
• I went home ate , drank and kinda slept and then in the evening was in great form and well ready for pints, we had a great night out in skibb with alot of the competitors especially Sean and Janet, it was great to find out i had finished second, a real buzz, and a few mins later it was dissapointing to receive no trophy to commemerate it. I did get a free entry for next year though. Overall . super, tough race for me, a few people went wrong but mostly i thought the oragnization was good. The lough hyne transition needs to be changed if the event gets bigger, it was chaotic with the numbers we had. And more prizes, its 65 euro to enter for god sake! Looking forward to next years event, which i know a few locals will be out to get me, as for my own goals, keep progressing like i have been, get leaner, put in some longer hard efforts on the bike, e.g  1 hour TT efforts and get in the first wave and try my best to hang onto Trevor woods, (winner the last 2 years) 7 mins behind him this year, its a lot and its not, it will be interesting trying my best anyway :) 
• This will go down as one of my best perfomances ever, up there with my 5th in Gaelforce,winning the Connacht Mountian Bike Championship, comfortably completing the 24 hour Raid, getting 5th in the Galway criterium and my 2 all Ireland titles in Road Bowling.