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Garadice Lake
Triathlon
Under blue skies and a
beaming sun on a very hot day 160 competitors registered for the second Garadice
Lake sprint triathlon in Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim. Michael Duggan, Lorcan
Sleator and myself (Colm Walsh) were among those athletes registering,
representing Midland Tri Club.
By complete chance I’d
racked my bike right next to Mick Duggan’s so inevitably we met up in the
transition area for some pre-race banter.
 Swim
The swim started at the
entrance to the small harbour, with all swimmers threading the water, waiting
for Beijing-bound 50K race walker Colin Griffin to start the race.
Being my first triathlon I
was in for a great shock when the buzzer went – it seemed like every other
competitor climbed over me, swam under me, boxed me, kicked me, pushed and
pulled me.…if this was triathlon I’d been doing the wrong training! In a
scene not too dissimilar from a shoal of fish caught in a rip tide while
fleeing hungry tiger sharks we made our way out towards the first buoy. It
wasn’t until we turned, heading for the second buoy, that I was getting any
sort of rhythm but there were still plenty of swimmers willing to put me off
with a random punch or two. Eventually I got used to the sporting behaviour
of the other athletes and settled in trying to make up some of the ground I’d
lost while letting people take advantage of me.
I heard the announcer call
out Lorcan’s name, who was out of the water just 8 seconds ahead of me but
there was no sign of Mick’s fancy bike so he was either well on his way after
a good swim, or somebody had swiped his expensive rig. Transition went
surprisingly well and I even made up 4 seconds on Lorcan.
Cycle
The bike ride was on an
out and back, hilly course, going from Garadice Lake to the town of
Ballinamore and back again. Thankfully they were only small hills but being
new to the whole cycling game I gave my gears a pounding on every change of
elevation. The road was closed to traffic so all thoughts were focused on
catching those in front, or staying ahead of those behind.
I passed more cyclists
than passed me and thought I was doing really well until, with about 3km to
go, one stranger pulled up along side me for a quick chat! Recognising the
Midland Tri Club gear I was wearing he thought nothing of it to ask about how
my club colleagues got on last year in Ironman UK. Out of breath, and
slightly taken aback, I half shouted an answer which made no sense, even to
myself, and thinking better of probing further this social triathlete moved
on ahead of me with ease…
Run
Transition from bike to
run was, as expected, far easier than transition from swim to cycle.
Somewhere on the bike I’d passed Lorcan but there was still no sign of Mick.
The run brought us out of
the park at Garadice Lake and away from Ballinamore on another out and back
course. The run was always going to be my stronger leg but only being the
second time I’ve ever run straight after cycling or swimming the first
kilometre felt very strange. It did mostly go to plan though. I passed a
large number of runners, and thankfully none passed me, but seeing our own Mr
Duggan about half a kilometre ahead of me, making his way back to the finish
line having gone passed the turning point, there  was
going to be no catching him.
Just after turning for
home the sky turned dark and claps of thunder rolled around the hills. Then
the rain came – monsoon style. I kept on going and closed the gap on Mick by
2 minutes over the whole run, but the thunder and lightning storm stole the
show. By the time I finished the whole transition area was under two inches
of water, leaving no dry gear to change in to. Mick was almost prepared for the
weather but unfortunately failed to put the lid on his plastic gear box…I
guess he’s still learning from these events too!
Results
Michael Duggan 1.18.23 35th 3rd
in his age group
Colm Walsh 1.19.57 47th
Lorcan Sleator 1.23.15 66th
This years winner was
David Tunney from Phoenix TC finishing in 1.06.28 ahead of 151 other
finishers.
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