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It was a beautiful morning for the last of the Limerick Duathlon series. Conditions were calm and sunny(wherever that weather came from!!) and we even got there early enough to drive the route and get decent positions on the bike rack!! It was even mentioned by Mark Dempsy that some guy called Ruaidhri “owned” one of the slots but I don’t think we effected the overall result and in fairness it was all a bit of craic and nobody said what are ye doin putting the bikes there! So far all the excuses for potentially not doing well are being covered!! It was great to see such a turn out there from the club. Myself, Aoife, Brian, Enda, Derek and Niall were all there to race, with Mairtin the head cheerleader for the day. It was really good to have the support of so many club members on the day. The bike and run were both out-and-back courses so it meant we all met each other loads and there was always words (or grunts towards the end when we couldn’t talk) of encouragement to each other which really helped. We were all registered and warmed up and ready to race on time. I must say it was a really well organized event and was clear that there a club with experience. They were so used to doing it even the marshals on transition entrance were shouting “keep left” and “keep right” in synchronization!!! I suppose it makes it easier being their third in a row but fair play all the same. So that’s a line drawn through another potential excuse!! So off we all set into the sunrise for the race. My tactic was stick to the leaders for as long as I can on the first run then do a good bike and slog it on the last run in the hope of a top ten. Not likely!!! I may have gone out too hard but either way was running at a pace so much quicker than I’d be used to it killed me. My usual training pace for Ironman is 5 minute Km’s. Now I regularly do training runs of 30km in 5min km’s but haven’t been doing anything faster so I thought surely I can do 3.8k’s in 3minute 25 or 3min30 k’s but soon realized I couldn’t. I dropped my pace just before the turn around and was passed by Brian on the way to a great result. I was passed by Derek going down the hill and Niall going into transition, proving winter training does pay off!!. See Niall was telling me the day before about all secret winter training he’d been doing but I reckon it was the full irish and the full lunch consumed in less than an hour the day before while Aonghus was setting his 10k pb that had him in form. (Well done Aonghus) I knew I’d catch a few on the bike so I set about it and was happy enough how the bike went. I was getting cramps in my calves at the turn but pedaled heels down for a while and was fine. This showed me how much I pushed so far as I never suffer from cramp. My chest was really feeling it too right through. I can honestly say I’ve never pushed so hard and hurt so much for no real performance gain. I got off the bike having gained a few places and took into the second run. It was grand until I hit the hill but at that point I just wanted to stop. I was dejected because I knew my two goals at the start were gone, a top 10 finish and break 55 mins. I don’t quit so I kept pushing on telling myself that it’s good to experience hurt zone stuff for when I do need to go into that place to hit my goals and knew it’d bring me on anyway. I came over the line unexcited in 58:03 with pain free legs and hurting lungs. I just don’t have the top end speed at the moment but hope to change that soon once I get this Ironman out of the way!! I think my only hope in Limerick this year was if they had a Deca-Limerick-Duathlon. Well done to Brian on his 10th place and to Aoife, Derek, Enda & Niall on great results a as well. A word of thanks must go to Mairtin for the great support on the day. The only picture I could get was of him cheering Aoife across the finish line!! Splits:
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