Hooked

I really did not think this would happen, but I decided that the triathlon had been so much fun that I immediately signed up for another one, in Caherciveen in 4 weeks time. Funnily enough, this will be so close to Valentia that the swim start will be less than 2 miles from where we had started last Saturday, but the cycle and run will be on the mainland. It will also be a lot less competitive. The Valentia triathlon had been part of the National League series which meant the top triathletes from the entire country had gathered there. In contrast, my time from Valentia, which only got me 150th place, would have been good enough for 19th last year in Caherciveen!

The kids loved watching too, which makes a change from running races. The constant buzz of the transition area had kept them entertained and the fact that they got smoothies and ice cream didn't do any harm either, I guess.

And one look in the results told me that the only athlete who had passed me during the run section was actually a relay runner, and in fact he posted the fastest run time of the day. His pace had been quite an impressive sight, I can assure you.

As for my training, I did 6 easy miles on Sunday morning in Valentia. It was still very quiet at that time, but all day long you could see plenty of very fit looking people either cycling or running all over the place. It was never hard to tell the triathletes from the “normal” tourists. The weather was so spectacularly nice, it felt so much like being on my summer holidays that I had a hard time believing that I would be back in the office the next day.

Before that, there was the small matter of my last longish run, 15 miles on Monday. The legs had still some fatigue from the triathlon in them but managed to get me round Caragh Lake without problems. On the last 3 miles Mother Nature pulled out all the stops to provide me with an amazing spectacle; all of a sudden I could see a huge cloud rolling over the mountains down towards me as I made my way home, and within 5 minutes the absolutely clear morning had turned into an amazingly thick fog, almost plotting out the sun. It felt like being in an old horror movie, only in 3D and life-sized. Niamh did not believe me that it had been bright and sunny earlier on.

Today was a complete rest day *gasp*, to recover not only from that run but also the triathlon. All of a sudden I'm in my taper for Cork. The last few weeks had seen the strangest set of training I've ever done due to the recovery from Connemara. As a result I might not be in my best possible marathon shape, but I'll give it a go anyway.

23 May

6+ miles, 48:22, 7:57 pace, HR 142

24 May

15+ miles, 1:57:24, 7:48 pace, HR 142

25 May

0