French Lesson : de retour de Dunmore East

Hier David, Richard, Sean et moi-meme avons couru le triathlon de Dunmore East près de Waterford. Dès le vendredi soir nous etions 3 à faire le voyage depuis Dublin pour etre au maximum de notre forme le samedi matin ! Les parents de David nous accueillaient très gentillement. Arrivée à Tramore vers 20h après 2h30 de route et après avoir notamment traversé la region de Wexford, le pays de la fraise ! Eh oui saviez vous que les fraises poussent en Irlande. J ai bien cru au depart que c etait une joke mais non. L Irlande n est pas uniquement le pays des pommes de terre et des carottes (j en mange presque tous les midis...) mais aussi des fraises ! (je me demande toujours comment ells peuvent murir mais bon...). A peine arrives nous allons directement le pub pour prendre un verre puis le resto ! Après un delicieux repas équilibré (ni burger, ni frites, ni dessert...), nous sortons du resto vers 22h30, il ne fait toujours pas nuit (welcome to Ireland, l été, les journees durent une éternité ;-) ), mais il est temps d aller se reposer. Après un dernier thé, nous revoyons le timing de la matinee : petit dej à 8h30, depart à 9h30 pour le triathlon. Le lendemain matin après un bon petit dej avec le fameux “bla” le pain de Waterford introduit par les normands il y a plusieurs siecles, nous nous rendons à Dunmore East à quelques kilometres de Tramore. Le soleil brille...enfin... je me demande si cela va durer car depuis que je suis en Irlande j ai presque toujours couru les triathlons/duathlons sous la pluie... Il y a aussi un bon vent qui souffle et je me dis que cela ne va pas etre simple sur le velo... Bref nous arrivons enfin, le village et le site sont magnifiques. On repere les lieux, la plage d ou nous commencerons le triathlon, la zone de transition sur la falaise. Oui j ai bien dit sur la falaise... donc ca veut dire que la transition entre la fin de la natation et le velo n est pas evidente du tout. Il y a bien 500m de montee avec des virages en “S” facon la montee de l Alpe d huez. Nous recuperons nos dossards, mangeons un dernier morceau et c est parti pour aller installer nos velos dans le “bike park”. Ambiance bon enfant, il y a un animateur au micro qui est absolument excellent ! Chaque fois que quelqu un vient lui poser une question, il la repete au micro : qui aurait un 2eme bonnet de natation? Qui aurait de la crème solaire, qui aurait un tournevis.... bref, c est la rigolade. Entre deux, il sort evidemment des blagues que je ne comprends pas toujours mais bon...Il fait beau et tout le monde a le sourire. Le briefing approche, et l heure du depart aussi. Nous sommes 500 à courir ce triathlon (750m de natation, 20km de velo et 7km à pied) Les hommes de moins de 40 ans partent en premier et les autres 10mn plus tard. On se retrouve tous en combinaison sur la plage, l eau est fraiche.. c est sur ce n est pas la mediterranee mais bon depuis mon aquatlon de Bray mercredi dernier je sais que je peux nager en mer sans avoir trop froid. Le depart des hommes est donné, les femmes se preparent et c est parti ! Nous nageons contre la marée montante ce qui rend la course plus difficile. Je trouve le temps long mais pour une fois on a de la place pour nager et je ne recois pas trop de coup, je sors de l eau après 18mn50, essouflee et je m apprete à affronter la montee pour retrouver mon velo... J arrive à bout de souffle tout en haut et je retrouve Richard qui part sur son velo, nous avons à peine la force de s echanger quelques nots : “ tough swim, good luck for the bike”. Je me dis que je ne suis pas la seule à etre fatiguée par la natation. J attaque alors le velo avec le vent de face, ce n est pas facile mais je m accroche. Je ne vois personne de l equipe pendant toute l epreuve, les 20km se font tant bien que mal, j arrive dans la zone de transition pour deposer mon velo et partir faire les 7km à pied et je retrouve à nouveau Richard. Nous partons ensemble et après quelques centaines de metres nous commencons les fameux 3 km de montee... et oui c est la cerise sur le gateau. Je m accroche tant bien que mal, determinée de ne pas m arreter car je sais bien que si je m arrete c est mort et que je n arriverai pas à repartir. Richard fait une pause mais je continue. Je survis tant bien que mal à cette nouvelle epreuve et je termine les 7km en comptant un par un les derniers metres. Sean et David ont fini et ont l air en pleine forme contrairement à moi qui recherche desesperemment de l eau. Richard nous rejoint quelques minutes plus tard. Nous nous etirons, discutons des difficultes rencontrees pendant la course mais surtout nous sommes tous satisfaits d avoir termine car c est sur que après 1h52 d intenses efforts on ressent une satisfaction enorme une fois la ligne d arrivée franchie. N ayant pas encore couru de distance olympique ce triathlon est probablement le plus dur que je n ai jamais couru. Je realise alors que dans 15 jours je serai au UK pour courir mon 1er distance olympique (1.5km de natation, 40km de velo et 10km à pied) et que ca va etre tres tres dur. Mais pour l instant je savoure ! Direction le pub pour manger un morceau et boire un verre et profiter du soleil (qui se cache un peu trop à mon gout derriere les nuages). Je rentre ensuite à Dublin tout sourire. Aujourd’hui, c est journée repos. J ai des courbatures aux jambes et de beaux coups de soleil sur les epaules, comme quoi meme en Irlande on peut attraper des coups de soleil !!!! Qui l’eut cru ???

What we're raising money for

Last Friday, 12th June, we paid a visit to Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin. It was a great opportunity to find out exactly WHY we're fundraising, WHO will benefit and WHAT the money will be spent on.

The Hospital treats on a yearly basis over 24,500 inpatients and day cases, 30,100 Emergency Department attendances, 76,000 Out Patient attendances and performs over 13,500 operating procedures.

WHY? To raise €35,000 in vitally needed funds for the main Children's Hospital in Ireland.

WHO? Kids...kids...kids. Sick Irish children and their parents and families
WHAT? Fundraising money will go to buying medical equipment which will help sick kids. Money will also go towards medical research and building new wards/bedrooms (or even keeping existing wards open hopefully) and renovating existing facilities to ensure kids have a comfortable stay in hospital.

While we knew before going that our money would go to Crumlin, it really brought it home that these children NEED this money and it will make a DIFFERENCE. The needs sounds so basic (equipment, facilities, beds) however the state doesn't fund it all, so fundraising has to make up the gap.

We spoke to a head nurse in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit and spending cuts will impact her team as overtime cover will be harder to get and this could result in delayed operations or even cancellations.

I definately left with a determination to make our €35,000 target and an amazing respect for the staff who work in Crumlin, as well as the amazing kids who this is all for.

A day in the sun with a difference

Last Saturday, with the sun shining, most people were either eating ice-creams or drinking cider (or both) while soaking up the rays. Not to be for us – we had the misfortune of dipping our toes in the Triathlon world on the hottest day of the year! For the Trionic 7 team (well minus Marie) this was our first real test. Some of the lads had done the practice swim in Athy the week before and by all accounts getting used to the murky waters of the Barrow was only one of the barriers to be overcome.
Over 2,500 people compete in TriAthy and it seems as if well over a 1,000 were like myself, i.e tri-virgins! Arriving in the GAA club, it was mobbed with cars, people, bikes and figure hugging tri-suits. I’m still getting used to the gear – the idea of wearing a cross between some sort of one piece man-bikini just brings Borat to mind. So I stuck to t-shirt and shorts. While we’ve been fundraising for over a month, my training is a little bit behind that. I only took the plunge and bought my bike and wetsuit last week. Pete did the same and I know how he felt when he said he had to put his credit card in a bucket of ice after splashing out (ok enough water related puns).
Barry and Sean did the Olympic distance (1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run) in the morning, which is fair going. While Barry’s a seasoned pro (must be retiring soon) Sean made the jump from Sprint to Olympic in a week, so no doubt the drugs testers will be out after him next time. Barry even managed 2 punctures in that time, so he must be a dab hand at changing a car tyre too. By the time we met the lads, they were well finished but looking as if they hadn’t even stretched themselves. Two a half hours to get around is a lot of slogging, but hopefully that’s where the rest of us will be soon.
Myself, Pete, Richie and Johanna signed up for the Sprint distance (750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run) which went off in waves (bunches of about 200 people) during the afternoon. We got setup in the transition area and it really was “bike porn” as someone described it. The swim was downstream on the Barrow, which helped as the current was strong. Still though, when you stick your head under the surface you can barely see the end of your nose, so nothing like swimming in the pool. Add to that getting whacked with flailing arms and legs and you get the picture. I found the swim ok, it seemed to pass quick enough (9 mins). You get hauled out of the water onto a pontoon by helpers and get left there like a beached whale. Running a trying to take a wetsuit off, I struggled to sort my gear in the transition zone. Some people just do a Superman in the telephone box and are ready to go.
The cycle was my big unknown. Even getting used to those clip-in shoes was new to me. But it went fine. The route was straight out the Carlow road and back in (39 min). Back in the transition zone for the run, I got the shoes on and off I set. I knew this would be my strongest part, as I’ve been running a lot over the past few years, so was a nice feeling to pick people off (as opposed to bike where I’m not great). The run involved an off-road section through an uneven farmers field (good for twisting ankles and growing potatoes, not for races though) and came back along the towpath of the river, which was nice if you were going for a leisurely walk, but I didn’t have much time to take in the scenery (19 mins).
Crossing the line was a great feeling. To have finally done it. Something new that I’ve never done before. Same goes for Richie and Pete who like me are complete newbies to this. Johanna knows what she’s doing, so probably had higher expectations/standards than “just finishing”! But that was the amazing thing about it for me – there was people of all shapes and sizes, all ages and hair colours, toned muscles and flabby bellies, but at the end of the day it didn’t matter a damn, as everyone who finished deserves a pat on the back. It’s a great buzz to be able to challenge yourself (even if you do get slightly pissed when someone twice your age and weight breezes past you on the bike!).
So now we’ve got the bug, we need our next hit. Dunmore East in Co Waterford is next up on 20th June, but in the meantime there’s the business of fundraising to be attacked as well as some serious training. It was a long day in Athy but worth it. The length of the day measured by the time it took until I got my hands around a nice cold pint. Five past midnight to be exact, so I even missed a Saturday pint. Now that doesn’t happen too much. Things must be getting serious...

PHOTOS: check out this collage of pics from the Irish Times.