TCB: Taking care of business...

Lads, job done. We're now in San Francisco, enjoying the sun of the Bay Area after leaving the Windy City behind. Trionic 7 came with a job to do and we did it! Barry O'Sullivan likes to exaggerate (slightly anyway) but he was bang on about Chicago Triathlon being a pure addrenilin buzz.

The city. The race. The party. The fans. The Crumlin crew.

Check out our race results here (click on Timberline link and then International Individual).

Too many stories to tell, so we'll save them til we're back. And Marie is already on photo 612, so no doubt there'll be a slideshow and a half done when we're back.

Peter O'Grady has gone to New York and some of the lads are heading down the coast to LA this week. The rest are heading back this weekend.

DP

Golf Classic Results: Carton House

We had a really successful day at Carton House on August 16th, with 17 teams competing. The list of prize winners is below. Thanks to everyone who played (and sponsored the event)

1st Place: 84 points

John montayne, Conor montayne, Roger montayne, Padraig Noonan

2nd Place: 82 points
Peter Fitzgerald, Stephen Grogan, Martin Brennan, Luke Hogan

3rd Place: 78 points
Peter O’Grady, Paul O’Grady, John O’Grady, Niall Balloch

4th Place: 75 points
Angela O’Grady, Eithne Murphy, Ger Brennan, Martin Brennan

5th Place: 74 points
Tony O’Sullivan, Maria, Bill, Michael

6th Place: 73 points
Craig Sowman, Frank Sowman, Simon Sowman, Simon Ferraro

7th Place: 72 points (better back 9)
Kevin O’Dwyer, John O’Dwyer, Dave O’Leary, Terri Sullivan

8th Place: 72 points
Therese O’Grady, Pat Howley, John Howley, Edel Howley

Longest Drive: Pat Howley

Nearest to the Pin: John Howley

My Brush with the Tarmac

“I thought you were dead,” these are the words the garda said to me today, two days after I crashed off my bike at about 35+ miles per hour, going down a hill on the road from Roundwood in Co Wicklow. I’ve never broken a bone in my body, and miraculously, that’s still the case. From talking to anyone who heard about a bike crash like that, it really makes me realise how lucky I was. Really lucky.
I place the odd bet on football and golf, and if someone had asked me what are your chances of being seriously injured if you fall of a bike at speed, I would have said pretty short. Going down a hill, even shorter. With a van coming the other way, miniscule. I’m not trying to dramatise here, but really do feel go raibh an t-ádh liom. I still feel a bit like humpty dumpty, but at least they could put me all back together. My bike came out the worst.
On Saturday, the sun was shining so I decided to go for a decent cycle. I’d done the Enniskerry-Glencree 45km route a good few times, so wanted something different. I looked at Roundwood which is a 60km round trip from Sandyford, and I figured I’d give it a go. With only 2 weeks to Chicago, I wanted a good fast cycle on decent roads, not just up- and down-hill. I reached Roundwood after about 1:25 hours and after a break for the now obligatory Lucozade Sport and Nutrigrain bar, headed back towards Enniskerry. The road was busy with traffic, but a decent surface. The last 3km down to the junction towards the N11 or Enniskerry was full of bends. I was going at a fair lick, but stayed well back from the 3 cars in front. As I came round a bend, onto a straight patch of a few hundred metres, I steadied up and saw a van come around the bend at the bottom.
I must have been going at least 50 kmph (35 mph) and when I peddled in a high gear, suddenly my right foot clipped out of the pedal as I pushed down. Most of my weight would have been on my right side, so I wobbled to the right (sorry, couldn’t find a more graceful word J). The van was heading straight up the hill and I was on a direct course towards it. I can’t remember what I did next, because it happened so fast, but do remember thinking maybe I could turn right and go into the ditch to avoid it. But I didn’t have time to do anything and next thing I know I’m flying through the air. I didn’t see the van but was assuming I would hit it. The seconds passed (like milliseconds) and next thing I’m lying on the tarmac on my right hand side, my head resting on my outstretched arm. I didn’t know what state I was in, other than alive. Being in an accident isn’t something they teach you in school.
I didn’t feel pain. I just saw the tarmac, my arm and the ditch. Then I saw blood. My arm was bleeding and my mouth was bloody. Had I broken my arm? My leg? What about my head? Within a few seconds, there were a group of people around me. They had a first aid kit and started to help. Before they had a chance to do anything, I heard “I’m a doctor”. A middle aged man with a beard knelt down and spoke to me “What is your name?” From there he proceeded to ask me a few questions and realised I was fully conscious. In hindsight, this was a very good sign. His priority was to ensure I didn’t move my arms or legs. He used the first aid kit to bandage up my injured elbows. He kept talking while we waited for the ambulance to arrive. He even called my dad to let him know what had happened (these days, nobody knows mobile numbers off by heart, but I knew his thankfully). The gardaí arrived pretty quickly. I could hear people saying “he was going very fast, he looked out of control.”
The ambulance sirens whined and I knew I was going to be in hospital soon. The doctor was worried about my shoulder being dislocated and my right arm being broken, so they were very careful putting me on the stretcher. They applied the neck brace in case my spine was damaged. I was able to lower my right arm and my shoulder didn’t pain that much. In fact, I felt ok considering. Maybe that was the shock. Aisling, the paramedic, looked after me on the way to St Vincents Hospital.
On arrival at A&E, I was wheeled into the “resus” zone. Once they knew I wasn’t a critical case, the pace of action around you slows down, but still they were excellent. The doctor checked out my arms, legs, upper body and back and figured that I hadn’t broken anything which was amazing. I still had a lot of wounds all over – cuts, scrapes, burns, bruises. So it was up to the nurse to clean them up (yes, ouch with TCP for a kick). I still wasn’t in serious pain, just very uncomfortable because of open wounds and raw skin. Then I realised my teeth didn’t feel right. Given all that I got done on my jaw last year, this was the last thing I wanted, so just to be sure I got a jaw x-ray. In the end it was fine, but I realised by lower front teeth had been pushed in a bit and an upper tooth was chipped. More trips to the dentist...
So I spent the night in Vincents which was good as wouldn’t have been comfortable at home. I had a TV so could even watch the Premiership. The worst part was lying in the bed, as the open wounds on my back were very uncomfortable. The next day I got a blood test and even felt like a pregnant woman for a while, when they did an ultrasound on my liver! The doctor even showed me my heart beating (“cool”, his words, not mine). When I saw the consultant, knowing that nothing was seriously injured, my immediate thoughts were the Chicago Triathlon. This is what I’ve been training for since April, and with only 2 weeks to go, I didn’t want to have to miss it. It would have been a real sickener. But at that stage I really didn’t know how fast recovery would be. I could see myself being able to run, and possibly cycle, but swimming sounded tricky, given the state of my elbows, back and face. But the consultant said that yep it should be possible. I’ll have plenty of scabs and scars but once they don’t get infected I should be all right.
So let’s wait 7 days. By next week my elbows and back should be a lot better. My biggest worry is the pain in my lower back. I hope that goes away. And I won’t be able to train, so not ideal preparation, but falling off your bike wasn’t good prep to start with. Saturday night I definitely didn’t think I’d be able to race in Chicago, but was determined I was going either way. By Sunday I was a little more confident and today I’m happier that I should be able to do it. Although I won’t be setting any world records – the swim might be at a snail’s pace, but I’ll be happy to get there!
Today I picked up the bike in Bray Garda Station and, given the news of two guys being stabbed to death last night, it made me realise that life is precious. I hobbled in and met the garda who arrived on the scene. He showed me the bike in a sorry state. Two buckled wheels, front fork twisted, handlebars messed up, but the frame and chain set all look intact. Once we got it to Cycle Superstore (Pete, I left my credit card outside just in case they tried suck it dry again), the guys there took it in their stride and said no bother, they’d give me a quote and it should be fixed by the weekend. Sounds like a day’s work for them. So at least I’m not the only dodgy cyclist in Dublin.
So with 13 days to the big day in Chicago, my thoughts are

(i) I feel so lucky I can still walk and talk,

(ii) delighted I’ll be on the start line,

(iii) will check my equipment a little closer next time

(iv) pissed I missed the golf classic in Carton House yesterday,

(v) stoked we made out fundraising target for Crumlin last night and

(vi) can see myself a little more likely to cross the finish line in downtown Chicago like these brave souls

Triathlone - only 6 weeks to Chicago

So the next step for the Trionic 7 towards reaching their goal of completing the Chicago triathlon was to brave the murky waters of the Shannon in the Tri Athlone on the 18th of July. Five of the seven made the 2 hour trip after work on Friday evening to register, collect our numbers and get most importantly our free t-shirts!! This famous five were Dave Power and Sean Young (Olympic distance) with Richie Harpur, Johanna Dinn and myself (Sprint distances). Richie “I got it covered” Harpur had booked a housemansion in the grounds of Glasson Country Club no less for the lads to take over while Joanna stayed in Athlone.

Within minutes of arriving in our country retreat we had unpacked all our equipment. We have all invested considerable sums on wetsuits, race bikes, racing shoes, open water goggles the list is endless! The kitchen looked like it had been transformed into an underground “Tour de France” type laboratory with bottles of Isotonic drinks, packets of energy gels and power bars lying around. All the scene was missing was a few scientists in white jackets with clipboards while test tubes of oxygenated blood bubbled away in the background! J We have discovered that there is a mountain of products that can help your body out of the depths of despair to get around these events and lets face it with mother nature against me I need all the help I can get.

The Race
We were up at 6:30 to ensure that everyone got down to the barracks for the race start. Rumours had been circulating the night before about the swim being shorten to only down stream if the current didn’t weaken and sure enough on the morning of the race it was deemed too strong and therefore all participants only swam the sprint distance of 750 meters. In Athlone there was a considerable distance between the transition area and the water. The terrain between the two being a very stony path resulting in a long gruelling painful run in your bare feet. Hot coals would have caused less grimacing but I’m sure it made an amusing spectacle for the large crowd that had turned out. We were all a lot more relaxed and prepared this time around and confident that we could shave a few minutes off our last times. You are constantly picking up tips on what you could do to maximise your speed while minimising the physical effort and energy burnt.

For example we had been warned that cyclists would be penalised if found drafting (this is cycling less then 7 meters behind the bike in front) as this protects you from the wind, in a slipstream, to the extent that you burn a quarter of the energy while keeping at the same speed. I didn’t realise that this was also the case in the water, that if you can swim behind someone that you use a lot less energy as you’re swimming in their wake and every now and again you can grab onto one of their feet to get toed a bit! J

The Run

The run was great in triathlone as the route was a couple of circuits of the town which was packed with people cheering all the competitors on. Its amazing how much faster you run with clapping and words of encouragement ringing in your ears and there was no hiding places to squeeze in a sneaky walk without attracting looks of disappointment and even though its from strangers you still didn’t want to let them down. So we all managed to complete it without any major injuries to bodies or equipment, just a few cramps and an auld muscle spasm or two thrown in for good luck. I’ve notice the array of people that you see competing in these events are unreal. There were at least two ladies I saw in their sixties and a few gents that had to be close to their seventies. Chicago will have tri athletes of ever shape, size, age, able and disabled people participating in it.

What's next

With one eye on Chicago we are still working towards our main goal and that is to reach our fundraising target of €35k now only approx €9.5k is remaining. We spent Friday night shaking buckets outside Croke Park for the U2 concert and have plans to hold a poker night while we are currently selling raffle tickets for a framed Irish rugby top signed by the grand Slam winning team! Our next major outing is in Carton House on the 16th of August where we have booked the Montgomerie course for a golf outing. This was a great lift for us to get such an amazing location for what we know will be a great day.

Make sure to contact one of the team if you would like to attend or email crmftri@microsoft.com.

I would like once again to take the opportunity to thank all our team mates and Microsoft for the generosity that has been showed towards the cause. Richie and myself were in Crumlin again this w/end and there was people protesting about budget cuts and planned ward closing, fundraising is more important then ever for Crumlin and this could be seen in the faces of all the worried parents.

Our next outing Triathlon wise is The Pulse Sprint Triathlon in Port Beach, Clogherhead, Co. Louth on Saturday 8th August. This will be the last event that most of us will take part in before the trip to Chicago. There is already talk over pints of marathons and Iron man contests of training camps and weight programs for the winter months in preparation for next year. Whatever about next year, the fear that we had before is gradually changing to confidence and excitement at the challenge that lies ahead and there is a feeling that we as a team could take on anything!

Peter & team

Team blog
Online donations page

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.