Sunday morning in Galway brought a 4am start for the 9 NWTC athletes tackling Ironman 70.3 as buckets of porridge were served up with side orders of tingly nerves and numerous toilet trips. NWTC guru and Ironman transition referee Karl greeted us at 5.30am with the usual calm detail on how to manage our race as people nervously organised their gear trying not to be too nosy at the camera crew following Boy zone’s star Keith Duffy’s every move. 1500 like minded lunatics lined up to tackle Ironman 70.3 as the Pro’s entered the water for a 7am start. David Harkin was the first NW man into action and having only signed up for Galway 2 weeks ago David’s concerns about the swim leg were quickly realised as half way through a bout of projectile vomiting and an “over anxious” female canoe marshal threatened to end his race. However having left an unpleasant trail for his fellow athletes David convinced the marshal he would not drown and continued on belligerently for shore (slowly and followed all the way by the rightly vigilant canoe lady! Returning Galway 70.3 veteran Dermot Connolly, who had spent the week consuming every available calorie, regardless of whose plate it was on, was next in to tackle what proved to be a long swim leg with GPS’s measuring it at over 2.1k. Conor Mulkerns, Mick McBride, Austin Cutliffe, Stephen Canavan, Alastair Laird and Paul McMenamin all followed into the calm waters of Galway Bay but it was the fast swimming Dawson Hinds who posted the quickest NW swim exiting the water in 36.28 and 12th in his age group. The long run to transition and mandatory nod to Karl was followed by an out and back bike leg to Connemara which was well supported all along the picturesque route. Mick McBride was fastest NW man posting a blistering 2hrs 30.03 for a top 10 age group bike split. The other 8 NW lads negotiated the bike leg incident free and with good times under everyone’s respective belts and another nod to Karl it was full steam ahead (well maybe 50% steam ahead) onto the well supported 3 lap half marathon run course. Sparta man Dermot Connolly tore it up posting a 1.37:24 whilst the others adopted an array of tactics. These largely turned out to be mostly survival tactics as the Ironman toil started to grip! Mick McBride posted a 1:46.53 whilst Ali Laird’s (2:04:41) brilliant effort on the bike resulted in him leaving his quads in transition and the inevitable painful run ensued Paul Mc’s (1:47:13) Plan A to run 10miles steady and then kick for home received various amendments and ended up as Plan Z = Don’t Walk! Stephen Canavan did a 2:04:53 competing on home turf whilst Cutliffe hung in bravely on his first half marathon for a 2:14:18 Mulkerns (2:02:02) and Harkin (2:10:21) battled on manfully but Hinds (2:26:11) proved the master tactician.
The Tri God’s decreed that as the big fell was beginning to crack on lap 2 they would send former Miss World and relay team member Miss Rosanna Davidson gracefully past. Reports suggest that Dawson only had enough juice to draft the shapely Miss Davidson for 400mtrs and that he was busted following this effort but was sufficiently stimulated to make it proudly to the finishing line. All 9 NW starters, 7 of which were Ironman rookies, finished safely (and beat Keith DuffyJ) and really enjoyed what was a very tough but worthwhile experience. Big thank-you to our small but dedicated band of supporters who gave all 9 guys great support and kept our spirits high when the demon doubts came calling!
Summary Finishing Times Below.
Name Overall Time Age Group Pos Overall Pos
Mick McBride 5:05:27 12 85
Dermot Connolly 5:21:56 8 177
Paul McMenamin 5:30:28 33 251
Conor Mulkers 5:48:57 101 425
Alastair Laird 5:57:36 74 490
Austin Cutliffe 6:01:07 77 522
Stephen Canavan 6:04:57 82 552
Dawson Hinds 6:05.55 86 558
David Harkin 6:19:17 72 648
