Ennis Triathlon
Having a very successful first Skerries Triathlon last year, myself and my dad/coach, Phil, decided to give Ennis a go. Training didn’t exactly go to plan. As my coach is my dad it’s very easy to say “I’m watching telly” when he suggests we go for a run! But how and ever I found myself in the car on the way to Ennis.
After a lovely nights rest in my Aunts, my cousin (who I dragged along to support), my dad Phil and I drove the rest of the way to Clare. I think my cousin was more excited than anyone as she had never seen a “real life” triathlon before! We needed her enthusiasm though as when we arrived the heavens had opened and it turned into true Irish weather. We parked and made a dash for the start line which was at least a kilometre away which is a long way when you’re wet!
On arrival to the registration, I was delighted to find out that I was not I the 12/13 category that dad thought, but the 14/15 category! Not!!! He, the intelligent man he is, didn’t bother to look at the category I was in based on the age I would be at the end of the year but because I was 13 at the time he booked it, he decided that was that! Not a good start to the day.
After some tears and apologising on dads side I decided just to feck it and see what would happen.
The hours were long drawn out but, before I knew it, I was warming up and then listening to the race briefing. We were brought down a slip way and given two minutes to get psyched. As I put my head under I made quite an astonishing discovery. There were seaweed like things sticking out of the ground! Me only being alive 13 years presumed this must be what a lake is like as I’ve never actually been in one before. I decided I didn’t like it. The lake was a murky brown colour which was quite off-putting. Thanks for the heads up dad!
Before I knew it we were off. I thought I would let the feisty ones battle it out and go towards the back. I attempted to put my head under but found my throat contracted every time I did so and realised I was panicking because of the reeds. I got to the first buoy of four and still hadn’t put my head down. I kept recalling a few weeks ago Linda had being saying she was getting panic attacks in the water and she couldn’t breath! It felt like the end, tell my mother I loved her kind of thing. Needless to say I got fairly slow as I could only do breaststroke with my head up, lost sight of the other competitors and made friends with the lad who made sure the last person got in! But I just thought to myself if Marie Casey Breen was here what would she be saying? “Come on Philippa keep going, there’s tea at the end!
Coming back to the slipway was pretty embarrassing as you could almost hear the crowd going “ah bless her, her first time and she doesn’t know what she put herself in for!” and clapping as if I had just come first in an Ironman! I sprinted into transition and quickly stopped to almost get sick and fall over before I made a mad dash to exit transition with my bike. I was on a mission to prove the crowd wrong and averaged 25/30kmph on the bike leg.
Back into transition, I had caught one girl and had my sights set on another. I knew going out on the run, most of my fellow competitors had already finished but my goal was to run my own race and finish smiling. I caught the next girl within two hundred meters of transition. Instead of passing her out I ran with her as looking back I don’t think either of us would have finished without each other. We did a sprint finish and smiled the whole way!
So in conclusion never let your dad book your race, try and know what to expect before you get into a lake and when struggling in a race just think of Marie and her tea!