Terrific ‘Tinahely 9’ complete Ironman
Nine local athletes finish Barcelona
EARLY October, 2017, somewhere up in the Wicklow mountains, a group of Tinahely Tri-Club members were slogging it out on their bikes. ]
One of the guys said: ‘I’ve signed up for IM Barcelona, lads, rush of blood to the head.
‘Sure, it’s a nice one for your first said,’ someone replied.
The seed was sown and by the end of that cycle at least three more guys had decided to go for it. Over the next two weeks the club’s WhatsApp was alive with pictures of their entry and those words: ‘I’m in’.
In the end, nine Tinahely TriClub members had signed up for Barcelona 2018.
There were five veterans: John Dempsey, Darren Mooney, Ray Caulfield, Jason O Neill and Alex Williams, plus the four newbies Jim Dunne, Alan Byrne, Damien Tracey and the big Welsh man, Myrrdan Davies. Game on!
The next few cycles were just that little bit more intense and the talk was ah sure we have over a year to train.
VO2 tests all round followed to get out training zones nailed down, big thanks to Health Matters who gave them all a good start.
The next year went a breakneck speed with training intensity taking a significant upward curve.
From the ‘Pain Cave’ in Stephen Perry’s shed for turbo session (pain being the perfect choice of words to describe it) to the early Saturday morning runs on the Railway Walk and the endless winter pool lengths in Arklow and Carlow counting down the weeks when they could get to open water.
There was a lot of solitary training for the nine guys as well, planning around family and work commitments which was not an easy task as at peak all nine were putting in over 20 hours of training per week
Some of the more memorable sessions were the long swims up in Glendalough lake where there were a couple of 4.5k swims that finished in the dark, ‘that’s what it takes’, or as an Ironman mantra goes: ‘We don’t stop when we’re tired, we stop when we’re done’ and this group of nine lads lived up to that mantra right to the end.
‘I think if put to a vote, our Barcelona recci weekend would win hands down as everyone’s favorite training block,’ said a club spokesperson.
‘Another few stand out training sessions were the long bike sessions led by Johnny D where he put us through our paces, 30 minutes on and 10 off for 160k really tested everyone’.
The sportive cycles, the triathlons used as training blocks, most notably the double Olympic in Athy all served to strengthen the team and get them to the start line In Barcelona in the best possible shape.
The WhatsApp continued to provide great support and inspiration throughout the training, most notable being Darren’s motivational videos.
‘Before we knew it, we were sending our bikes out to Barcelona with Ship my Bike and we were soon to follow.
A big crowd of supporters, family and friends, made the trip out to support the ‘Tinahely 9’.
‘It definitely helped on the day when things got tough, we owe all of them a huge depth of gratitude,’ said the spokesperson.
‘You always hope that things go your way on race day, particularly the weather.
‘Nothing to worry about here, after all we’re in Spain in October. Wrong! The thunderstorms rain and wind that took hold the night before race day had us all on edge’.
The swim conditions were brutal, big swell and chop made it very difficult and with 300 athletes having to be pulled out of the sea with their race over and the ‘Tinahely 9’ supporters were rightly worried.
All nine made it out of the swim and on to the bike leg. Game on.
Some rain on the bike made road conditions a bit sketchy with a lot of falls but all nine nailed the bike leg and with the 180km bike in the bag and just a simple matter of a 42k run, no sweat.
As it happened, there was quite a lot of sweat actually, as the sun came out for the run leg and all nine settled into a great rhythm helped greatly by the brilliant Tinahely supporters who seemed to be everywhere around the course and the nine competitors were easy spotted with the Tricolour sleeves of their new try suits especially made for the occasion thanks to local businesses who kindly sponsored them.
One by one each of the nine guys heard the words they were dreaming of since October 2017:
John Dempsey you are an Ironman (for the fourth time)
Darren Mooney you are an Ironman (third time)
Alex Williams you are an Ironman (fourth time)
Myrrdan Davies you are an Ironman (first time)
Alan Byrne you are an Ironman (first time)
Ray Caulfield you are an Ironman (second time)
Damien Tracey you are an Ironman (first time)
Jason (Honda) O Neill you are an Ironman (third time)
Jim Dunne you are an Ironman (first time)
All home safe and sound and with targets and goals blown out of the water.
There’s an old saying that it takes a village to raise a child. Well, it takes a club to make an Ironman. Tinahely Tri, a small club in Wicklow punching above its weight.
Take a bow.