Turlough Conway

12 July, 2011

Race report on special request by Mick Hanney although im reserving the right to pen it in the style of an upcoming novel.

I parked up Chiyo, jumped out on the puddled parking area and was confronted by the solemn gaze of the warden. I mumbled something about a new born baby, must leave immediately after the race, and his gaze narrowed as one who has sensed and exposed a hideous pad of Bull. I continued chatting jovially as i made my escape.

Chiyo BTW is my mazda 626. Chiyo is his new name. It means eternal, 1000 generations. This is to give Chiyo heart in the upcoming NCT test. If he doesnt win his race he will be called Haruka which means “far away and squashed into a metallic cube”.

Anyway i overheard a marshall tell another one that they might get away with it, “it” meaning being pissed on from the heavens presumably so i lateralled thoughtfully that with a bit of luck we also might get away with “it”.

I met John Brennan and jogged out the course with him. I fancied that i might do well here, racing well in road races recently and feeling the climbing is still probably OK. John would undoubtedly be a problem later on and even still i couldnt hold my tongue and ended up blabbing my thoughts on the best tactics to finish ahead in a close finish. “Whosever is ahead (of the mini group) at the start of that last narrow descent will likely stay ahead. All he has to do is speed up in the last 20 meters of descending to have a 7-8 metre gap turning onto the last 50 metres of fireroad. That means that the wide trail leading to the narrow descent is the place to decide the finishing order. You need to be ahead here even if it means covering the previous 200 metres at an all out sprint.”

Ofcourse i now needed a new plan myself if John happenned to be just ahead of me going into this section at this section! It mattered not as things transpired.

Back down hovering around and i see two more major problems in the shape of Tom Hogan and Peter O'Farrell. I know Peter is tired from Lug and Seefingan and other adventures and he tells me as much. I feel that my best shot of beating Tom and John might be to let them go, hope they dont climb too hard and attack the second half of the race hard.

Off we go and im climbing easily in 6th or 7th place. A Cnoc geansai is in first well ahead of Tom (Seamus O'Boyle). I immediately discounted this runner as a threat as i felt that he started too hard and could not recover and challenge. I was wrong and lucky to be ahead of him at the end. In fact any other course bar this runnable/not very technical one would have found me behind id wager.

Anyway the course flattens out after a few hundred metres. I plead with myself to hold back.........naaaaaaw. Off i go, past john and race up to Tom shoulders. Let him know theres a dark horse in town.
Then i get the feeling. Its not pain but its more of a small thought sprouting. Am i going too hard here?

Ive asked my self this question in many other races. If you have to ask this question the answer is almost always yes. Tom decides hes been in second long enough and as we climb again he pushes a bit and passes Seamus and runs into open space. I try and follow. Oops this feels very hard. I pass Seamus try and curtail Toms gap opening, but by the time we reach the tarmac the gap is heading for 10 seconds. Toms road speed seems to carve out more seconds and when he turns off road again i have given up completely on the win.

I sense John is not far behind but i know the ground flattens a little after a while and i should be able to breath a little without losing ground to my pursuers.

I hear John closing though and after passing Amidou on marshalling duty I am passed by John climbing strongly on the next steepish up. It levels off and i can settle into a steady pace to get out of oxygen debt. That works and i am able to hold the gap steady for a while.

This is taking to long and Im having second thoughts about the novel. Queue fast forwarding sounds. I kept John a little worried till the last climb to Trooperstown summit where he makes more time and a decent descent moves him out of range. If he sees me making a mad gallop for him, he knows to get to the top of that descent as quick as poss...some little birdie told him.

Anyway, Seamus flying down behind keeps me working harder than i want to. Well done to Race Director ans all volunteers ..super job as usual.

Well done to Tom and Aoife on the wins.

Ill let you know what happenned to Chiyo or Haruka on my next report.

Rene Borg

07 July, 2011

TEAM

MEN
1. Rathfarnham WSAF 10 (2 John Brennan, 3 Turlough Conway, 5 Peter O'Farrell)
2. UCD 27 (6 Tim Grummell, 10 Zoran Skrba, 11 Luke McMullan)
3. Sli Cualann 40 (9 Ben Mooney, 13 Rafael Salazar, 18 Jimmy Synnott)
4. Boards AC 68 (14 John Ahern, 30 Eamonn Hodge, 34 Shane Jenkinson)
5. Racing795 71 (1 Tom Hogan, 28 Brian O'Shaughnessy, 42 Paul Browne)
6. The Vulgar Callunas 190 (15 Ian O'Kane, 66 John Langan, 119 Jesko Zimmerman)

WOMEN
1. Crusaders AC 21 (1 Aoife Joyce, 8 Susan Seager, 12 Eva Fairmaner)
2. River Runners 36 (7 Catherine Halpin, 10 Michelle Rowley, 19 Aisling Corkery)