Paul May

Unfortunately I’ve had to miss my last two races (Blessington and Lough Neagh) of the Triathlon season because of the move to Belfast. I’m just really up to my ears moving gear up to Belfast, and getting the kit together to do races and travel up and down at weekends just isn’t practical.

It’s been a good season; I’ve done a couple of sprints and a couple of Olympic distance races; and I’ve been happy with my times in all. It’s not the 6 races that I had planned to do, but the cycle across Spain in September will be a good challenge before we head into the deep dark winter.

Belfast is going well; the house is great and work is nice and challenging (in a good way). We’re pitching for some great work, so fingers crossed.

I live in Belfast now. Last week I lived in Dublin. That’s the short version of my move to Belfast to take up a new job with Front, a growing web development company. I don’t tend to blog about work, and that’ll continue to be the case - but the first few days have been great and I’m hoping to make a good go of it here in Northern Ireland. Being away from Cliona during the week is already tough; but hopefully we’ll settle into the routine of me being in Dublin at weekends, or her visiting me here. Anyway, that’s all for now. Wish me luck.

London lived up to the hype; it was a great race with over 9000 people competing over the two days of the race - officially the largest race in the world. Like Dublin, the weather in London has been dreadful this summer - except for this weekend when temperatures hit 30 degrees during the race. Luckily I was in the 7am wave, so I was out of the heat before it got too grim.

My race went pretty well - I was really happy with my time of 2.31.33, but the swim was a bit ruined when some fool pulled my goggles off. I swam 1200m in horrible water with no goggles and was pretty pissed off until well into the cycle (angry cycling). The cycle itself was fine - closed roads all the way through central London with some very fast sections through tunnels along the Thames. The turn on the bike was just at Big Ben, opposite the London Eye and the scenery was a real bonus (even though I didn’t pay too much attention to be honest). The run was warm and pretty uneventful, just a two-lap grind around Victoria dock - then into the Excel centre to cross the finish line with cameras flashing and a great atmosphere all round. All the Piranhas did really well, I’m sure they’ll be posting their own reports on the Piranha Site. Special thanks to Cliona for the support and for helping me lug my bag and bike around London for the weekend.

In 5 hours I’m moving to Belfast - how did that happen? :)

We’ve arrived in London, and the buzz before tomorrow’s race is great. The sprints are on today and then we go tomorrow - the weather is shaping up to be great (London has been plagued by bad weather too in the last month). Bit worried about the water quality - but that’s life for you. I’ll write a proper update afer the race with some photos.

Zoom. Not long back from Barcelona, now we’re off to London for the weekend. I’m doing the London City Triathlon on Sunday, which should be good fun. I had hoped to do a good time in London, but a combination of colds and holidays have set my training back a bit. I’m happy enough to finish this one and just enjoy the day. I’m already thinking ahead to next year; I’ve spent just over a year doing the sport now, and next year I’d actually like to train to be good a the sport - not just to finish. Anyway, three more races to go this year; then back into the gloom of winter training. One week to new job.