3rd July 2007 |

The Hell of the West

A race report from The Hell of the West Triathlon in Kilkee. It was a tough race to be honest; long cycle, cruel uphill run. But hey, I survived.

Last Saturday I took part in the Kilkee "Hell of the West" Triathlon; my second Olympic distance race - finishing in 2 hours 52 minutes 3 seconds (155th male out of 308).

I'm very happy with my time - to say that Kilkee is on another planet of difficulty to Chicago and the other races I've done would be putting it mildly. The swim was fine; I was relaxed, the water wasn't freezing and the shamozzle didn't put me off at all. 30 minutes for 1500m - not exactly fast, but 7 minutes quicker than Chicago. The bike course is a 45K tangle of small hills, downhills and tricky roads…1.29.28 for the transition out of the swim , the bike course and the transition to the run. The run course is cruel and unusual; literally, 5K straight uphill and then 5K back down again. A tough, tough race.

After the race I went out to dinner with the Piranhas (Murphy Blacks in Kilkee do an excellent steak if you're ever in the area), and then we had a few drinks. Most people went on to the race HQ in the Kilkee Bay Hotel for "the dishco", but I was happy enough to call it a night and stagger home to bed.

A cracking weekend, and a race I'll definitely do next year.

A small photo of The Author with some lovely tea by way of a witty footer
Paul May is a researcher and designer from Dublin, Ireland; he is currently a student at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP). Feel free to directly (or you can use the contact form). You can also get him on twitter or flickr. Paul enjoys writing in the third person.