Reviewing Last Year

Looking back at 2024, I forgot how much racing I did. 1 x marathon, 2 x Olympic and 3 x Sprint triathlons. My goals for the year were:

1. a sub 3 hour marathon

2. a sub 13:00 swim for 750m

3. a sub 1:05 Sprint Triathlon.

The sprint to the finish line of the 10K on Paddy's Day

I started with what turned out to be my only 10K of the season, running 37:30 in March. Looking back, that was a lot better than I could have expected given my training that early in the year.

Finally smiling again after a rough day out in Paris

Up next was the Paris marathon in April. The goal was sub 3 hours right up until race day. On the day, I just didn’t feel “on”. I was flat and I knew the 4:15 per Km just wasn’t coming at the right level of effort. I decided to run conservatively until the 30K mark and use whatever I had left at that point… and thank god I did! I hit the wall at 33K after “holding back” until that point and I limped home. Upon reflection, I fell to the level of my preparation. 3:13:45 was my time in the end. Not bad but quite a bit off the goal. The upside was that I wasn’t injured!

Getting on to the bike after the swim of my life at Crooked Lake

The triathlon year got off to an ok start in June at the Crooked Lake Triathlon. One of my goals for the year was to swim 750m in under 13 minutes. This is something that was unfathomable 2 years ago but with consistent improvements, it was now on the table. Coming out of the water in exactly 13 minutes was a great buzz. It was a 28 second improvement on the swim from the same course last year. However, the bike and run were average at best. I finished 48th overall.

In around this time I started joined the coaching team of my Tri Club’s “Try-a-Tri” program. This program gives 10-12 athletes a chance to try their first sprint triathlon, with 14-16 weeks of coached training. This was my first “formal” bit of triathlon coaching after years of “informal” coaching and was part of the reason I finally decided to launch Fit to Tri. In fairness, we had a great bunch of athletes but working with people to help them make progress and achieve things that once seemed impossible is something I just can’t get enough of.

Everyone from Olympian that raced Beyond the Wall

The next race was the Beyond the Wall triathlon in Castleward at the end of June. This race is always class. I had an ok Swim but my lack of power and bravery on the bike was on full display. I came into transition at the same time as 2 of my clubmates… that started in the wave behind me. I swam faster than both of them so they absolutely demolished me on the bike, catching and overtaking me. It did mean I ended up in a 3-man running race with two club mates of mine – it felt like the 2 Brownlees and Javier Gomez in London 2012. Racing clubmates is harder than racing anyone else. Even though they would finish about a minute faster than me overall, in that moment, all that mattered was this 5K run. You know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and bragging rights are worth more than any Olympic medal or prize money. That bit of proper racing over the 5K was good fun but it was brutal. I finished 2nd in that particular 3 man race-within-the-race. I finished 1:15:31 overall, which was 2nd in my M25-29 age group.

Crossing the finish line at Top of the Mourne

Up next was the notorious “Top of the Mourne” in July – I signed up to this one to force me to work on my cycling. The bike takes you up into the Mournes (as the name suggests) with the first 21Km of the 40Km bike climbing up to 450m before descending back down into Rostrevor for a 10K run in a beautiful forest park. I had the best swim of the year, going through 1500m in 25:48. Given the nature of the bike route, I opted for my road bike which was unnecessary in hindsight. I didn’t have a goal in terms of time, I was aiming to keep my heart rate at threshold and get round the bike without blowing up. I had a bike time of 1:29:45 which was just about in the top half of the times. I couldn’t have got much more out of myself on the day without really falling off the pace during the run - a hamstring cramp on the 2nd of 3 laps to make up the 10K meant I finished the run in a time of 44:37, giving me an overall time of 02:44:27, finishing 63rd overall and 9th of the 17 men aged 25 to 29 that finished.

On the bike at Tri the Lough about 45 seconds before stopping for a bad crash

Next up was my “A” race of the year – Tri the Lough. This is a sprint triathlon that takes place in a lake which is 400m from my home house, with the run taking place around that lake and the cycle being 2 laps of a rectangle route that my house sits inside of. I was properly fit by this stage of the year. I had worked a lot on my threshold bike power and I was ready to hit another goal for the year – a sub 1:05 sprint triathlon. After a 12:17 swim, I was off to a good start. T1 was quick and I was flying over the start of the bike. But just about halfway through the first lap, a chap in front of me had a very, very nasty fall. I think he had a speed wobble on a slight downhill section and ended up hitting the ground hard. I stopped to make sure he was still conscious because it was a bad one. Thankfully, he was responsive but he was dealing with too much pain to answer me. He was badly winded and bleeding a lot from the chunks that the road had taken out of him. I wasn’t sure if he had broken any bones or if anything more serious was going on inside him so I cycled back against the race traffic to an ambulance positioned about 500m behind us, to alert them. When I made my way back to him, some of his clubmates had stopped and he was thankfully a bit better than when I first saw him. I went on to finish the race in a time of 1:10:13. I think had I not stopped, I may have managed a 1:06 at best. Although, my memory of the race was being angry that 6 or 8 people just flew past him after his nasty crash. We’re not elite athletes and amateur triathlon is not cut throat.

Starting the second lap of the Hazelwood Triathlon run leg.

My final race was the Olympic triathlon in Hazelwood, Sligo. This is a beautiful course. The weather was far from beautiful. It rained from around 5:30am that morning and it didn’t stop, apart for a 30-minute window during the race briefing and the race start. The start was actually delayed due to the rain. I had high hopes of a sub 2:20 but when I got out on to the bike course, the plan shifted to “don’t crash”. It was brutal. I put in a waterproof jacket and gloves; thank god I did. A top 25 swim in a choppy lake, a 1:19 bike without a crash and a sub 40 minute 10K gave me a time of 2:30:22 and 24th overall in a field of 154 brave souls that made it round.  

Some of the "Try-a-Triers" at the finish line

My final triathlon engagement of 2024 was the Try-a-Tri at the Mourne Sprint Triathlon. Unfortunately, due to the damn Blue Green Algae that was everywhere, the race was changed to a duathlon. This may have been the best day of my triathlon year. It’s hard to describe how much I enjoyed the coaching, getting to know the athletes and the big day itself. It was a period that impacted a lot of decisions I’ve made going forward.

It was a “just about above average” season. I was reminded that where you put your focus is where you tend to see improvement. I focused a lot on my swim and produced some great times for me. The bike was my weakness, as it has been for many years. I didn’t do enough to improve but I didn’t lose any bike strength either. I did more cycling volume than any other year but my quality sessions weren’t specific enough. I have some longer-term goals that will require me to address this in a big way. My sub 3 hour marathon goal is not dead and buried either. I think what’s needed here is a larger weekly volume of running and more long, slow runs. I simply need to improve my aerobic capacity to make more progress. I’m not 100% clear on my sporting goals for 2025 as my fiancée and I relocated to New Zealand in October 2024 but I will get them written down soon. Making the most of travelling, setting my clients up for success and getting employed out here in NZ took priority over my own sporting goals but now that we have some stability, its time to get planning!