Marathon Champs 26th Aug

[Paul]

I thinks its ridiculous that you have to pay beforehand

You should try working the sign-on tent next time we have an NPS Davey. 

Its the way events are going these days... People had no problem paying well in advance of the Gravity Enduro's

I think if you mail teamballyhouramtb@gmail.com with your cat, ci number and details they may help you out.

[James]

Hey Colm, I’m going to have to give tomorrow a miss too, still recovering from food poisoning.  Going for an enduro spin I wouldn’t survive 4 hours flat out, drop ya a text later. 

On the pre-registration thing why do they have to keep the money?  If you got it back (or at least a portion of it) a lot more people would pre-register.  I know it’s a risk for the promoters but at the end of the day is it fair to charge someone for a race they didn’t compete in?

[Paul]

Best of luck to everyone heading down tomorrow...!! 

[DaveyD]

I was reminded again today how good the setup is down in The Ballyhoura's, endless singletrack, toilets, showers, bike wash, tea/coffee its just fantastic.
Fair play to all Team Ballyhoura for another fantastic event.

However I should have know this morning when I near scalded myself with my hot milk on my ready break that today was going to be eventfull. Myself and ryan set off at about 7 in order to get there with plenty of time to catch the feed stop buckets as they were leaving pretty early and missing them would be tramautic, so we got there with plenty of time to catch up with Craig and Joe and hear all the goery details of the now Infamous Cooley killer Sheep s**tinyourbottle bug, which I managed to escape. (Probably becasue I had no water to drink) anyway getting a bit sick of sitting around we prepared our bikes and got ready for the start.
11.30 on the button racing got underway with a steady pace onto the road and a loop of the lower trails, twice, On which I managed to get a puncture  First one in a long time, cant even remember the last time I punctured, anyway there appeared to be a big hole in my rear tyre which goop wouldnt fill,so time to put on my only spare tyre. Needless to say I was pissed as I had managed to keep Joe and Craig in sight for this early stage and was feeling good settling in to the pace.
Fixing the puncture was torture seeing all the people passing knowing that I would never get back to where I was, I was gutted to puncture at such an early stage, anyway after fixing it and deciding to carry on as I Knew I was going to be in trouble if i punctured again So I started to get into a steady but fast pace and thought I would just pin it untill the 50k mark and then see how it goes.
Steadily started to pick people off and at about 15k and I was sure I was getting closer to people I recognized from earlier on the climbs, All the time still worrying about getting another puncture so I tried to take it somewhat easy without slowing down.
After getting back into the flow of things and enjoying the speed that ballyhoura has to offer I started to enjoy the course again.. Then It happened!!!!
No it wasnt a puncture!..... It wasnt a broken mech or hanger... It was a tree stump planted by the Devil himself!!
What did this tree stump do???
As it was statically planted on a sweeping righthander it was only ever going to catch someone, on day by the little piggy and not let go.
Thats right.. it managed to get one of its freaky offspring to trap my little toe between it and my pedal, and with me at near terminal velocity it was never going to be good. As it came loose my whole body managed to tense up knowing that that little piggy had its day............
I knew that familar pain as that little piggy has previous for not staying intact but kept gong in the hope that it wasnt really broken just a little sore!!
I rolled on a bit before deciding I would try and move it, that was the moment I knew I should just go back to the car and wait for Ryan. This was at the 18K mark so all I could do was roll on to the feed station and get directions home, all the time wondering if I would make another 50+K without moving it, so tried only to be quickly reminded that that little piggy was in a precarious position on the very extremes of my riding position and chances of not knocking were 0-none. So after a few roars of dissapointment (and pain) I got directins back to the start to wait for Ryan.
DNF's are not nice, especially when I was so looking forward to that race. I was/am seriously dissapointed with todays events, Dam dam dam.

Me and Ballyhoura have a bone to settle  (Pun intended)

On another note, Jim, Micko, and craig had great races. as too did Ryan. I didnt get to see joe and Ger come in as I headed off home.


Thanks team Ballyhoura, I'll be back next year.
 

[craig_s]

Another great race that was very well organised by Team Ballyhoura they did a great job, this definitely gets my vote as best event of the year.
Thanks to all the people at the feed stations who were reading your number as you neared the feed station and handed you your water bottle so you didn’t need to stop!!

Race started bang on time and all was going well until I went to get a drink of water and found my bottle was missing, after some cursing I just had to get on with it and try and get to the first feed station
I had to drop the pace a bit as the more I pushed the drier my mouth got, I couldn’t risk taking a gel as they make you even more thirsty.
Things were starting to get really bad I just had to have water every puddle I splashed through started to look more tempting until I saw a group of lads at the side to the fire road that were out for a spin
One of them offered his water bottle and after a life saving gulp of water I felt I could make it to the feed station.
After a few more corners the feed station appeared water at last!!
A few more minutes gulping water and I started to feel better and increase the pace a bit and enjoy the trails, the whole course was so well marked with marshals at points where a mistake might be made.

The rest of the race went well and without anymore incidents crossed the finish line and saw Jim Hade there looking relaxed as he must have been finished a while!!
As I rolled back to the car park I saw Davey walking towards me and he filled me in on how he was almost minus a toe (hope it gets better soon!!).

Really great event and a great job by Team Ballyhoura, hope to be back for this one next year. 

[irlpete]

Davey,did your toe look like this guys ouch!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtGtq2LKkHA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[Paul]

Jesus thats some report Davey..!! Sorry it didnt go well for ya.. Still not sure how you managed to break your toe off.. 
Hows the little piggy now..??

I wonder is big Ian in any danger of a late surge of goober points by you 

Well done everyone and to Micko who missed out on the win by 6 seconds 

[Jim Haide]

That was a very well run event.  Got down not really knowing what too expect.. speaking to a few of the lads I found out that I wasn't the only one feeling a bit sorry for myself last week, (something in tat Cooley water?) even Saturday I felt drained and was having 2nd thoughts about yesterday but as it was the last race I made the effort and am glad today.

I got a good start despite the fact that I was more spinning the legs rather than really pushing.  That didn't last long though and after about 8k I started to lose contact with the lead group and the 2nd group passed me.  I wasn't panicking yet but was struggling more than usual on the climbs and was finding it hard to get any momentum on the trails.  Every time I looked around there were a few more chasing me down to soon pass.  I was really struggling but trying to dig in.  
Then at around the 50k point I started to feel a bit better and started to get into it.  All of a sudden I was pushing a bigger gear on the climbs and getting into a rythm instead of grinding up.  As I started reeling lads back and passing them it spurred me on and I started riding the singletrack faster and better all the time.  I knew I wouldn't catch the main contenders but was passing most of the lads that had passed me when I was really struggling.  On the last climb I passed 1 of the Speedy Spokes lads and he was on my wheel for a lot of the single track to the end and really kept me going cos even tho I wasn't sure what cat he was I wanted to drop him, which I managed about 3k out.  Just as we were coming to the end there was 1 final kicker, I spotted Sean Downey (I knew he wasn't in the same cat but couldn't help going for it)just ahead and went to pass as I came beside him the dreaded cramp came, we were in the last k so I just managed to get up the last few metres then twas down a nice bit of natural trail through the trees and by the time we hit the fireroad with 500m left the cramp was gone. I rolled in behind Sean for 7th in Masters with the speedy spokes lad who it turned out was racing elites too a further minute back.  
Well done to all the lads especially  Micko for 2nd in vets was unlucky not to win.  
Also I must mention Colm McGarvey from Epic who crashed on 1 of the boarwalks abou 10k from the finish and broke his hand, amazingly he rode on and hung on for 3rd in Masters - hardman of the year.

I was looking forward to the end of the season for teh last few weeks and will definitely take it easy for a few weeks, but I know very soon I will be looking for something over the next few months---ANyone got a cx bike in their shed???

[DaveyD]

I wonder is big Ian in any danger of a late surge of goober points by you 

No chance, I dont even make the list this year after all that you and Ian have been up too