London Duathlon 2014

After the Europeans, London was the next big race for me as I had picked it out at the start of the year.

I have had very busy year racing internationally so when it comes to dismantling the bike and packing it up for the plane journey I am now an expert J

I can now have the entire bike dismantled and bagged up in two hours flat. You could not believe how much planning it takes to ensure that everything fits into its correct place and that I haven’t forgotten any spare parts or essential tools.

The race in London was set completely within Richmond Park and it was closed off from cars for the entire day.

The first run was one loop of 10km, the cycle was four laps of 11km each and the second run was one loop of 5km.

I flew over to London Stansted Airport on Friday evening and travelled onwards to my hotel which was over an hour away.

Saturday I cycled the 4.5 miles from the hotel to Richmond Park and reeked the course.

On the way over I got an opportunity to experience cycling through the streets of Richmond. I found my interactions with the English drivers to be very pleasant and have to say that the vast majority were very courteous.

When I arrived I saw that there were hundreds of people there all day checking out the course like myself. The transition area and event village was being built and there seemed to be a great buzz in the air.

Once I was happy that I understood the course and had picked out any dangerous corners on the bike course, I collected my race number and timing chip and cycled home to the hotel.

Back home afterwards I went through the usual pre-race checks of all my kit and made sure everything was set to go.

I managed to find a nice local Italian restaurant in the evening to get my usual pre-race spaghetti bolognaise which went down a treat

As there were thousands taking part in the different distances, we were scheduled to start in waves of between 25-30 athletes every 60 seconds.

I had picked the earliest start time which was 10:30am so made sure to get down to the transition for 8:30am.

I racked my bike, got everything set up and began my warm up. Before I knew it, 10:15am had arrived so I began queuing up to the start line to ensure that I would be starting in the first wave.

We were given the count down, I quickly crossed myself and we were off. I didn’t go out too hard this time as the first 3.5km of the run were a very long and gradual climb with the final 500metres being very steep.

After 500metres I began to take my bearings to see who had come with me from the start. I glanced quickly to my right and saw that a French guy called Damien Derobert was close on my heels. “Damn” I thought, I wasn’t going to have it all my way today.

As we approached the 2km mark and the start of the steep hill, I decided that I would make an attack just after we went into the hill.

As I made my move, I tried to pull away making sure to zig zag away from Derobert as I began to almost sprint. After a couple of minutes I was going flat out and fast running out of steam. Looking back quickly, I saw that he was still right behind me. My plan hadn’t worked so I had to quickly re-evaluate my race strategy. I knew that I needed to conserve my energy for the rest of the race as we crested the hill so I began to ease up which is went Derobert then made his move and tried to pull away as I recovered.

I responded and we ran together until the 6km mark before he once away put in another burst and opened a small gap. This gap remained constant up until the 8km mark before he put another burst in, opening the gap to around 15 seconds as I came into transition.

I had a very good transition and as I mounted my bike I could see Derobert looking back at me.

We traded places between first and second place for the first lap of 11km which included a killer of a climb that had me out of the saddle as I struggled to quickly change the gears on my tri-bars.

After the first lap, I decided that it was time to make my move and try to put road between myself and Derobert.

As I sped past transition, I had a 3km, almost pan flat section where I was able to time trial hitting speeds of 60km/hour. I managed to pull out a minute and a half over second place as I finished the 44km.

There were several severe right angle bends on the bike course meaning that I had to be very alert and ready to break as I went into them.

As I approached the dismount line after 44km, I removed my feet from my tri-shoes as I got ready to dismount from the bike. However, I encountered the same problem again in that my calves were almost locking solid causing unbelievable pain.

I had to straighten up quickly in order to avoid them locking totally as I ran with the bike into transition.

I had practiced finding the correct rack for my bike in transition when I arrived that morning so this time transition was a very smooth event unlike the Euro’s in Austria.

The final run of 5km was fairly uneventful as I ran out in the same direction as the first 10km, turning left after 1km and ran the final 4km to arrive back at transition.

London was a great experience for me and it was a fantastic feeling when it was officially confirmed later that day that I had won the Standard Distance London Duathlon.

I would like to say a massive thanks to everyone who very kindly donated to my Pledge Sports website. It helped hugely to get me to the Europeans and London.

Elite European Duathlon Championships 2014

This had been one of the key races that I had been targeting since the start of the year. The first step was of course to qualify, and then begin the process of training for it and to finally get out there in one piece. I’m talking about the bike J

I have been plagued with niggling injuries over the last few months meaning that it was very difficult to get decent blocks of training in. However, I prevailed and got stuck in with the job at hand.

My good friend Diarmaid Lane travelled out with me from Dublin Airport over to Austria. We flew into Vienna Airport with a very early flight Thursday morning. The small village of Opponitz where we were staying was a two and a half hour drive from the airport. The self-catering apartment looked out onto beautiful mountains and rolling hillsides.

Diarmaid volunteered to do all of the driving over the weekend which I gladly accepted. My first impression of Austria only increased in admiration the more I saw of it. Their roads are unbelievable. We didn’t see a single pothole anywhere and we were in extremely rural countryside. Their worst rural, country roads would outclass our best main roads.

Another thing that I found out about Austria is that it is on average, around 500 metres above sea level which took a small bit of time to get used to as I was technically at altitude. At last, I can say I was training at altitude J

One of the funnier events that happened to me was when two Jehovah Witnesses called to the door of our apartment one day and handed me a flyer. Of course I didn’t speak any German and thought that they were salespeople selling mobile broadband as they kept pointing to the flyer and saying “website” and “Wi-Fi” so I politely took the flyer but only realised who they were afterwards, lol J. Talk about getting lost in translation!!

Over Friday and Saturday, I got an opportunity to run and bike the race course with the two other Irish athletes who were racing as well, Siobhan Horgan and Patrick Quinn. We all came to the same conclusion, the hills were serious!!

The race was starting in the town of Weyer with two laps of 5km going around Weyer which included a hill half way through that brought us to nearly to a walking run. The bike course was three laps of 14km with a serious hill, 3km long with an altitude of nearly 200 metres.

The final run of 5km ran in the opposite direction to the first run.

On Saturday as we walked around Weyer we were able to observe the athletes from other countries as they checked out the course. What a setup!! The British and French were totally kitted out with full official national gear from head to toe. We stood there with our mouths open in amazement as they moved around the course with their spare wheels, equipment etc. They had coaches, bike mechanics, sports masseurs and drivers. There were so many people wearing GBR that we were joking that they must have hired a jumbo jet J

The weather during the weekend was extremely changeable with thunder and lightning lighting up the place on Saturday night.

On Saturday evening we had to drive to the town of Grossaming for the Elite Athletes briefing.This was a fairly straight forward affair and we got to see some of the Junior athletes receiving their medals on the podium as that race was held in that town on Saturday evening.

The morning of the race was very wet with lots of rain but by three o’ clock, it was starting to brighten up.

This was the biggest race in terms of crowds and organisation that I have taken part in to date. On the way over in Weyer in the afternoon, I was unusually calm as I thought over in my head about my race plan. I just said to myself that there was nothing else I could so at this stage now so I might as well relax.

There were a lot of formalities that we had to go through before the race could even start.

First up was the registration where we received our timing chip, and got our race numbers marked onto our arms. They also took photos of our tri suits to make sure that they met the requirements, etc.

After that we racked our bikes and got our transition area sorted out. The transition rack was one single rack which meant that the bikes were quite tight together.

Around ten minutes before the start of the race parade, the sun came out with a serious ferocity.

The race parade involved us running down to the start line, from the top of the town behind a mascot waving the Irish tri colour and with the Irish national anthem playing out over the loudspeakers. What a feeling!!

We were then called one by one up to the starting line and had to wait anxiously for the start.

I’ll never forget the noise. What a sound. The shouting and roaring of the crowds was actually slightly calming as I concentrated on straining to hear the starting signal.

As I looked up the road I could see Diarmaid off to the right hand barrier waving the Irish flag.

The Austrian national anthem began playing and the crowds starting clapping as the countdown began.

The race started and we tore off. I hadn’t intended to go out too hard but found myself at the head of the race. I led it out for just under one kilometre before the French started pulling me back. We went through the first mile in 4:52 minutes and the pace only increased from there.

I came into transition 60 seconds down from the lead pack and in 5^th position overall. I had hoped to be with the lead pack going onto the bike but the first run was blisteringly fast.

Diarmaid shouted the out to me as I got my bike in transition to let me know how much time I needed to make up.

Straight behind me on the bike was a Belgian, a Spaniard and an Italian. I straight away started putting in a few attacks hoping to get away but the lads would just chase me down each time. However, they were not coming around to the front and seemed content to just sit on my wheel and let me do all the work.  We came within 20 seconds of the front pack at one stage but as I was doing all the work I had to pull up as I wanted to conserve energy for the remainder of the race.

Finally after a lap of 14km, the Belgian and myself broke away as we attacked the climb for the second time and dropped the other two.

Once we broke away, we worked very well by constantly rolling through and taking a turn at the front, hitting 70km per hour as we descended down from the climb.

The crowds at all of the junctions and corners that we went through were absolutely deafening with people shouting “Allez, allez, allez”, “Go, go, go” and shaking cow bells.

As I came into transition after the 42km cycle I was feeling fairly confident of out running the Belgian who was a few seconds behind me.

Transition didn’t really go to plan as I had difficulty finding the rack for my bike

At this stage now the Belgian was already running out of transition as I sprinted after him. Diarmaid shouted on encouragement to me as I passed him a few metres down the road.

I worked my way through the 5km and tried my best to get over to the Belgian but he slowly pulled away.

Finally, I came around a corner with around 300 metres to go and was handed a flower as I moved towards the finish line.

I could see Diarmaid at the barrier with the Irish tri colour ready so grabbed it from him as I moved towards the finish line.

Time seemed to slow down as I ran over the finish line and waved the Irish flag over my head.

It was great to see my buddy Diarmaid at the finish area as he congratulated me. Diarmaid was a great comrade in the days surrounding the race and we had some laughs during the trip.

All in all it was a great experience and I want to say a massive thanks to everyone who donated to my PledgeSports website and who sent me messages and phone calls of support and encouragement that helped keep me going along the way

I know what I have to do now in order to podium at the Europeans and know that it will be possible if I can return next year.

 

 

Powerman Belgium 2014

Two things stand out for me from my experience at Powerman Belgium (PM) 2014. Belgium was very flat and very hot. Thank God there’s been a heat wave in Ireland for the last few weeks which has somewhat prepared me!!

The last few weeks have involved focussing and zeroing in on PM Belgium in order to see what standard I’m at as I approach the Euros in two weeks’ time.

Driving from Brussels Airport was a very scary experience as it was the first time I drove on the right hand side of the road with a left wheel drive car. After nearly three hours of sweaty palmed driving I made it to my hotel which should have taken just under one hour. Yikes, at least it was only Friday.

Once I got settled, I put the bike together, grabbed a bite to eat and caught some sleep.

On Saturday morning I went over to the race registration to check out the race start and to run and cycle around the course once.

The 10km run was four laps of 2.5km each that went around a large sports arena outside the town of Geel. As I ran around the 2.5km lap, I tried to imagine what it would be like on Sunday when we were racing around it four times with everyone shouting and roaring at us.

The 60km bike was three laps of 20km each that left the sports stadium and went out onto totally closed roads but had to go back in and pass through transition for every lap. This involved very technical twists and turns on the Time Trial bike which for those of you who ride TT bikes will know is very tricky to do at high speed.

After I had recced the course I went back to the hotel but made sure to stop along the way in a Spar shop of all places to get a few bars of proper Belgian chocolate. Do those Belgians know how to make nice chocolate or what!

I’ve been trying to avoid gluten for the last few months but when you’re racing abroad it’s very difficult to stick with gluten free diet so dinner was a fairly simple affair of spaghetti bolognaise.

It was very difficult to sleep Saturday night with the nerves and adrenalin pumping through me. I was thinking about breakfast in the morning, how I was going to start the race, where I was going to try attacking on the run, what I was going to do on the bike, etc.

On Sunday morning I had a nice lie-in till 8:30 as the race wasn’t starting until 14:20 and I wanted to delay breakfast for as long as possible I always try to stop eating and drinking around four hours before the start of a race.

I could feel the heat as soon as I opened the curtains in my room. I knew it was going to be a hot one

Back to my room then for another little rest and to double check for about the twentieth time that my bike was okay.

I arrived at the course after having to take a big detour due to the roads being already closed for the race. Thankfully, one of the Belgian marshals who I met at a crossroads drove in front of me all the way to the sports stadium.

Once I got out of the car, the dead heat of the sun that hit me was almost over powering. There literally wasn’t a cloud in the sky or as I was taught in school “Nί raibh scamall sa spéir”. Was I glad that I brought the sun cream with me!!

There was a soccer pitch next to the car park where I went through my warm up routine as I tried to ignore some of the pains and niggles I’ve been carrying for a few weeks. I tried to focus my mind and shake off the nerves and usual fear that was coursing through me as I tried to picture how I would start the race.

Once the announcer called for all the male athletes to assemble at the start area I had my work cut out trying to muscle my way to get to the start line.

What a fast start!! While there were no hills on the course there must have been at least ten right angled corners that you had to slow down into and then try to speed up as guys put in fast attacks.

After around 5km, there were four of us who had pulled away from the main group. Two French guys, La Duey and Cadalen and a Spaniard, Rocca, plus myself.

Rocca put in a couple of continuous attacks in the second half of the 10km but we were able to keep him covered at all times. My plan was to stay with the lead group for the first 10km and try to break away if I could. As the pace was so fast I was happy enough to follow the other three and see what would happen on the bike.

Even though I came into T1 around 6 seconds off the lead, I was the first out on the bike.

I must have cycled 5km down the road before I started to try putting me feet into my cycling shoes.

Next thing I know, I see La Duey and Cadalen tear past me as I put my feet into my shoes.

What could I do though but keep the legal 10 metres back from the two of them and wait for my opportunity to pass them both.

The bike course was also very technical with lots of twists and turns. I attacked four times throughout the full 60km but found it difficult to drop the two French.

I had two bottles of liquid on the bike and these were totally empty after 45km so I was looking forward to the water stations on the final 10km run. I was dreaming about water as I pedalled through the final and fourth lap.

I should have probably guessed after the second attack that I couldn’t drop them and have saved some of my energy but I’m the eternal optimist and kept trying to break away.

As I came over the dismount line into T2, the two guys in front were just racking their bikes so I knew that I’d have to be quick if I was to have any chance of catching them.

The first water station I went through after about 1.5km was so welcome I nearly stopped to drink. The water hoses they had set up to water athletes down were also brilliant.

However, I was going from a famine to a feast in terms of drinking water and took on water four times as I worked my way through the 10km. Of course this resulted in a stich meaning that I went down to a 7 minute mile as I struggled through the third lap. At around 8.5km, I heard someone coming alongside me and attempt to pass me. I had about two seconds to decide whether I was going to let this guy pass me and take second place or was I going to dig deep and empty the tank for the last kilometre.

I said to myself “No way” and starting running for my life for the last kilometre. Coming into the last 200 metres was amazing as I focussed on the finish line with people all round shouting and roaring. I managed to hold on and outsprint the Belgian who had been putting me under pressure for the last 1.5km.

After the race it must have taken me 15 minutes just to get my breath back as I struggled to fight the cramps in my legs.

Literally one minute after I crossed the finish line, the heavens opened and the most torrential downpour of rain descended on us, reminding me that wherever I go I can’t escape the Irish weather.

Next up for me now is the 2014 Elite European Duathlon Championships in Austria in two weeks’ time.

Getting race fit and ready

My first big race since Powerman UK is going to be on this Sunday the 3^rd of August in Geel, where I’ll be racing at Powerman Belgium.

I have been training intensely for the past month now and will be using this race as a final run-in to the Elite European Duathlon Champs in Austria on the 24^th of August.

My summer so far has been fraught with a few injuries that have caused me to miss a few blocks of training. However the last three weeks of training have progressed very well and I have been looking forward to this week as I am winding down my training as I get closer to the race allowing me to rest more and catch up on very important T.V viewing like Home and Away and Coronation Street!

During the months of January to April, getting up at 5am in the mornings to run was a tough task. During those months it was pitch dark so I had to wear a head torch so that I could see where I was going on the road. Usually, by the time I had finished my session and was running home, dawn was breaking and it was great motivation for the day ahead.

Running

Most days I train twice a day, alternating between running and biking sessions.

A typical week of running would be: (for those interested)

·         Sunday: Long run. (14-16 miles)

·         Monday: Easy run. (40 minutes, 7 miles)

·         Tuesday: 3 mile warm-up, 10 Hill reps followed by 3 mile warm-down (10 miles in total)

·         Wednesday: Recovery run. (40 minutes, 7 miles)

·         Thursday: 50 minutes, 8 miles followed by strides

·         Friday Speed session on the track ( 3 mile warm-up, 8 by 400mtrs, 3 mile warm-down)

·         Saturday Recovery run. (30 minutes, 4.5 miles)

Cycling

My training on the bike has changed to spending specific amounts of time doing particular intervals (or efforts in race speak!) in order to become race ready. This has allowed me to really focus the time and effort I spend on the bike so that I can maximise my workouts whilst also avoiding those pesky motorists (that’s a whole other post for a whole other day!!!). As my biking sessions change more often than my running I will post some of the sessions I do in another post.

I also try to get to the gym once a week and have recently started swimming so will post more about it as I hopefully improve.

It is always important to have a goal for your training so that you know what you are training for and nothing focusses the mind better than a race. A race gives you a deadline and means that if you want to hit a certain time or position in the race then you have to commit to the training.

I’ll post again once I’m home from Powerman Belgium.

Fingers crossed that everything goes ok,

Cathal

Racing History and Results

When I first started racing I was totally new to the whole race scene and didn’t even know how I should pace myself during a race. As I was a newbie, I was obviously unsure of my athletic ability and when the competitors were called to the start line I would not go anywhere near the start line. I always had the thought “Shure what would I be doing up there with all the fast lads?”

It was only after a few races and as I found that I was passing out a lot of people after a few minutes that I realised that I should probably be starting the race on the actual start line. It might sound simple now, but at the time I was much too scared to even go near the front of the race.

One example was at the 2011 Age Group European Duathlon Championships in Limerick. This was my biggest race up to that point and I travelled down with only a passing hope of getting onto the podium. At the start of the race, I once again entered the start area and positioned myself around 20 rows back from the front of the race. A friend of mine, Aidan O’ Gorman who was on the side-lines, said to me “What the hell are you doing down there? Get up to the start line, will ye!!”

So I had to push my way up to the start line and experienced for the first time what it felt like to race hard from the beginning of the race.

I learned a lot from that race and began to believe in myself and that I actually deserved to be up the front. I’m still learning even to this day and in every race I learn something new. I have no problem with going up to a fellow competitor and politely asking them about a specific piece of kit, or technique they’re employing. Coming from an athletics background I always love talking to people about what works and what doesn’t work for them. My motto about this is “You can never know enough”

Below I have listed some of the races that I have taken part in over the last four years in order to give you an idea of how I have developed in my racing. What you may notice is that my results have gradually improved and my times have come down.

I put this down to a few things.

1.      Joining a club

2.      Consistent training

3.      Enjoying the sport

Duathlon Races

·         I won the summer series of Duathlons (5 races in total) in West Cork in 2010.

·         3^rd in the Clonakilty Duathlon (3km run, 20km cycle, 3km run) on Sunday 19^th September 2010 with a time of 58:51 minutes.

·         2^nd at the Skibbereen Duathlon (3km run, 20km cycle, 3km run) on April 25^th 2010 with a time of 1:21:29.1 hrs.

·         1^st in the Ilen Duathlon (3km run, 30km cycle, 3km run ) on Sunday 3^rd April 2011.

·         5^th at the European Duathlon Championships Open Race on April 17^th 2011 with a time of 47:41 minutes.

·         I took part in the Team Relay at the Lough Hyne Challenge Triathlon (I did the first run 11:07 minutes and cycle 1:16:12 hrs) on 16^th July 2011 which we won with a time of 2:05:03 hrs.

·         5^th at the Ashford Duathlon (5km run, 20km cycle, 5km run) on September 17^th 2011 with a time of 1:10:46.33 hrs.

·         1^st at the Timoleague Duathlon (2km run, 16km cycle, 2km run) on September 24^th 2011 with a time of 40:53 minutes.

·         1^st at the Kenmare Duathlon (40km cycle, 6km run) on October 24^th 2011 with a time of 1 hour 18 minutes and 47 seconds.

·         1^st at the Limerick Triathlon Club Duathlon (4.5km run, 20km cycle, 4.5km run) on February 19^th 2012 with a time of 1:05:01 hrs.

·         1^st at the Carrick on Suir Triathlon Club Duathlon (5km run, 20km cycle, 3km run) on February 26^th 2012 with a time of 58:17 minutes.

·         1^st at the 2 Cool for School Duathlon (6km run, 25km cycle, 4km run) on March 4^th 2012 with a time of 1:10:56 hrs.

·         2^nd at the Ennis Tri Club Draft Legal Duathlon (2.6km run, 16.5km cycle, 2.4km run) on March 11^th 2012 with a time of 43:03 minutes.

·         1^st at the Valentia Island Tri Club Duathlon (4.5km run, 18km cycle, 3km run) on March 18^th 2012 with a time of 54:33 minutes.

·         1^st at the West Cork Bantry Duathlon (3km run, 22km cycle, 3km run) on April 8^th 2012 with a time of 56: 49 minutes.

·         1^st at the West Cork Skibbereen Duathlon (3km run, 22km cycle, 3km run) on April 22^nd 2012 with a time of 60: 12 minutes.

·         24^st at the Elite European Long Distance Duathlon (15km run, 60km cycle, 7.8km run) on April 29^nd 2012 with a time of 03:07:53 minutes.

·         1^st at the Donadea Forest Park Duathlon (5.2km run, 21.5km cycle, 5.2km run) on June 10^th 2012 with a time of 01:11:26 hours.

·         1^st at the Phoneix Park Runways Duathlon (2.7km run, 13km cycle, 2.7km run) on July 10^th 2012 with a time of 37:23 minutes.

·         1^st at the Phoneix Park Runways Formula 1 Duathlon (2.7km run, 8km cycle, 2.7km run, 8km cycle and 2.7km run) on August 1^st 2012 with a time of 53:51minutes.

·         1^st at the Schull Fastnet Duathlon 2013 (5.2km run, 21.5km cycle, 5.2km run) on March 10^th 2013 with a time of 55:41:00 minutes.

·         1^st at the Valentia Island Duathlon 2013 (4.5km run, 20km cycle, 3km run) on March 23^rd 2013 with a time of 55:41 minutes.

·         1^st at the Clonakilty West Cork Tri Club Duathlon 2013 (5.2km run, 21.5km cycle, 5.2km run) on March 24^th 2013 with a time of 54:43 minutes.

·         1^st at the Fingal Duathlon 2013 (6km run, 20km cycle, 6km run) on March 30^th 2013 with a time of 01:12:56 hours.

·         I won the Irish National Duathlon Championships 2013 (10km run, 40km cycle, 5km run) on April 6^th 2013 with a time of 01:48:01 hours.

·         1^st at the Tinahely Duathlon 2013 (5.5km run, 20km cycle, 3km run) on May 5^th 2013 with a time of 01:02:53 hours.

·         1^st at the Phoenix Park Duathlon 2013 (2.5km run, 12km cycle, 2.5km run) on July 3^rd 2013 with a time of 36:27 minutes setting a course record for the fastest first run and coming close to beating the overall course record.

·         1^st at the Humpty Dumpty Duathlon 2013 (40km cycle and a 6km run) on October 26^th 2013 with a time of 01:17:58 minutes.

·         1^st at the Butchers Block Naas Duathlon 2014 (3.5km run, 20km cycle and a 3.5km run) on January 19^th 2014 with a time of 52:26 minutes.

·         1^st at the Fota Island Duathlon 2014 (6km run, 18km cycle and a 6km run) on March 1^st 2014 with a time of 01:10:54 minutes.

·         1^st at the Ashford Duathlon Cong, Mayo 2014 (5km run, 20km cycle and a 3km run) on March 8^th 2014 with a time of 57:05 minutes.

·         1^st at the Fingal Duathlon 2, Dublin 2014 (4.93km run, 20km cycle and a 3.39km run) on March 15^th 2014 with a time of 01:02:49 minutes.

·         1^st at the Naas Buthchers Block Duathlon 3, Kildare 2014 (3.2km run, 19km cycle and a 3.2km run) on March 23^rd 2014 with a time of 51:34 minutes.

·         I also won the overall Naas Duathlon series 2014 as well.

·         I won the Irish National Duathlon Championships 2014 at Skerries, Co. Dublin on April 5^th 2014 for the second year in a row (10km run, 40km cycle and a 5km run) on April 5^th 2014 with a time of 01:45:41 hours.

·         1^st at the Powerman UK Elite Distance Duathlon 2014 in Sherborne, England (10km run, 60km cycle and a 10km run) on May 11^th 2014 with a time of 02:44:07 hours.

Road/Track Races

·         16^th at the John Buckley 5k Road Race - 31st May, 2011 with a time of 16:15 minutes.

·         5^th at the Glanmire 4 Mile Road Race - 14th June, 2011 with a time of 21:52 minutes.

·        4^th at the Ballycotton Summer Road Race Series 2011 at the Shanagarry 5 mile race on Thursday 23 June 2011 with a time of 27:14 minutes.

·        4^th at the Courtmacsherry/Timoleague 10km Road Race – Friday 24^th June with a time of 35:07 minutes.

·        4^th at the EMC 5k Road Race - 6th July, 2011 with a time of 16:52 minutes.

·        7^th at the IPS-Garda 5K Road Race - 13th July, 2011 with a time of 16:16 minutes.

·        4^th at the Carrigtwohill Community Council 5km on Wednesday 20 July 2011 with a time of 16:11 minutes.

·        2^nd at the Kenmare AC 10km Road Race on February 11^th 2012 with a time of 34:38 minutes.

·        1^st at the Bantry Bay Half Marathon on May 6^th 2012 with a time of 1 hour 17 minutes.

·        1^st at the Bandon 10k Road Race on May 13^th 2012 with a time of 34:06 minutes.

·        1^st at the Ballineen 10k Road Race on May 30^th 2012 with a time of 35:12 minutes.

·        1^st at the Dunmanway 10k Road Race on June 17^th 2012 with a time of 32:54 minutes.

·        1^st at the Daniel Kingston Memorial Macroom 5km Road Race on June 21^st 2012 with a time of 16:14 minutes.

·        1^st at the Timoleague/Courtmacsherry 10km Road Race on June 29^th 2012 with a time of 32:22 minutes.

·        1^st at the EMC 5km Road Race on July 4^th 2012 with a time of 15:53 minutes.

·        1^st at the 5^th John Buckley Sports Cork County Graded League 5000 metres on July 15^th 2012 with a time of 15:39 minutes.

·        3^rd at the 5^th Carrigtwohill 5km Road Race on July 18^th 2012 with a time of 15:33 minutes.

·        1^st at the Banteer 5k Road Race on July 22^nd 2012 with a time of 16:00 minutes.

·        2^nd at the Churchtown South 5 mile Road Race on July 26^th 2012 with a time of 25:40 minutes.

·        2^nd at the Kinsale 5 mile Road Race on August 3^rd 2012 with a time of 25:38 minutes.

·         1^st at the Route to Crook 5 mile Road Race in Goleen on August 19^th 2012 with a time of 26:22 minutes.

·        1^st at the Timoleague 5k Road Race on August 20^th 2012 with a time of 15:48 minutes.

·        1^st at the Timoleague/Courtmacsherry 10km Road Race on June 29^th 2012 with a time of 32:22 minutes.

·         20^th overall at the Great Ireland AA1 National Club Championships 10k Road Race on April 14^th 2013 with a time of 32:07 minutes.

·         8^th Irish man home.

·         2^nd at the Dunmanway 10k Road Race on June 16^th 2013 with a time of 32:17 minutes.

·         4^th at the Docklands 10k Road Race on June 20^th 2013 with a time of 32:06 minutes.

·         I led the St. Finbarr’s A.C men’s team home to win the team prize and came 2^nd myself at the Courtmacsherry 10k Road Race on June 28^th 2013 with a time of 31:55 minutes.

·         1^st at the Togher Athletic Club 5k Road Race in Cork City on December 28^th 2013 with a time of 15:15 minutes.

·         2^nd at the Samsung Night Run 10k Road Race in Cork City on April 27^th 2014 with a time of 31:38 minutes.

Bicycle Road Races

·         1^st at the Blarney Cycling Club Kay Stratton A4 Road Race on May 2^nd 2013.

·        1^st at the Ras Clar A4 Road Race on May 9^th 2013.

·        3^rd at the Tralee Manor West A3 Road Race on July 14^th 2013.

Cross Country Races

·         3^rd at the Cork County Cross Country race at Coona on October 9^th 2011.

·        3^rd at the Munster Novice Men’s Cross Country at Newmarket on Fergus - 23^rd October 2011.

·        5^th in the Munster Intermediate Men’s Cross Country at Punchestown Racecourse, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, Sunday 13th November 2011

1^st man home for St. Finbarr’s who won the Club Intermediate Munster Cross Country.

·        3^rd at the All Ireland Novice Cross Country at Waterford Institute of Technology Sports Campus on December 15^th 2013 with a time of 19:44 minutes.