Kilkee is a special place for me. For the past 10 years I have spent two weeks of the summer down there with my family and have raced in the Triathlon for the last 4 years.
 Trilogy was not as well represented as usual, 10 hardy men and no ladies this year. Many were saving themselves for the European race in Athlone the following weekend. But nevertheless the club made its mark with the Stephen O'Toole taking the podium with a fantastic number one position in his age group and also leading the Trilogy team home. With his new time trial bike he stormed this teak, tough, undulating wilds of West Clare in a bike time of 1 hr 14 mins and then powered a 10k run in 41 mins to finish at 02:28:29. This was an 8 minute improvement on last years form and Stephen’s training and commitment is now paying big dividends.
For those who have not had the pleasure of the Hell of the West, let me fill you in. An open sea swim of at least 1500m in the fresh wild Atlantic ocean. This is nothing short about this swim and conditions can be variable. There is usually a good run in from the beach to transition to test the wobbly legs. Then it is a hilly 44k bike ride. For the first 22K, the prevailing south westerly winds are blowing you up along the coast through Doonbeg and onwards and with plenty of downhill descents, you can be lulled into thinking that you are a better cyclist than you really are! Once you make the turn to head for home, then you find out the truth about your cycling and mental strength. In my opinion the race really only starts here and this is where it is won and lost. There is no shelter from the relentless wind and all those descents that you have just screamed down now have to be ascended with heavy legs battling a wall of wind. Oh for a Draft! Once you finally make it back to the transition at the bandstand in Kilkee then it is off on the hardest triathlon 10k that you will encounter. It is 5K uphill, out the coast road still leaning into the wind until just past the quarry you turn around and return to the beach. You are praying the back 5k to be superfast as it's downhill with a tail wind, but inevitable tiredness, fatigue, thirst or whatever just makes a liar out of this "advantage" and you do well to trudge home and get over the line. That has been my experience anyway, year on year!
On the day of the race itself, the sun shone brightly and the south westerly was blowing as usual. The sea was relatively calm too. The under 40's males are off in the first heat and then the old guys and the ladies head off 10 minutes later. The swim start is frantic with about 300 in each heat battling for position, but after 5 minutes or so, it filters out and settles down. I managed Trilogy's fastest swim at 26:42, followed closely by Willy Fitzpatrick at 27:17. Our Kildee local Alan Cussen breast stroked all the way for a respectable 38:07 but considering he wouldn't have even attempted this a year ago, this was a brilliant achievement. Alan went on to finish at 2 hrs 55 mins and he helped me along the last 6K of the run - thanks big Al. David Osborne struggled with the swim at 39:05, but still managed a solid overall 2:45:46 for his first attempt. He had our second fastest run of the day behind Stephen. When David cracks the swim, he will be a formidable contender. Our other Kildare man Peter Dobbyn was the last man out of the water after having great chats with the canoe escorts all along the swim route. With very little training he got through the cycle as well but left the run for another day, a wise decision considering the heat of the day and the difficulty of the run.
Our young turk Shane Delaney swam a great 29:13 and then ate up the bike course in 1 hr 16min. He broke Willie's heart when he stormed by him on the bike and he finished in 2:32:09. Shane's run at 45min was not as fast as he would have liked but he was only a minute down on last years time and there is definitely more improvement in Shanes running for next year. On the subject of broken hearts, Stephen O'Toole passed me at 23k on the bike and all I felt was a whoosh as he blazed by me on his machine and left me in a demoralised heap!
And what about the dark horse Mark Mc Manus? This was his 7th Kilkee race and although his training regime might not be as thorough as the rest of Trilogy's team, he made a huge comeback for his favourite race. It rekindled the savage competitor in Mark again to finish in a stomping time of 2:41:37 (16 minutes faster than last year!) and just a minute behind Willie Fitzpatrick who ended at 2:40:30. Mark is obviously getting himself in shape for something or other, could be his big day with Anna in Poland in August!
As for myself, I took 8 minutes off last years time and finished on 2:45:46 with Dave Osborne breathing down my neck only 6 seconds behind me. My ambition is always to finish with a great storming run but a tired 52mins for the 10K leaves me with loads to ponder and lots to do over the long winter nights ahead. David Murphy took 10 minutes off last years time and clocked up a great overall time of 2:51:52 with a very impressive cycle time of 1:22:21. Brian Bonham put in a solid 3:10:04 having struggled on the killer run.
At the celebration disco that night in Kilkee the "Trilogy Air Guitar" duo of Noel O'Reilly and Shay Mc Court were noted by their absence and a special request was formally made to me by the organisers to get them back on the dancefloor for 2011. So lads get back in training and next year strut your stuff once again! For all those who couldn’t make it this year, keep it in mind for your calendar next year, it is a classic race, the longest running one in Ireland, the toughest Olympic race, as good a setting as you will get, a great weekend and a great relief to finally finish it.
Summarised results are below. Colm Turner from Limerick won it in 02:07:40. All the Trilogy tri-athletes are listed below in order of finishing with their positions and Age Category positions. And for those serious time analysts, I have included the 2009 finishing times for comparison where applicable.
| Triathlete | Pos | Age Cat | Swim | Cycle | Run | Finish 2010 | | 2009 Times |
| Colm Turner | 1 | 1 | 00:22:57 | 01:08:25 | 00:34:54 | 02:07:40 | | |
| Stephen O'Toole | 59 | 1 | 00:30:03 | 01:14:47 | 00:41:33 | 02:28:49 | | 02:37:09 |
| Shane Delaney | 83 | 21 | 00:29:13 | 01:16:34 | 00:45:01 | 02:32:09 | | 02:33:08 |
| William Fitzpatrick | 164 | 35 | 00:27:17 | 01:22:39 | 00:48:27 | 02:40:30 | | 02:34:09 |
| Mark Mc Manus | 170 | 59 | 00:29:11 | 01:20:50 | 00:49:50 | 02:41:37 | | 02:57:17 |
| Niall Kavanagh | 216 | 11 | 00:26:42 | 01:23:48 | 00:52:28 | 02:45:46 | | 02:53:34 |
| David Osborne | 218 | 26 | 00:39:05 | 01:20:26 | 00:44:47 | 02:45:52 | | |
| David Murphy | 277 | 36 | 00:38:07 | 01:24:15 | 00:50:19 | 02:55:48 | | 03:01:38 |
| Alan Cussen | 316 | 68 | 00:38:07 | 01:24:15 | 00:50:19 | 02:55:48 | | |
| Brian Bonham | 442 | 126 | 00:33:01 | 01:32:22 | 01:02:08 | 03:10:04 | | |
| Peter Dobbyn | DNF | | 01:04:01 | 01:57:12 | | | | |
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Stephen O'Toole takes Gold 
