Mick Davis the architect with a nack for teaching swimming how did Tri de Burren go?

Fantastic first race win!

 

Explain the swim course?

It was a peculiar clockwise swim course and to be honest nobody had a clear idea on what the swim course was, there were 3 large orange buoys, which we assumed were the markers for the course, and a couple of mourning buoys, and small craft still in the shelter of the harbour. Then when we were getting in we were informed that, a) we had to keep the white very small mourning buoys which were close to the Main buoys to our right and b) we were to keep the boats to our right on the return to the T1, then that changed when TI Technical Official said we were OK to swim between the boats on the return in to T1, then that changed 2 more times while we were 1 min from the start of the race, great fun!

 

How did you feel in the swim?

Great, fantastic start round the first buoy in the lead, for the first time ever! Sighting was a bit off making my way to the second buoy the lead boat was blocking my view, and went slightly off course making me loose ground to the competitors behind me. Then on the return to T1 was held up by one of the rescue jetski who informed us we were not to swim through the boats, even though the last communication I heard was we could by the TI Official, but continued to impede progress by speeding up creating waves causing me & my fellow competitors to inhale water and disrupt rhythm, so after stopping to offer suggestions where I would be happy to help him park his jetski, I had lost ground, and working hard managed to get onto the feet where I stayed as we were by this stage less than 200m from the pier. I was surprised when exiting the water that I was in second, and that the guy out ahead of me was not Ger Bowen, I really thought I had lost a lot more places due to my impromptu discussion out on the course. Happy days!

 

The bike course in tri the burren is famous for tackling the Cork screw hill, how did you find it?   

Not as bad as people say it is, I had only ever cycled the Cork Screw Hill once before but that was many years ago and the road surface back then was terrible, now its smooth and a lot easier then I can remember.

 

Over all how is the bike course for those wanting to take part next year, any advice?

The course is a mix of main roads and boreens, which offer there own challenges. My advise for anyone doing it next year, is that the drag-up to the Cork Screw the first 5K is harder then the hill itself, the boreens section is fast but the surface is uneven so caution is needed and when you return back onto the main road (R480) be careful as that time of year the road is full of tourist, in slow cars and buses on a small narrow road.

 

The run?

Pan flat 5k out and back! Going along the coast, lovely no nasty hills!

 

Overall atmosphere rating on a scale of 1 to 5?

Great run local event pity the weather was changeable so the after race atmosphere was a bit down but overall 4.5!