from Triathlon Ireland Website Congratulations to Anne Paul and Kay Hack who represented Ireland at the World 70.3 Championships in Clearwater Florida, and which also saw Anne bringing home a silver medal in her age group. Please read on for a full race report from Anne Paul…..
Kay Hack and Anne Paul from the Triangle Triathlon club qualified for the world 70.3 championships by winning their age-groups at the UK 70.3 and Monaco 70.3 earlier in the season. 2000 athletes from all over the world took up their qualifying slots in Clearwater .
The pro wave with some very notable names went off first followed at 5min waves with all the age-groups for the next hour starting with the 45+ females, so unlike Kay, I got off early and she had to wait another 55mins before her start. The swim was a relatively straightforward rectangle with only a bit of chop on the way back in. Volunteers were at transition to whip off your wetsuit for you which saved precious time. The bike course has to be one of the fastest and most boring on the 70.3 circuit mostly up and down an interstate motorway. As the race progressed huge packs formed especially with the later waves and marshalls actually trying to stop this was a rare entity. The run was a 2 lap affair up over a bridge and back which was a long drag to be negotiated 4 times in 82 degrees. For a lot of athletes,this was a case of a fast shuffle.
Kay finished 19th in her age-group in 4.56 and I managed to move up from 11th off the bike to 2nd place in my age group at the finish. This was a very pleasant surprise as I thought I would be lucky to make the top 10. We were both very pleased to finish the race and get to the end of a very long season. The awards ceremony was held at a nearby beach which was rather unique but a bit chilly even in Florida so there was no opportunity to get our mini skirts on and pretend we were really not that old !