Mark Dowling Winner – in a time of 47:35 

With some welcome dry weather and a hint of chill in the air, the eager athletes entered St Enda’s sports complex at 9.30am to take part in the 2^nd race of the Limerick Duathlon 3 Race Series. There was a few caught out with the clock changes, but after a mad rush, all late comers were accommodated and all got to enter the race!  

There were the usual speedy suspects lurking about transition before the race with Mark Dempsey hoping to make it a double after taking first in Duathlon 1. However with Mark Dowling back down after his unfortunate T1 puncture in Duathlon 1 and trying to beat training partner Colm Cassidy’s record of 47.28, GTC’s Ruaidhri Geraghty, Kevin Moloney, Niall Collins and inform Stephen Teeling Lynch, Dempsey was to have a battle on his hands. Also “Bob the Builder Horgan” downed his trowel, hammer and marshals yellow bib for a day joined the rest of the field at the start line after a quick change in the club trailer!   

In the ladies field it looked to be a close battle between Ailbhe Healy, Susan Griffin and winner of the Series last year Catherine Keoghane. Marie Casey Breen and Catherine Corby were both back on the start line for yet another duel between the new friendly rivals! We had 2 entries in the Junior Category, Jeni O’Regan in her first ever race and Graham Butler who was back for his second ever race.  

Also this was the first race of the season that, new to the scene, “RED TAG TIMING” piloted their new full chip timing system and finish beam with great results – all participants are now becoming accustomed to waiting eagerly to receiving their race results text on their mobile phones which they can forward onto family and friends after the race – a nice touch all will agree!  

The race started with the usual flying start down the hill out to the main road. From the start Geraghty and Horgan battled it out to the turnaround with Dempsey, Dowling, Collins and Lynch hot on their heals. Out of T1 Geraghty quickly overtook Horgan with Dowling chasing the two hard and taking the lead over Geraghty before the turnaround. Stephen Teeling lynch had a powerful bike and put himself into third place after the first 2-3 miles behind Dowling and Geraghty, with Dempsey, Horgan and Collins chasing hard. In the ladies race track runner Catherine was first into t1 ahead of Ailbhe and Susan Griffin in third. Catherine was to fall fowl with mechanical problems with her chain coming off a few times on the bike which Ailbhe capitalised on and made sure she put in a strong bike (14^th fastest overall) and a very fast second run to ensure a good lead to keep Catherine at bay at the finish line.  

In the men’s race, Mark Dowling’s powerful bike (bike course record 22.16) was to prove to fast for the rest of the field and had a commanding lead into t2 before the second run and held off Ruaidhri Geraghty who has already battled with Mark in the Wheelworx Duathlons earlier in the year. Stephen T-Lynch had a good lead in third place ahead of Dempsey, Horgan and Collins. Dempsey and Horgan put in a tough battle and fast splits on the second run and with Lynch back in their sights Horgan made a move and the two caught up lynch just before the turnaround. But with Dowling and Geraghty too far head for a feasible challenge it would be Mark Dowling to take 1st place in 47.35, only 7 seconds off the course record with Ruaidhri only 25 seconds behind. Horgan held off Dempsey for third place Lynch, Collins, Moloney, Neil Bolger Mark Nolan and Eric Wolfe filling in the top 10 places respectively.  

The 2 juniors both had great races and Graham Butler put in huge improvement on his first race – clearly this fella is a fast leaner – and being a top underage swimmer will be one to watch for the next few years.  

It was back into the sports complex for the customary hot drinks, cake and biscuits and a chat among all the athletes and friends – Mick Dowling (Marks Dad) had to rush back to Dublin to feature as commentator for RTE at the Dunne European title match so we got the results ceremony underway quickly and got people on the road!  

The next and final race of the series will take place on the 15^th April (weekend after Easter Sunday) and with both the male and female series title and 2^nd and 3^rd place still completely open and the expectation that Colm Cassidy will make an appearance to retain his course record its set to be a “humm-dinger” of a race. In the ladies it could still be decided between Ailbhe, Catherine and race 1 winner Liz Hussey.  

And finally huge thanks again to all the Marshals, Time keepers and helpers who turned up on the day to help out – without their help the races would not take place! Thanks lads and lassies – we really appreciated your help!