Race Report - Quest Gendalough 2024
The day started with a fundamental mistake.. I offered the buddy that’s always late for everything a lift, called at 7.30 to be on the road by 7.45, ended up being 8.15 for no apparent reason. Meant we missed getting parking at the event and instead having to park about 3 or 4km away in Glendalough Visitor Centre. It also meant that we got to the starting pen at 9.30 for a 9.40 start but had no race numbers etc as they were with a different buddy who we couldn’t find. Ended up finding our friend with the race numbers etc as the wave left and missing our start.. so no stretching, preparing or anything of any sort.
On a positive note, the weather was better than expected.. howling winds, and gusting to about 80kph, but the rain had held off in the main.
So out of the pen on our own, and I left the buddies behind on the first leg.. 6km cycle up to the forrest for the first run. I didn’t mind the elevation which was steep and caught up with our wave quickly, passing a good bunch of them up to the way, arrived into the racking area feeling good, changed into my runners and off for the ‘run’. In my head this was a 6km run, in reality it was a trudge through ankle deep mud climbing across a steep hiking trail where the options were running in sludge and running through rivers of water, picking every single step the whole way as people slipped and fell left right and centre. The climbing was ferocious but I managed to keep the slowest run imaginable going. The downhill sections were almost worse, no grip, runnning down our mud and waiting to bust yourself. Eventually emerged back into the pen and swapped back into my cycling shoes soaked to the skin, and covered in mud. I took a big bite of a protein bar here
This started the big descent but the reality was ferocious head winds and me on an aero bike getting blown all over the place.. seriously dodgy. There was one point where I was in top gear doing about 60kph, rounded a corner into the headwind and got blown to an almost stop in an instant.. mad stuff. At about 6km they decided it was dangerous and made us dismount and run for 1km downhill in cycling shoes.. hard plastic soles that don’t bend! Back on the bike and made some good progress, I’d say I passed 50 people in this 20km section
Pulled up in to the pen at the park and changed into the mud caked and soaked runners again, and realised quickly that I was in trouble.. the run started straight into more severe climbing, we knew the kayaking was off so it was a 10km run to the end. Up, up and at 2km I could feel that about 4 of my leg muscles were going into spasm and about to cramp. Stopped and stretched and got going again, strangely enough I fell into a rhythm running albeit slowly.. kept it going and was making decent ground but at 6km I started to get the same massages from the leg muscles, at 7.5km that fucking cramp in the inside of the thigh slammed in, no way to stretch it, had to stop. I tried stretching and a lovely lady spotted me and gave me jelly beans with electrolytes, a few minutes later a fella I’d passed and offered encouragement to stopped and told me walk with him, we’d get going again.. so I did and after a few hundred meters we got running again. About 500m later he cramped again so I left him and somehow kept it going to the end, rain lashing down but cooling the systems!
I have never been so relieved to cross a finish line, it was a fucking brutal race due to conditions. No doubt, the hardest thing I’ve done.. 3hrs 10 mins of pure torture in the end.
So to reflect.. I have no idea if I enjoyed it or hated it.. it was dog rough, but without doubt the biggest achievement I’ve had in this sense by a mile.. the HM was nowhere near as tough. On the other hand I know I can endure 3hrs+ of tough stuff and get there which means I should be able for an Olympic tri as the run I g and cycling will be far more structured with less climbing
I could probably be talked into Kenmare or Killarney Quest as a number of people told me this was the hardest one they had done by a mile.. but I definitely prefer racing on proper surfaces!
Conclusion.. I’m totaled.. nice race hoodie though!
