European Ironman Championships

We should see more of Billy Kennedy now that he is back and recovered from his recent endeavours in the European Ironman C/ship. The race consisted of a 2.5 mile swim, 112 mile cycle and full marathon in some of the most difficult conditions in years. A combination of high winds and temperatures of 36 degrees had to be endured by the athletes. Billy’s first run of the day was down the road after his water bottles which blew away as he was filling them, and was still burnt through his factor 50 sun protection. Despite this Billy did the swim in 1’08” (9 min faster than last year) and completed the bike section over a very hilly course in 6’50”. However a niggling knee injury developed during the cycle as he as he slightly altered his pedalling style to avoid a new bar mounted feed bag, and this became quite painful during the second half of the run. This cost him an hour off his run time and likely selection for the World C/ship in Hawaii. The severe conditions indeed took its toll on the competitors as nearly 200 out of the 850 field, despite extended cut-off times, failed to finish. Billy’s next major trip abroad will be to the Berlin Marathon in September, where he will represent the Dublin City Marathon with which he is involved in organising.