This was my second year completing Pikeman down in Rosslare. The first year I had a little mishap coming out of the swim and managed to fracture my toe. It was also a strong downpour across most of the bike route. Overall, I was looking forward doing the course again and I hoped for better weather conditions. 

Alas, this year too the weather was relentless. 

After racking my bike and getting my station set up, we were lining up at the swim start line, ready to take on the day. It was evident by the buoys going all over the place that the swim wasn’t going to be easy. The swim format was changed to 2 x 750m on the day. 

As the start was getting closer and closer, they announced that we were only doing 1 loop of 750m. There was a sigh of relief from a lot of the participants and of course myself too. 

Luckily, the water wasn’t cold yet, however I still felt all over the place during the swim. At one point, the buoy was on my right, did a few strokes and the same buoy was then completely on my left. Had to course correct a few times. I definitely got stuck in some currents as well. 

After what felt like a rollercoaster ride, I got onto the bike and started the 40km spin. First lap of the bike route was very windy. I thought the weather couldn’t get any worse. Well that was my oversight. As I turned onto the second lap, the heavens opened up and poured down without fail. It was a great wind and rain combo for the rest of the way. 

The rain just continued even going into the run. It was raining so much that most of the run was dashing through puddles. 

It was a delight to see the finish line and changing into dry clothing!

Overall I was quite happy with my time and for completing the course in such bad weather conditions. Look at the bright side, I came away without any injuries this year.  

I know for sure that the course is superb but the weather makes it quite challenging. 

Maybe next year the weather gods will be on my side.