I had the priviledge of travelling to Camlough with Dave A. He had worked the night before eeck. The only worries I had was the score of the NZ rugby vs Ireland (Ireland were winning at that stage) and the pouring rain. Yes, we know it didn't rain in Dublin on Saturday but it rained all the way up and was freezing when we got there. Speedy drive up. Stopped at that amazing service station that manages to dabble in both currencies. Found registration, Dave insisted his number was to be number 1 as it usually is! No it wasn't and smiling wasn't going to work. Drove down to the Lake and met with Helen and Mark and went for a lake view / feel. Helen almost had to be forced to do this. Day was heating up (oh yeh and NZ won). All we needed was a banana loaf meeting and multiple pit stops. Swim was in 2 waves. Swim felt long and was quite choppy. Bike was hilly in places. Had that horrible feeling of almost stopping and falling off my bike it was so steep in one place. Someone had crashed off at the top of the hill and was laying at the top. Along the way there were lots of racing cars waiting to go somewhere which was intimidating. The run - my least favourite was up a big hill (twice) and stinky hot. Some locals luckily had their garden hose out on us. Race over. Post banana loaf meeting, race dissection and back to Dublin. Great day had by all. Big thanks to Teresa for the photos and her support! Here are the results and the recipe:

12268Eoin Mc DonaldPulseMSO  25-2900:10:33(012)00:01:1800:30:00(018)00:00:4000:19:52(028)01:01:41
34264Oran MurphyPulseMSO25-2900:11:40(030)00:01:4500:32:05(045)00:00:5100:19:40(025)01:05:09
35219David AdamsPulseMSO25-2900:12:41(071)00:01:2200:31:14(035)00:00:3600:19:55(030)01:05:11
124149Mark KellyPulseMSO30-3400:12:55(081)00:02:0300:36:23(126)00:00:5500:25:11(154)01:16:31
143168Shane KingPulseMSO30-3400:15:05(151)00:02:1300:38:47(163)00:00:4900:23:01(097)01:19:04
150105Helen DixonPulseFSO35-3900:17:16(188)00:01:4400:36:51(134)00:00:5400:24:37(135)01:20:27
159144Elaine MarsdenPulseFSO35-3900:14:39(134)00:02:5900:37:48(148)00:01:0100:26:31(187)01:21:54
202225Rachel EagerPulseFSO35-3900:15:54(172)00:02:5400:42:00(200)00:01:5100:29:16(210)01:30:04 (8 mins off lst yr)


Rachel

Banana Loaf:
500g wholemeal selfraising flour
250g dates (or prunes, raisins, any dried fruit)
1 kilo bananas
150g walnuts (or any other nuts)
1 egg
Water
2 teaspoons (or more) mixed spice

Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Mash bananas and add to all the other ingredients. Add water to make a dough that is thicker than cake mix but not as stiff as bread dough. Put in to greased / floured tin. Cook in your preheated oven for about 50 mins. Let it cool in tin a bit then turn out. Bob is your uncle.