The morning began with an early rise to drop of bikes and trail runners at the transition area before the race start in the centre of Westport. The race went from the gun with Eddie setting a fast pace that soon whittled out the large entry of over 1000 people. The opening 4.5km run was covered in a time of 14min 41 secs by Shaun and Eddie, as they entered the T1 in 2nd and 3rd position. While Dinny showed his true grit coming in in 16.48. The short 8km cycle to Croagh Patrick was steady but into a head wind, then came the big one!
The accent of the Reek was challenging for every competitior although the decent was almost as bad with loose rocks and the pounding of the legs taking its toll by the time the bottom was reached. On top of Croagh Patrick, Shaun was in 2nd place, Eddie 4th, Dinny 19th and Gavin 95th. Once the decent was over it was back on the bike for the 35km cycle, which didn't seem like too much before hand although with so much effort already been spent it caused several competitiors to suffer from cramp. This 35km course had lots of climbing including the Mamm which resembled Loch Salt except twice aslong! Eddie and Shaun both made good progress on this leg although Shaun suffered from cramp with about 5km remaining and resulted in him being caught by 3rd place as they entered the transition for the final time.
The remaining run was similar to the opening leg but included an obstacle course. With Shaun 'hitting the wall' he struggled home to secure 5th place just ahead of Eddie, who covered this course in the 4th fastest time and hepled him secure 6th place overall. Next in was Dinny in 18th place overall and Gavin in 169th. Eddie's brother Anthony, and fellow Cranford athletes P.J Boyce and Tommy Peoples also completed in the event.
This event was a perfect target for some off-season cross training and hopefully FourMasters will be well represented next year! Well done to all...