Athletic Rehabilitation Therapy Ireland swung into action last weekend at the inaugural running of the Galway Half-Ironman triathlon. Continuing to make waves in the Irish sports scene, ARTI delivered a squad of ARTCs to the Galway event, offering athletic rehabilitation therapy cover for the events duration. The race, the first Ironman event to be held in the Republic of Ireland, saw over 2,000 competitors battling the elements to complete the 750m swim in Galway bay (cut short from 1.9km due to rough weather conditions), 90km bike ride through Connemara, finishing with a 21.2km (half marathon) run along the wind and rain swept Salthill promenade.
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| ARTC's on site: (L-R) Roy Brennan, Fiachra Power, Aoife Greene, Kathryn Fahy, Anthony Farrell, Diarmuid Brennan. |
Athletes arrived in Galway to register for the event on Friday the 2nd and Saturday the 3rd of September, and ARTI was delighted to be able to provide assessments, advice and treatments to the competitors from our location in the event Expo. With ARTI providing the only on-site healthcare professionals in the build up to race day there was significant interest from competitors for the ARTCs services especially from the many international athletes attending the event.
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| Startline in Galway Bay! |
Race day saw professional Swiss athlete Mike Aigroz cross the finish line in a time of 3:50:12 to win the overall event, with the rest of the field following his lead within the 8.5 hours allowed to complete the race. Many of the athletes took the opportunity to avail of the post-race care provided in the treatment area set up bedside the finish line with post-event soft tissue work, stretching, injury assessment and recovery advice the order of the day. With the largest contribution to the mixed group of professionals providing post-event care, ARTI led the way with an efficient and professional service, with attention to details such as patient documentation setting the ARTCs apart.
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| Roy Brennan (ARTC) in action in Galway. |
Fiachra Power (ARTC), one of the ARTI members working the event summed up the experience, "It was a really good event to work at. We got to work with a wide variety of athletes from Pro's to first timers and the feedback from them all was superb. There was great interest in the ARTI website with many competitors wanting to locate an ARTC in their own area to attend for treatments. The exposure for ARTI to both the general public and the athletes in the Expo was great and even though we all had to put long hours in, 10am to 6pm non-stop on race day, I really had a great time and would definitely come down to Galway again to work at it next year".
While the event was a great success Roy Brennan (ARTC), ARTI's public relations officer, says "The importance of the ongoing drive and expansion of the association and the commitment of ARTCs to promote the association for an event was again to the fore, at Ironman 70.3 Galway. This is only the beginning, we're really happy with how the weekend went. Similar events and PR opportunities are planned where getting the message to the sporting public is high on the list and where all of us in ARTI have an obligation to add where we can”…The response of the athletes was extremely positive with both the pre-event treatments on Friday and Saturday, and the post-event care on the Sunday. Their feedback of the high professional standards of each ARTC was something that, as ARTI members, we are obviously already aware of and eager to improve upon."
Well done to the entire ARTI team involved in the organising for and working at the event!
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| ARTC's Aoife Greene & Fiachra Power at work in Galway. |
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| Fiachra Power (ARTC) at the ARTI stall on the opening day. |
