New Years Day Triathlon, Edinburgh

Distances: 400m swim, 16.5km cycle, 5.5km run
Number of entrants: 330
Result: 4th. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.

Woke up feeling less than sprightly on New Years Day, and made my way down to race registration. I had been put in the elite start so we were off first, and so unlike last year (when I was put in the last heat) I couldn’t pick up any extra sleep on the pool-side.

The swim had a mass start, which was fine until you got to the far end and you had to duck-dive under the person on your feet in order to turn. The swim soon settled down and with a time of just over 6 minutes I was over a minute up on my performance last year.

The cycle consisted of 3 loops of a 5.5km circuit. Sounds easy, but add a 600 foot climb, and you rapidly start to run out of gears. Never the less, I pulled out the fastest cycle of the day and combined with a good 2nd transition, I was only 10m behind Philip Mosley from Bournemouth, who was in 2nd place overall.

I was all ready to race past him, but as you may have noticed, I have hardly run since October, so the legs simply weren’t there. To make things worse I was passed out going up the hill, so I had to settle with 4th place. The time of 1:02:39 was over 3 minutes faster than my time form last year, but due to the quality of the field I only improved from 5th place in 2003 to 4th this year. Maybe next year I’ll make the podium.