Triathletes do road races?? Well apparently so as the Fantastic Four from EUTri’s elite descended onto the distant land of Kings Buildings on Saturday, where it appeared we were slightly outnumbered by some other uni club calling themselves the “Haries” (apparently they only do one sport…lol).
With the 12 o’clock start fast approaching there was only one thought on people minds (apart from Strava segments of course). Where was everyone’s (self-proclaimed) favourite triathlete Nicholas Allen? When the breaking news flooded through that he’d in fact slept in and had to make the ultimate sacrifice of not having breakfast everyone was su
itably sympathetic towards his ordeal (rumour is he was actually too busy crying over not being able to compete in his jazzy new tri suit for another week).
What followed one can only describe as brutal. To say the course was hilly would be an understatement (made only worse by the sights of Nick and Euan’s backsides as they’re slowly getting away from you). EuTri’s performance of the day undoubtedly has to go to medal winner Mary Macintosh, fighting off stiff competition from the Haries and HBT to finish a magnificent 2nd placed female and overall 44th place in 31:28 (take that Haries)!
First male triathlete was President Nicholas Allen, managing a brilliant 14th place in 27:47, closely followed in 15th place by the Monday night running machine that is Euan Cunningham with a time of 28:05. Rounding of the male triathletes was Andrew Johnstone in 18th place, crossing the line in 28:48 (and more importantly making a brief appearance in a Strava segment top ten). Despite our best efforts to claim custody of a certain rather lanky harie (Cameron Young), we were just one member short of a team.
Special mentions must go to a couple triathletes for helping to run the event. Technically the winner of the race (haters will say cycling’s faster than running), Bronagh Wishart cycled in front of the 112 strong field showing the way. Also thanks to Gregor Malcom, who rather impressively managed to sneak his way into an indoors job “looking after the laptops” (definitely not eating cake and watching the World Series Triathlon race). Huge thanks as well to the rest of the marshals and organisers for putting on such a superbly run event.
See you all there next year!
Andrew Johnstone
Edinburgh University Triathlon Club 