Hadis may have gotten the last race of the 2024 season in out of all the Synergie Coaching athletes, but the coaches look to recorded the first one in 2025.
I did the New Year’s Day triathlon in 2015, to celebrate a “zero” number birthday, so seemed only fair 10 years on to go back & do it again.
Now in 2015 the weather was blowing a hoolie, the marshals at the top of Arthurs Seat could lean into the wind at 45° and be held there, our training shoes were blown across & out of the transition area…wasn’t expecting sunshine in Edinburgh, in January but the weather must be better…
Well we had a red weather warning as we drove up with dogs in the van & bikes on the back. Registration on Hogmanay was wet & windy and the official celebrations were cancelled due to the weather conditions.
That didn’t stop a number of unofficial fireworks going off all around our Airbnb until about 4am on New Year’s morning, needless to say the dogs were less than impressed. Thankfully it is a late morning start, so we did have time for a power nap.
By the time we got to the pool to start setting up transition, the sleet & snow had come in and the real feel temperature was -7°C. You could tell it was a bit fresh as the sleek & snow were forming ice sheets on our backpacks in transition as we were unpacking them.
Race organisers put the start back to allow the snowstorm to blow over & due to the minus temperature decided to amend the bike course to 2 rather than 3 loops up & around Arthur’s Seat.
Have to say my swim time indicates that I was either having an easy swim or was subconsciously trying to stay indoors for as long as I could, got into all the outdoor layers and took the new gravel bike out for a spin around a big lump of volcanic rock.Amazed to see some athletes racing in ‘speedos’ and riding disc wheels – it’s the 1st Jan and it’s a local event!
Out onto the run, which was always going to be a bit testy, given I was still rehabbing a torn MCL, but my walk/run plan worked well. I soon realised that Di had told some of the marshals to be on the lookout for my bib number, as I had few “Happy Birthdays” along the course.
Each time we have done the race, it has given us a story to tell about the ridiculous race conditions, but it is probably one of the friendliest races you can do, and you have to give a big shout out to all the marshals, standing still in such cold, wet & windy conditions. So, a huge Thank You to them for keeping us all safe.
I have already briefed Di to make sure that I do not try to enter this again in 10 years time!
Although considering the modified course and doing some number crunching, I was faster in 2025 than I was in 2015, so who knows in another 10 years I could be faster again?