the Edinburgh Bicycle New Year's Day Triathlon

Seeing as how we were traveling all the way over to Scotland for the New Year, and seeing as how Edinburgh had planned a triathlon as part of their New Year's Day celebrations, I aspired to sign up for the Edinburgh Bicycle New Year's Day Triathlon, hosted by the local tri club, Edinburgh Triathletes.

I should explain a few things about Scotland and New Year's...I think the Scots invented it. The Scots call it Hogmanay, and they do not screw around when it comes to New Year's. They party for 4 days around the new year. The celebration culminates in a huge street party on Prince's Street lasting into the wee hours. They planned several live bands performing on street stages in the area. At the castle when we visited the week before, they were already setting up for the Pet Shop Boys concert in the great hall.

Yes, the Pet Shop Boys in the Great Hall of Edinburgh Castle. Wow.

A day before Hogmany, there were ceilidh dances and street performances, we watched dozens of pipers in kilts making their way up the hill as my husband and I went out to dinner in town. On Hogmanay eve, there would be fire dancers, viking ships on fire, live bands, street theatre, performance art, and my favourite performers - the crazy hairdresser people. Really, Hogmanay is not to be missed - it's an unbelievable spectacle and a lot of fun.

We had elected not to go to the party this year. Though there were still tickets available, we had been before and knew what we'd be missing. This turned out to be a wise decision. For the second time in recent history, the City of Edinburgh canceled the street party due to poor weather conditions. In fact, all Hogmanay celebrations across Scotland were cancelled, as the winds gusted up to 80mph on the 31st.

From my mother in law's house, we had a fairly excellent view of the castle (since it pokes up above the skyline pretty high, it's hard to miss) as they let off a few minutes of fireworks at midnight. The high winds quickly carried the lights away into the sky, and well, that was about it. Happy New Year!

So - Scotland is a great place to Party. But what does this have to do with Triathlon?

The New Year's Day celebrations in Edinburgh were of a sporting nature: Dogmanay in Holyrood park (a dogsledding competition), the One O'Clock Run (a family run down the Royal Mile), the Loony Dook (a dip in the Firth of Forth - an estuary fed by the North Sea), and the Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative Triathlon.

You might start to get the feeling by this list that it's really all about testing one's fortitude to start your New Year...And you'd be right.

When I first heard of it in September, I fully intended on being in that race. However, I fell off a bike and broke my arm at about the time I should have been registering for a spot. I got onto a long waiting list, but by the 18th of December, I knew I would not have a place on that day.

Nonetheless, I saw on their website that they were in need of what they call Race Marshalls (in the US we'd call that Volunteers, but I like that it sounds all official). I couldn't race but my goodness "marshalling" would be a great way to experience a race! So we dressed in our warmest clothes and diligently showed up on New Year's Day at 11:30 to assist in whatever way were were asked.

The crappy weather of New Year's Eve seemed to follow on New Year's day. On our way to the Royal Commonwealth Pool (the start of the course) I commented to my husband that surely they would cancel the bike ride. With the wind and rain, it only made sense. Surely it would just be a swim and run...

We presented ourselves to the officials, they handed us some green vests that said "race marshall" and asked us to first help with the Iron Kids Duathlon, which was to precede the triathlon.

About 50 kids, aged 8 to 15 were turned out into the cold, to go test their little fortitudes off. Our job was to help them out - rack their bikes, direct them onto the course, cheer them on. Right about the time the race director started running the wee ones through the course to show them what to do, it started to rain a heavy rain. This is kind of unusual in Scotland, in my experience. Usually there is light rain or there is coalescing mist - the heavy stuff is not as frequent. However, this is Scotland I'm talking about, this country is certainly no stranger to rain.

And there we were - in a heavy rain, directing the kids out of the run and onto their bikes, racking bikes, directing them around the racks. They all came back from their bike ride cold and wet. They were all equally determined, equally motivated. I think I saw one girl quit after the bike - she was blue with cold and looked like she'd reached her limit. Her fortitude was somewhere on the bike course. The rest of the kids finished their run/bike/run, and then went inside to warm up. Thankfully, it was a short race for the kids - times ranged from 11 to 25 minutes.

After that I knew: if they sent their kids out in that, there was no way they'd cancel the bike for the grown-up Triathlon. No way, no how. The heavy rain stopped just as the last kid was finishing and I came inside to warm up, dry out and watch the nervous triathletes preparing for their race. I'm pretty sure I heard the race announcer say at this point, with a certain amount of pride, "we never cancel".

There was an elite heat followed by several groups of athletes for the seeded 400m swim in the Commonwealth Pool. The "Commie Pool" (as they call it) was built for the Commonwealth Games sometime in the 80's, and is a really deluxe venue for swimming. My husband and I had done a few swim workouts in it prior to the race. It is a full 50 meters long and has huge grandstand areas for spectators, and a small training pool and diving pool off to the side. I had a great view as I stood above the pool in the spectator area with a cup of coffee. I watched the elite athletes warming up in the training pool, and then get into the big pool for warmup laps.

Elite, in this case, meant anyone who wanted a head start - there was no official Pro category. However, Kirsty Balfour, a local gal who is also a European champion swimmer, was in the elite heat as the swimmer for a relay team. Local pride was high as the announcer introduced her in the pool (she had also presented medals to the winners of the Ironkids Duathlon). I watched her form carefully to see if I could pick up any tips.

...so here's the tip: there's a huge difference between us joe schmoe swimmers and an elite champion. Not only was she built like a muscly swimmer person, she could cross the pool in about 21 strokes (to my 61 I counted the day before). She was fast and graceful, and really fun to watch from above.

Getting back to our job, we went back outside to help marshall the course once the swimmers exited the pool. The bike course was 3 5K laps around Arthur's Seat, the tallest lump of rock in the City, adjacent to the Commie Pool. Arthur's Seat is within of a large open space inside the centre of Edinburgh. It is adjacent to Holyrood Park and Holyrood palace (where I understand the Queen hangs out from time to time). There are walking paths and small lochs and ponds, swans and grass. It's very pretty, especially in the summer.

My husband and I stationed ourselves at the bottom of a roundabout between the Commie Pool and Arthur's Seat. This was an important place for marshalls to be, as we were at the bottom of a hill directing bikers to slow down prior to a sharp turn taking them back to their next loop.

It was at about this time that the rain started again. That cold, driving rain and wind that chased the ironkids around their course had started just in time for the fastest bikers to start the bike leg.

I took a whistle from another marshall and took to blowing it every time I saw a biker coming down the hill. This was partially because it really was a sharp turn, and it was really raining, plus the spectators - still probably hung over from the night before - started wandering onto the course.

The competitors were pretty varied. The only tri-specific bikes I saw the whole day were in the elite heat, and there weren't many. Most of the elite were riding good roadies. After that, I saw a lot of mountain bikes with racks and panniers. Even so, Edinburgh is a city full of cyclists. During our vacation I saw people riding in heavy traffic, behind buses, in rain, ice - in conditions I wouldn't dare venture into. I'd guess the cyclists were all relatively strong despite the low bling factor.

The run course consisted of one lap around Arthur's Seat (5K). It was at this point I realised that I was so cold I was starting not to care anymore.

Some of the competitors (particularly the elite) had elected to compete in simple tri suits, on the bike, in the cold, in the wind and rain. Some of the competitors appeared quite weatherbeaten as they passed me - their legs were bright red from cold. I was wearing a down jacket with 3 layers underneath, pants and goretex rain pants on top, two hats, two pair of gloves - and I was freezing. The damp creeped into all those layers and the wind froze me solid.

After about an hour or so of herding spectators and cyclists and watching the early runners come in, I could no longer feel my toes and we had to retire to a warm place and drink coffee. If my fingers hadn't frozen, I'd have taken more pictures. The fastest time of the day was a little over an hour. I think this is pretty fast, considering it was windy and cold, and it's a fairly hilly course.

Since we had helped out they gave us marshalls some goodie bags which included some extremely cool arm warmers with the Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative Logo (these were the same arm warmers they gave to the athletes). In previous years they have given neck warmers and fleecy hats - great goodies! They were generous with the food and drink for the volunteers and racers.

In general it's a pretty well run race with a large turn-out from locals both spectating and competing even in harsh conditions. If you plan to be in the UK for New Year's next year, I'd recommend this race either for spectating or competing since there is so much to do in Scotland during Hogmanay. Be sure to sign up early and be ready for the cold - they never cancel!