Ironman Edinburgh and Austria 2018

Round-up of club members taking part in Ironman Edinburgh 70.3 and Ironman Austria 2018

Once again, some of our PTC members showed us what they were made of and took on the Ironman Edinburgh 70.3 in extremely unusual weather conditions for Scotland as the temperature gauge reached 27 degrees. Overseas we also had two members competing in the Ironman Austria in equally hot conditions! All of them put in the hours of training required and ensured that they stuck to a strict healthy diet - no sweets, chocolate, crisps, biscuits or alcohol were consumed whatsoever! 

The race started with a 1.2 mile swim at Preston Links followed by a 56 mile bike route heading eastwards from Cockenzie and finally the 13.1 mile run takes place within Holyrood Park.

Here are a few comments that our brave competitors made;
Ironman Austria – 3.8km swim, 180km ride, 42.2km run

Graeme Gatherer reported the following: “I had a shocker of a swim - seemed every big Austrian and German wanted a piece of me - got well beat up in quite choppy conditions. Came out in 1900th??. The bike route is beautiful- held my own and made up approximately 1000 places then the run was a battle to get to the finish in the heat. I made up another 500 places. Very happy with my time given Celtman was just 2 weeks ago!

Well done Graeme who finished in a time of 11:10:08 and placed 156th out of 449 in his category and overall placed 747th out of 2495 athletes.

Jim Weir, our other ‘Austrian Ironman’ finished in a time of 11:33:09 and placed 154th out of 478 in his category and overall placed 968th out of 2495 athletes.

MASSIVE round of applause for our ‘Austrian’ Ironmen.

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Moving on to Ironman Edinburgh 70.3 – 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile ride and 13.1 mile run.

Joe Webley reported “Ok swim and bike really tough run ?? and a world championship slot ???? great weekend racing with great people.” - fab racing Joe and a slot into the World Championship in South Africa this September!

Andrew Miller reported “Lovely swim; great bike; scorching, blistered feet run; pizza.” Andrew finished – get yourself along to Boots for some compeed plasters for the next time ;)

Nigel Bruce reported “Reasonable swim, disappointing cycle (two punctures and waiting 1hr for mechanical support) ended up being last cyclist with sweep van behind me ??. Tough run” – that is a run of bad luck…huge respect that you kept going until the end where others would have given up.

Alicja Weyer reported “Good swim but a little disappointed with the time, but after the race when I checked that almost everyone was fighting with the current and swam more meters, I’m very happy. Bike - my target was to go under 3 hours but just missed it by 43 seconds and this run, I just don’t like it. In the end, Edinburgh was a race that I really enjoyed, no sunburn, sore legs and a second place finish in my age category- first podium in 70.3 IRONMAN races with a slot for WORLD championship 2019 in France.” – fantastic racing Alicja and well done on your slot into the World Championship in France. 

We would also like to say a huge well done to Beth Scholes who qualified for the World Championship Ironman 70.3 in South Africa this September also.

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Also racing last weekend was Carole Mallett who took on her second sportive of the year and completed the West Coast Classic which is a 54 mile ride starting and finishing at Preston College. Carole reported that it was tough going, cycling in blistering heat but happy that the route wasn’t too hilly. Carole finished in a time of 4hrs 21 mins - fab racing Carole considering you only started road-biking this year!