West Lothian Triathlon Take Early Season Team Prize at East Fife.

Sunday 11th April saw the second (and possibly final) day of summer for 2010.  A cracking day saw 11 WLT athletes (and 3 supporters) taking part in the East Fife Novice & Sprint Triathlons in Cupar.  New members & husband & wife team, Jane & Calum Kilgour competed in the novice event  & were treated to the biggest cheer of the day as they exited the swim in first & second place respectively.  The West Lothian support crew proved their worth by shouting at Jane as she attempted to leave T2 with her bike helmet still on!

The sprint race saw our "elite section" of Ian Logan, Andrew Fish & Frank Boyne turning in outstanding 5th, 6th & 8th places respectively.  Neil Crozier pipped Gordon Biddulph by 4 seconds, ensuring that he now has a target on his back for the rest of the season!  Gordon C, Graham, Dave & Derek brought home the remainder of the WLT places, encouraged, cheered-on & generally heckled by the support crew of Chris, Rab & Peter.  The support crew contributed to our surprise team award from the organisers.  We were given the "most vocal support" award - and well-deserved it was too.

WLT Athletes Qualify For Duathlon World Championships.

West Lothian Triathletes Ian Logan & Frank Boyne once again pulled off a couple of stunning performances at the qualifiers in Stirling for the World Duathlon Championships which will be held in Edinburgh in September.

Frank was first in his category and Ian 5th, meaning that they both qualified for the World Championships later in the year.  Professional athlete Catriona Morrison, who is the reigning European Duathlon Champion, also raced under the flag of West Lothian Triathlon.  Cat won the race holding off the challenge of former Commonwealth Games runner Gillian Palmer to live up to her pre-race favourite billing. Club athlete Andrew Fish put in another fantastic performance, narrowly missing out on a qualification slot.  Well done to all the West Lothian Triathlon athletes and it willl be great to see them in action at the World Championships.

A Fitting Start to the Season.

We had a visit from physiotherapist and bike-fit expert Jane Gilks who took us through the fundamentals of bike fitting and position.  Jane brought along Cat Morrison to demonstrate the result of years of work fine-tuning her aero position - and it showed.  Cat's position on the bike was the essence of smoothness but it was reassuring to hear that even at the elite level, bike-fit is an ongoing process.

Jane then took club President, Chris Bennie, and reviewed both his road bike & TT positions, carrying out some fairly radical alterations to both.  As Jane worked on Chris' position, all those present were able to see the difference that each change made.  As well as benefitting from a top-notch bike-fit, Chris was is also delighted that he now has to buy some new bling for his bike in order to perfect his position.

Chris'll Fix It.

Saturday 10th April saw us hold a bike maintenance course aimed at our newer and less-experienced cyclists.  Members were shown the fundamentals of tyre-changing and brake & gear adjustment, with many members glad to have found out how easy it is to save money on bike-shop bills!  The demonstration was followed by a 1 hour local ride to introduce members to the etiquette and skills needed for riding in a group.  The day was a great success made even better by the presence of the sun and Jane K's home-made muffins. Rumours that Jane has been co-opted on to the committee as "Baked Goods Co-ordinator" have yet to be confirmed!

March 2010

New Run & Swim Sessions.

We have a new run session on a Wednesday evening.  Meet at Deans High School car park for a 7pm start.  The session will include warm-up, drills and short runs, with some hill work & speed work as the sessions progress.

We also have access to lanes on a Friday evening from 8.30 - 9.30 at Deans High School.  As numbers grow and demand increases, we will have coaching advice available from one of our Level 1 coaches.

January 2010

President's Run.

Ten hardy souls mustered at Big G's house on the morning of Saturday 30th January ready to set off on the inaugural West Lothian Triathlon President’s Run.  The weather forecast in preceding week had hinted at cold weather with even the possibility of snow but as we awoke on Saturday morning we were greeted with very cold temperatures but thankfully dry weather and clear skies.

Espresso & croissants were drunk & eaten as we tried to convince ourselves that we were sitting at a pavement cafe in France preparing for a summer ride into the Alps.  Alas, as we donned our extra base layers, no amount of coffee managed to convince us that we were heading anywhere other than the wintry Scottish Borders in sub-zero temperatures.

Reluctantly we left the warmth and after posing for a photo we were off.  Well, most of us were!  Big G (for it is I) spun the cranks only to arrive quickly at the realisation that his freehub had frozen and despite pedalling at a cadence in excess of 120, he was going nowhere.  After much swearing, spinning of cranks and thumping of the back wheel, the hub engaged & we were off again.

With around 26 miles to be travelled before the promise of a cafe stop in Bigger, the pace was leisurely (as it should be for a group ride in January).  However this did mean that it took a wee while for bodies, fingers and toes to warm up and we were probably at West Calder before a comfortable temperature was reached.  Once on the back roads towards Auchengray the traffic quietened and we settled into a relaxing ride with plenty of good conversation going on throughout the group.  A few patches of ice were successfully negotiated on the back roads & the good feelings were only briefly interrupted by a loose saddle bolt on Big G’s vintage Cannondale and then a broken chain on Chris’s Orbea.  The two club members who are possibly the most obsessed by bike maintenance, struck down by mechanicals within a few miles – oh the shame.

So we rolled into Biggar, commandeered the local coffee shop & consumed a few well deserved calories.  The other coffee-shop inmates seemed pretty interested in where we had come from & where we were heading although we are not entirely convinced that they believed Rab when he told them that he had cycled from Inverness!

Chris had very kindly told us that the climb out of Biggar “would hurt like hell” so with just a bit less enthusiasm than we should have had, we climbed out of Biggar on the Carnwath road.  The ups & downs of this road took their toll on some of the group & things became a bit more strung out than on the way down, but everyone coped well and the Carnwath traffic lights provided the opportunity for the group to come together again.

Retracing our tracks on the Auchengray road some of the group were treated to Pedro’s aerial ballet as his bike came to a halt a few seconds before the rest of his body.  Those who witnessed it awarded him 9.8 for style and 9.9 for artistic impression.  Still giggling, we rolled into West Calder and headed back to Livi, suffering slightly thanks to the sting in the tail provided by a couple of sharp hills before arriving back at Big G’s.

Several tonnes of crisps, cakes & pizza were hovered-up before our merry band headed homewards for showers, baths & further calorie replenishment.  Blue skies, quiet roads, good conversation & tailwinds (OK – slight exaggeration there!) made for a cracking day enjoyed by all.

December 2009

Christmas Night Out & Awards.

We had a very enjoyable and very well attended Christmas night out in Livingston on Saturday 19th which proved to be a great opportunity to wear silly hats & moustaches (no change there, then!) and generally eat & drink too much (not much change there either!)  We also handed out a few awards to athletes who had done the club proud over the course of the season.  Derek Rendall claimed the prize for Most Improved Athlete whilst Rab Waterson took the inaugural Club Comedian Award for his season-long antics which included such highlights as cartwheeling his bike over a wall in a bid to get rid of a wasp from his helmet - and too many others to mention.  Rab couldn't be at the dinner as he was recovering after having beaten-up 9 louts from Craigshill using only his face - get well soon, Rab.  The Triathlete of the Year was not presented as the recipient had some very poor excuse for not attending the night out!  This was a pretty pathetic end to a wonderful season for this particular athlete - stay tuned for the big announcement and an in-depth interview with the lucky winner.

December 2009

2009 Rankings.

The 2009 Triathlon Scotland rankings have been published & can be found here.  The club rankings show that West Lothian Triathlon finished 7th overall which is a pretty stunning result for such a new and modestly-sized club.  The top 2 places in the Central Series Sprint rankings went to club members Ian Logan & Andrew Fish, with Frank Boyne 5th, Gordon Biddulph 14th and Gordon Macpherson, Gordon Cunningham & Mike Creamer all featuring on the first page of the results.  Frank was 1st overall in the Open Water category with Fish 3rd.  In the Standard Category we had 5 athletes on the front page of the results with Frank 2nd.  We are very proud of all our athletes and look forward to even better results next season with a view to breaking into the top 5. 

November 2009

We hope your are enjoying the new club website.  We felt that it was time to freshen things up and provide a useful resource for club members as well as an attractive advert to encourage new members to the club.

The new site also marks the end of our relationship with Entry Central.  We would like to thank them for their invaluable assistance when the club was formed, just a few short years ago.

2009 Season Review

2009 was a pretty spectacular year for West Lothian Triathlon.  The early season Bishopbriggs Sprint Triathlon saw 9 club members competing, making us the 3^rd best represented club at the event.  Frank Boyne took a first in his age group and 9^th overall, whilst Andrew Fish took 6^th overall, opening up his account on what would become a stellar season.

May saw the North Berwick Novice Triathlon at which Andrew Fish took first place overall – thereby ending his claim to be a novice.  In June, he finished 23^rd in his age group in the Ironman 70.3 UK race.  (The women’s race was won by our very own Catriona Morrison.)

Two of our club members tackled the Ironman distance this year.  Ally Morrell competed in his second consecutive Ironman UK, over the new course at Bolton.  He battled what was a very tough course, finishing in an outstanding 11:45:29.  Club Secretary Chris Bennie undertook his first Ironman event in Switzerland, having done the Switzerland Half Ironman last year.  He finished in a spectacular time of 12:23:20 – and now has the tattoo to prove it.

Dave Easton took part in his first ever London Marathon, managing to run the entire 26.2 miles in a time of 4:10:28.  Rather than resting on his laurels, he is now looking for ways to cut at least 10 minutes and 29 seconds from his time.

Long-time triathlete Gordon McPherson had a quiet season by his standards but still managed to rack up first in his age-group at both the Haddington & Midlothian sprint tris and took home the Scottish title at the Scottish Aquathon Championships.

 The Scottish Half Ironman championships at Aberfeldy saw 2 West Lothian Triathletes braving the freezing waters of Loch Tay with Frank Boyne running down Andrew Fish within sight of the finish line to record 14^th & 15^th places respectively.  Frank headed to Australia later in the year to be our man at the ITU World Championships on the Gold Coast – just don’t ask him about sick children.

Another great turnout from club members was at the Gullane Beach Triathlon where strong winds & rough seas meant the swim was shortened to half-distance.  Frank Boyne took 9^th, Andrew Fish 13^th and Rab Waterson took 51^st and a special prize for always smiling and pulling faces whenever he saw a camera. 

Ian Logan finished the season with a first place overall in the Triathlon Scotland Central Region Sprint League, rewarding his consistency all season.  Aforementioned superstar Andrew Fish finished second in the league.

This is only a handful of the club’s results so you can imagine that we are very proud of all our athletes’ achievements.  Let’s make 2010 even better!

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