Pentland Triathletes started to take shape in 2003 when Alex Gordon and Catherine Barr discovered they were kindred 'exercise spirits', whilst standing at the school gates in Balerno. They started running, swimming and cycling together, others joined in, and this led to a small group of women deciding to enter the Edinburgh New Years Day Triathlon in 2004.
Having successfully completed the Edinburgh NYD Tri, it wasn't long before the idea of organising a local Ladies Only Triathlon took seed, with the inaugural Balerno Ladies Triathlon (BLT) taking place in October 2004.
The BLT proved so popular the group decided to form a new club, The Pentland Tri Club. The club opened membership to men and women aged 16 or over, and linked up with Triathlon Scotland.
The BLT was successful hosted up to, and including, 2008.
The club was re-launched as Pentland Triathletes in 2006; its aim being to provide its members with a variety of training sessions in all 3 disciplines, with professionalism and safe practice of paramount importance. Membership of the Pentland Triathletes (and therefore Triathlon Scotland) also provides 3rd party insurance cover. The philosophy of the club is to encourage and value all of its members, embracing triathletes of all abilities.
The club has invested in training their own triathlon coach whose primary function is to lead the swim sessions on a regular basis, but who also instructs members in their cycling and running skills. The club has, in addition, an increasing selection of training aids, such as swimming equipment, turbo trainers and heart rate monitors which are available for members to borrow.
To strengthen the running sector of club training, a link was forged with Harmeny Pentland Runners (with affiliation to Harmeny Athletic Club) who offer a friendly environment for regular running sessions. Again, safety is paramount and Harmeny has fully trained Jog Scotland leaders to cater for beginners and the more experienced runner.
The future of the club remains in the hands of its members. There are many plans underfoot to continue to develop the club, with duathlon and open water triathlon on the agenda. In 2007 and 2008 the Pentland Triathletes also organized a local charity cycle for prostate cancer, the appropriately named 'Y-Front Cycle'. This took place in the Pentland Hills, raising over £5,000 towards Prostate Cancer Care.
The club's intention is to continue to work with the local community to provide a high quality of service to its members, striving for personal achievement through the enjoyment of sport.
'You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough' Joe Louis
The Club Constitution is available online.
Triathlon is the fastest growing sport in the UK, and is any race comprising of a swim, a cycle and a run, with no rest between the different components. Typically the race order is swim, bike, run.
Most races are either over the slightly ironically named sprint distance, which consists of a 750m swim, a 20k bike, and then a 5k run. The Olympic distance is twice as far as the sprint, and unsurprisingly is the length of the course raced at the Olympics. More extreme distances include the half and full iron man, which consists of a 3.8k swim, a 180k cycle and a 42k run and can take well over 10 hours to complete.
Iron men (who can also be women) tend to have some masochistic tendencies and adhere to the Friedrich Nietzsche school of thought - 'That which does not kill you makes you stronger'.