Mull of Kintyre Triathlon – Saturday 6th August, 2016

Post date: Oct 3, 2016 12:19:58 PM

By Catherine McLean

Sandy and I sat one night talking about the MoKTri and decided that we would put in a team just to do something different. Myself doing the 750m swim, originally Catriona McLean was our cyclist cycling the 12 miles to Ballochgair and back, unfortunately Catriona had a lovely holiday booked so our saviour was Kirsty Black and Sandy running the 5k. I knew my freestyle needed a desperate overhaul so I booked myself into Improvers with Eilidh and Rhona and so the training for the swim began.

On the day I was an absolute nervous wreak to the point that Sandy thought we were going to have to pull out. Thankfully once I was in the water I settled. I was in the first heat, lane 5. There was just three of us in my lane, me and two men Angus Cormie and Iain MacNicol. At 10:30 on the dot off we set me leading in our lane. Angus caught my foot on the second length so I stopped to let him and Iain past. On the third length I caught Angus and heading back up on the fourth I caught Iain and I was off. I was never so happy than when I got hit on the head with the float telling me I had only two lengths left. I jumped out the pool grabbed my Campbeltown Running Club t-shirt and headed down the stairs completing my 750m in just over 16 minutes according to my watch 17:05 clocked time. Once I hit the carpark I took off sprinting across the grass to the transition area to hand over the chip to Kirsty.

Conditions were good for the cycle it wasn’t too hot or windy for the long journey ahead. Kirsty estimated she would be just over the hour having only cycled it twice before the race and on one of them she got a puncture!!! Thankfully on the day all was good. Kirsty came cruised into the transition area at a fab time of 1:00:25. A quick change over with Sandy for the chip and he took off.

Sandy headed off at a great pace not really within sight of anyone in particular. He wasn’t long into the run when he heard a set of feet heading in his direction which belong to none other than Dom Sharkey. Sandy continued running at his planned pace and crossed the line in 21:47. That was it all over in a respectable 1:40:19. Three very happy folk all geared up to enter the MoKTri again next year!!!

The event as a whole was well organised and we loved every minute of it. The goody bag was great and the home baking was out of this world. Marjorie Leighton I do love your tablet. Absolutely love the t-shirt and medal, which after going out that night came home and the dog had ate mine!!!!!!!!

Here’s to 2017 the McLean/Black team will be back better than ever…..