With rain and heavy winds all day during the 2022 Celtman Extreme Triathlon hearty athletes with an appetite for adventure and personal challenges were rewarded with a memorable experience.
In the Braveheart movie William Wallace called those rainy and windy conditions good Scottish weather, but in real life at higher elevations the forecast called for 60mph winds with 80mph gusts and a wind chill of -12 degrees C (10 degrees F) and thus the organizers closed the mountain completely, something they had previously only done back in 2017.
Thus according to the organizing team all athletes who reached T2a (Mountain Safety Cut-Off) by 4pm were awarded the Blue t-shirt and those who reached it by 6pm were awarded the White t-shirt. On this day day 88 athletes earned the coveted blue shirts with Ross Creber and Eilidh Prise grabbing the titles in 10:39:52 and 11:19:30 respectively.
54 athletes managed to finish in time to grab a white shirt, while 28 athletes did not finish that adventurous race.
Here now are images from the day by Kai-Otto Melau
Dancing across rocks to avoid getting the shoes fully wet, but with so much rain all day it was not easy to keep shoes and socks or really anything else dry.
The day started pleasant enough and the starting field was greeted by these kilt clad musicians on their way to the swim start.
It was time to get to the start and hopefully not miss the big party.
The water was quite cold and thus extra layers were welcomed. We surmise that this speedy swimmer is likely Mark Livesey who ended up 4th overall in 11:10:29
Eilidh Prise had a fine day after her 49:07 swim and in the end she finished 5th overall and almost an hour up on female division runner-up Caroline Livesey.
The swim was indeed very challenging, but it was also clear that the athletes who came here from all over the world were not really looking for easy.
During the bike segment there was a lot of time for reflection, as for long stretches there were no other competitors or spectators in sight.
Every now and then the sun did come out but it was only for brief moments and maybe only a tease.
The road bike option seemed quite popular here on this course with over 7000 feet of elevation gain.
The sky was very angry at times and while David Wilson from TriDubai was all smiles here, he ended up not finishing.
The running route although altered from the regular course was still plenty challenging.
Caroline Livesey on the way to second place in the female division with a time of 12:13:09.
After a monster bike split of 5:46:50 Ross Creber had a massive lead on the competition and carried a 20 minute cushion at the end.
It did rain a bunch and the rain left its marks.
And when the trail was a bit higher up that was likely appreciated.
With clouds rolling in and with determination moving forward.
2022 Celtman Extreme Triathlon
June 19, 2022
Top men
1. Ross Creber 10:35:59
2. Robin Downie 10:55:18
3. Jack Brown 11:02:59
4. Mark Livesey 11:10:29
5. Chris Watson 11:22:24
Top women
1. Eilidh Prise 11:19:30
2. Caroline Livesey 12:13:09
3. Jenny Close 13:03:11
4. Naomi Shinkins 13:03:27
5. Marie Meldrum 13:40:59
All images © Kai-Otto Melau
