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Gullane Beach Triathlon

By CoachKev | Published 1 September 2025 | No Comments

The Edinburgh Triathletes Gullane Beach Triathlon has been a staple in the Scottish Triathlon calendar for almost 30 years now and I had looked at it several times in the past, this year the stars aligned and I entered. It was 3 weeks ahead of the Restless xTri event I had entered and was a sea swim and trail run so formed part of my training, it also happened we were camping at Yellowcraig the same weekend. The distances are 1500m/42km/10km.

My training plan followed my usual rather ad hoc approach, using club swim sessions, Monday run and Tuesday spin, added to spin was regular run off the bike on the treadmill, plenty loops of Corstorphine hill and several other events mostly with an offroad or trail element to it. Most of it didn’t feel like training and kept it fun, (okay, so 2 hours on the turbo trainer and 80 mins running round CH maybe didn’t qualify as fun!).

The warmup was dancing to Hot Dub Time Machine the night before the race!

On to the day of the event,

with tide times playing a part in the exact start time, it was a 9am start so up early enough to have breakfast and cycle from Yellowcraig to Gullane, weather was great, so pre-race setup was all very easy in the warm morning sun. The swim was two loops, beach start with an Aussie style exit and entry at the end of loop one, with the direction dependent on tide and wind conditions, clockwise this year. I was in wave two of two, gel taken before the start and we were off, the usual washing machine for the first leg and round the first marker, after that it all spread out passed without much drama, although I did get a jellyfish sting but didn’t notice until the shower afterwards.

T1 is a run from the beach up to the carpark so plenty time to start getting the wetsuit off, socks on as it was a standard distance, chose not to mount my pedals on the bike with it being a short run to bike course and straight into a short hill.
The bike consists of two loops, one big and one smaller, no closed roads but very quiet, only a few junctions with one being a stop on each loop. My plan was to ride on power to avoid any redlining and extra suffering on the run, it worked well, also focussed on drinking plenty and eating on the bike, another gel taken towards the end of bike ahead of the run.

T2 was a simple affair, short run in and with my bike at the end of rack adding to the easy in and out,

trail shoes on and onto the run course, again two loops with two hills and two out and backs, a quick drink from the feed station with no time to adjust to running as you are straight into a steep hill and through a narrow vennel, just keep the legs turning over and you pop out onto a road and snake your way round Gullane and down (you know what that means) towards the 1st fairway on Gullane 1, an envious glance at the course (it was hosting the Scottish men’s Amateur 2025 championship) before heading up and over back round to transition, views were spectacular as you crest the hill, kept my eyes firmly on the surface though with it being trail so care was needed as you descended.

The enthusiastic marshals were brilliant as you zig-zagged through transition area and headed out along the coast (great spot for spectators – thanks camping buddies for the cheers), the out and back loop went between some gorse and a little bit of gnarly trail through some trees, back towards transition and past the finish line and onto loop two, no drink this time and had to work hard up the first hill, coming through T2 spotted a friendly Edinburgh#3 face in Sean and onto the finish.

The weather made it a cracking day out; it is a brilliantly run event and easy to get to, add it to your list! As you finish you are presented with Alkoholfrei Erdinger and a wooden medal with a pizza voucher as part of the entry along with the obligatory T-shirt.

Position overall: 14th.
Over 50s: 3rd.