The most daunting triathlon: The Celtman
The tenth edition of the Celtman Extreme Scottish Triathlon, part of the XTRI World Tour, was held on Saturday June 18th where athletes took on the most daunting point-to-point test of triathlon endurance, where simply finishing is a victory.
It’s a race that takes you to the limits of physical and mental endurance where you will come face-to-face with your personal demons and fears.
The distances alone should make you hesitate – a cold-water swim in jellyfish infested Loch Shieldaig of just over two miles, 126 miles of cycling on drovers’ roads with 2200 metres of climbing and a 26-mile run via two 3000 ft Munro summits as a back straight.
The Celtman has a fearsome reputation; an extreme triathlon in the Torridon mountains of Wester Ross, Scotland where the raw adventure of it all becomes the focus: the wild beauty of the Highlands scenery and its unforgiving elements; more than anything, the camaraderie among those prepared to push themselves to the maximum.
Back in 2000 in an early episode of our Podcasts our special guest was Scottish triathlete Graeme Stewart who won the Celtman in 2013 and provided an insight why completing this race is more about your phycological attributes rather than the physical.
Podcast: Graeme Stewart explains what it takes to win the Celtman
And the athletes go through all of this just to be awarded an iconic blue t-shirt. I’m not kidding you!
Seriously, the Celtman operates a two-tier finisher system, which is defined jointly by the route to be taken, and the colour of the finisher t-shirt awarded.
Essentially there is a point known as T2A, which is, depending upon which section of the race manual you are looking at, is some 20km into the run. If you feel a need to know the exact distances of any part of the course, then this is not the race for you.
You take the High Road and I take the Low Road:
If you manage to reach T2A within 11 hours of the race start, then you are required to take the high road. This means that you follow the mountain route, which famously covers two Munros, and then, assuming you manage to finish, you are awarded the iconic blue t-shirt.
But don’t worry if you miss the 11 hour cut–off but arrive within 13 hours, then you take the low road. This involves completing the run via a lower-level route which is still very hilly and classed as a fell-run and then being awarded the slightly less iconic white t-shirt.
Arrive at T2A after 13 hours means, sadly, game over, and no t-shirt.
Now the weather up in them there mountains can be unpredictable and this week-end was no expectation with weather conditions above 1000 metres bringing howling 60mph winds with 80mph gusts with a wind chill factor of –12 degrees C.
However, calling a race off because of severe weather conditions is not in the Celtman rule book. Rather all the competitors followed a lower fell-run route and the coveted blue t-shirt was still awarded by reference to arrival time at T2A. 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.
Results can be found here:
And what better way to finish the race than with a bottle of Stewart Brewing’s Celtman Finishers Ale to quench the thirsts of deserving athletes.
