Edinburgh Bike & Run Courses - what are they like?

TOMAHAWK

What can you tell me about the bike and run courses around Edinburgh - re: Duathlon in September. Pictures from 2007 ETU champs looked pretty bleak and the hill looked long. Do you do multiple laps of the road that runs around / up and down the park, with the short loop multilap run? How many laps? Hilly run? Thanks in advance for any hints and tips from those who know!

Gilesyboy

I don’t know the exact route for the runs and bike but one of them will use a road called Queen’s Drive which goes around Arthur’s Seat http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=queens+drive+edinburgh&sll=55.950176,-3.187536&sspn=0.290652,0.615921&g=edinburgh&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Queen's+Dr,+Edinburgh,+City+of+Edinburgh+EH8+8,+United+Kingdom&ll=55.94735,-3.163333&spn=0.018167,0.038495&t=h&z=15, one of the mountains in Edinburgh. I use it regularly for training and it has to be said that it’s a killer - the first 4 or 5 times I ran it I couldn’t run up without stopping. I don’t know how long a loop is but I reckon it’s 3k loop and the 1st half is up hill and 2nd is down, again I don’t know the exact details but I expect you’ll climb 300-350 ft in the 1.5km.

I have cycled round it a couple of times and for me it’s a highest gear crawl to the top and then a very quick freewheel back to the bottom.