Edinburgh Marathon
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Official Results |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Edinburgh
Marathon
My warm up started on the Saturday when we enjoyed a day out in Edinburgh with a
good walk to Arthur's Seat and the Expo in the afternoon. Then it was a good
carb loading and hydration session in the evening (i wasn't the one drinking
alcohol!) Up and ready arriving in regent Road at 7.15am, a bit too keen and
eager, we ended up sheltering for a little while to escape the weather - what
happened to the heat wave of the last couple of years?!
The race itself was cold, wet and windy but despite this were about 30,00
runners participating and plenty of spectators standing in various points to
cheer everyone on. As always, quite a number of people were in fancy dress
costumes (I liked the turtles which were part of the Hairy Haggis Relay). My day
was made when I was able to grab a Tropical Lucozade drink as I hate the other
flavours and water isn't really my thing. The hours seemed to pass by quickly in
parts when chatting to others and slowly when the windy and rain hit us.
My aim was not to do anything that I did last year which caused a
slower time that I could do; the socialising whereby I stop in the race and have
a chat to spectators and supporters and seeking medical assistance. I also
helped a collapsed runner in the event last year, this is the only one in
which I would do again. I always enjoy running the marathon course but always
look at the floor and the feet in front so miss 'the sights' such as Hollyrood
Parliament building, the Palace, Arthur's Seat and the coastline - next year
I'll try to look up - the road is great but it does get a bit 'samey' in places!
The organisers had changed parts of the marathon layout this year as the finishing line was on the road rather than on the racecourse, a much better sprint finish - the metal flooring which was laid out last year (to protect the racecourse) felt quite slippery, and in the rain this would have been extremely dangerous. It was a little confusing as spectators were not allowed to stand by the finish to cheer and once the line had been crossed the medals, t-shirts and goodie bags were a little stroll away around the corner... but at least the baggage hold was within this area which was so much better than the half a mile stroll last year.
Once the
baggage had been collected it was a nice squeeze by security and other
participants to get out of the area and a walk to the reunion area, this could
have possibly been better organised because there were just queues of people but
nobody was moving.
In the reunion area there were quite a few people sitting in one area looking at
what I thought was just a big black lorry. When I walked around I noticed the
big screen showing the runners finishing, after 26.2 miles to be seen by
hundreds of people with the wind-swept look is rather embarassing.... let's hope
that there were no close up shots taken!
Having been
desperate to use the toilet within an hour and a half of the race starting, I
held on until I got to the reunion area. There was quite a queue and no toilet
paper. This was the first time I had ever used a portaloo on race day (in any
race) and it will also be my last! Some drummers provided entertainment around
the food and drinks stalls, and it seemed like the queues for the food and
drink interlinked and so was a bit of a nightmare to get through and over to the
charity area. There were a lot of massages going on within the charity tents and
I was rather tempted but with the winds still blowing and the occasional rain at
that point, I had had enough. I had also wanted to hang on until the race had
finished (there were several people I wanted to see before leaving), but decided
to leave and meet them up at the Park and Ride forthe shuttle bus back into
Edinburgh... another mile and a bit's walk.
All in all, another good run with a goodie bag and this year I actually bought
some souvenirs afterwards. We had a good celebratory meal afterwards and as I
could not keep my eyes open after 9.30pm, an early night.
Katarina