Edinburgh Half Marathon 2017

On Sunday 28th May I ran the Edinburgh Half Marathon. This is my PB course, but on this occasion I wasn’t aiming for a very fast time. l am training for the Budapest Marathon in October and l have been looking to run a few half marathons as part of my training to get the race experience and to break up the monotony of training.

Kata was away in Budapest that weekend and my mum and dad were looking after Ruby overnight to allow me to run this race at the crazy ridiculous start time of 8am. I mean really. I had to get up at 6am to eat breakfast on a Sunday. Even after getting up two hours early for a race that started about 2.5 miles from my front door, I still managed to be rushed. I left home in plenty of time, walked half way there, realised I’d forgotten my post-race bus ticket back to Edinburgh and had to go home again to get it. I needn’t have bothered as the £5 I spent on the special bus ticket was not well spent. The bus was a 20 minute walk from the finish line and I could just have spent £1.60 on a normal bus ticket and I could have boarded right at the finish.

Ubiquitous pre-race selfie

It was a beautiful day and even before 8am it was 14 degrees but felt warmer. The sun was warm on my back as I stood in the red starting pen. I bumped into Katherine and Simon from the club and had a quick chat with them. I remember the start being very low key. Very quiet. I suspect most people were still half asleep. Compared to the Great Scottish Run in Glasgow, well it was incomparable. It was a similarly large, corporate type race/event but in contrast to Glasgow there was no atmosphere at all. No music, no loud DJs. Just a bunch of people standing about. I don’t even remember hearing a starting gun or horn or shout or anything to signal the start. It just became apparent that we were underway.

I enjoyed the race as I was running it. I didn’t push the pace too hard, I was trying to be consistent rather than fast. Normally when running a half-marathon I start out fast then bonk at about 8 or 10 miles and then drag myself over the line. This time around was the first time I completed a half-marathon with every one of the 21km under 5 minutes. That didn’t start as my target but it became it as I realised it was on the cards. As I ran, I wasn’t too tired, my lungs weren’t burning, I wasn’t watching the clock the whole way around, and as a consequence I felt relaxed and enjoyed myself. I know that when you have paid and entered a race then you should RACE, but I made an exception this time and I am comfortable with it.

Trust me, it was sunny and hot

Big shout out to the supporters in Portobello who were standing in their garden before 9am blaring music out of their speakers and screaming encouragement. I am grateful, but I am also sorry for your neighbours! Big shout out to the water station at Leith Links and their "Hello to Jason Isaacs” sign. That made me laugh. Big shout out to the young lady marshal in Musselburgh who was manic! I have never seen anyone so enthusiastically cheer strangers well done.  She also made me laugh.

A pet hate of mine occurred again. A marshal in Portobello shouted the words of ”encouragement’ (and I know her intentions were good),

”Almost half way there!”

1 - I am not sure that it is encouraging to be told that you aren’t half way yet.
2 - No we weren’t. We were are at 8.5km (I checked) which is 2km and over a mile from half way.

l am aware that I am being grumpy but another thought occurred. There were a lot of pre-printed signs that must have been provided either by the event or by a charity that said ”I am waiting for:....” with a space for you to write the name of your friend or relative. Waiting? WAITING? Not what you want to hear when you are running 13.1 miles. That someone has been ”waiting” for you.

l saw all my club mates that were running somewhere out on the course. There are two hairpin beds, one in Holyrood Park, and one just before Prestonpans. I saw most of them running back towards me and I shared a high five George both times. The Prestonpans high five was a nice bookend to the race and I noticed that he moved across the road to my side to make it happen, so that was cool.

Medal and box of mystery.

I finished the race in 1:40:07 which was a bit annoying because even though I wasn’t going for a great time, I'd have liked to have ran ninety-something minutes, and lam sure I could have found those 8 seconds from somewhere. Ah well. Can’t complain really. l suppose it’s an OK time for someone that wasn’t really trying. Annoyingly, the weather at the end of the race was cool and overcast. Typical! I was chatting to a woman at the finish who mentioned to me that she say a runner in front of her with a motivational quote on the back ”Great things don’t come from the comfort zone." That was funny because I saw that runner too and his quote also made me think. Didn’t make me run any faster though!  Today wasn’t going to be my day for ”great things" maybe I'll leave that to the Budapest Marathon.

Sign of the times