Hi all,
Well, ‘tis done! What a fabulous weekend, in a great city....we arrived Friday, planning for parkrun on the Saturday......#flatmadge 1, worked, had a lovely run round Figgate Park, - the home of Portobello parkrun, loads of parkrun ‘tourists’ , lovely flat course , 3 laps around a lovely park, very similar to our home parkrun, with resident swans too....luckily the family of swans with their cygnets decided to get back to the lake and not stay on the path just before the start.....took it steady - as was the plan....
Then off for some sightseeing around the city, took advantage of a tour bus to save the legs a bit.....weather began to deteriorate a bit, cooler, raining.....getting a bit windy, got back to the hotel to receive an email from the organisers warning of ‘adverse weather conditions’ 😱🌧🌬☔️.......#flatmadge2 needed a re think......🤔......luckily we’d taken a small selection of other gear.......funny when you go away and you take more running gear than anything else.....😂
Settled on capris, long sleeve undershirt with t-shirt over the top, and cap to keep rain off specs.....then, Sunday....very early......up and into town for the 8am start......bit rainy...but not cold....into pens, then soon we were off. This run has a reputation for being fast, downhill and then very flat.......well, yes there are down hills near the start, some quite steep....you go past some great landmarks with terrific views, greyfriars bobby, and the ‘gothic rocket’ to name just a couple.......there were some congested points where you had to walk.....then it was out to the coast running along the seafront - always a lovely thing I think, I always enjoy running next to the sea.
At 9 miles you start to run alongside others on their way back, this part seemed very long.....it goes out to just over 11miles, so you’ve got nearly 2 miles, waiting for the turn to appear......which is a bit tough - I also thought it .......would be easy to cut across (not that anyone would, I’m sure...) , no barriers, however there were timing mats at the turn, so they would know if you hadn’t done the distance.......🏃♀️😉🤪.....I’m sure that was even tougher for the marathoners - who started at 10am and followed the same course - they had this from 9 miles out to 17 miles before their turn to come back to the finish......😱
Really enjoyed it, organisation was brilliant, every member of the event team we spoke to were lovely and helpful. Support on the route was fabulous - personally I found it rather quiet on some of the middle parts .....often just the sound of footfall, but they allow earphones etc., I did use my aftershokz....that may have also been because of the weather, although it wasn’t cold, there were a couple of downpours, and a bit of gusty wind.....in your face too just as you came into the finish .........so I was glad of my kit choice in the end. Someone was talking about the song ‘500 miles’ (the proclaimers) going around in their head as we came up to the finish, at that point ‘hoots mon’ came through my aftershokz......did make me smile and gave me a little push to the end...🏃♀️🎶🎶😄
I was secretly hoping to get a PB, but with a sore niggly Achilles, I decided to just take it steady, I was back in 2:34, not quite a PB, but was a comfortable steady pace and the Achilles settled- even improved! OH got 2:06
Overall a great weekend, and would recommend the EMF, events all weekend, so lots to choose from, legs a bit sore, but improving - more soreness in my thigh muscles than anything else, probably due to those steep downhills! .......nice swag and medal with a detachable key ring......it was easy to spot runners around the town, back at the hotel and at the airport.......doing the stiff leg robot walk......with knowing looks at eachother......😂
Happy days, well done one and all, whatever your event or run at the weekend....woohoo, we did it! 😎🏅
Mx
. I always think it is hard when you have to turn around and follow same route back. The Edinburgh Kilomathon (13kilometres) was good because it was an A to B route along cycleways/footpaths. Right at the end though we had to run past the finish and do a turn around which was a bit of a effort! 
My birthday half!
Squeak's Edinburgh Half ☔ 🍓🍦 
First Half Marathon!
Edinburgh Report
