First Foot at Auld Reekie - Edinburgh parkrun

Race 1 on 1/1/11

I returned to Scotland’s Capital on Ne’er Day to participate in not one but three races.  The first of which was the newly extended Edinburgh parkrun.  I had always suspected that it was short, going by my time of 20:19 in my only previous outing.  Although all the snow and most of the ice has melted in Glasgow, that’s not the case in Edinburgh and the Cramond Car Park was a sheet of ice, as was the promenade road along to the new start.  I joined with a group from Carnegie Harriers who plumped to walk along the beach instead.  However the course itself looked fine and I decided to wear my racing shoes, rather than my trail shoes.  I joined with four Kirkintilloch Olympians: Ada Stewart; Annmarie McCaffrey; Pamela Parker and Stephen Allan for Ne’er Day Greetings and pre-race banter before being joined by their club mate and Glasgow parkrun regular Gordon McDonald. All of them were making their Edinburgh parkrun debuts and were all running the day’s next race: the Portobello Promathon.  I explained that I was hoping to do three races today, the same two as them and then the One O’clock Run down the Royal Mile.

You may recall that Annmarie and I run at similar paces, although she is marginally faster than me.  Before the Start she said that she was just going to jog the race and asked me if I was too.  I replied that even if I said I would jog it, I’d get caught up in the race and rapidly ditch that plan. I did concede that, bearing in mind that I had another two races today, I wouldn’t be running flat out.  

There was a surprisingly large turnout of 131 runners including a few Fetchies and Facebook fiends.  With little ado the race organiser and timer got us on our way at 9:31am and we headed southwards, with the Firth of Forth on our left hand side.  I set off quite fast and was happy to sit in with a couple of guys who seemed to be pace making for Ann Hood.  As I reached the 1k mark, Annmarie appeared on my shoulder and congratulated me on my pace.  We ran the initial kilometre in 4:03.  So much for her jogging it!  I pressed ahead and she slipped in behind me.  We completed the second kilometre in 4:07.  As well as the guys encouraging Ann, there was also a Carnegie Harrier just behind us shouting encouragement and directions to his dog!?  Annmarie overtook just after the turn and I was happy to sit in behind her for a while.  The third kilometre took me 4:10 and the fourth 4:11.  I was fading now and as Annmarie increased the gap, I slowed down and ran my final kilometre in 4:14: a total time of 20:45 (WAVA 72.8%), good enough to place 30^th.  Annmarie finished in 28^th spot, second woman, with a time of 20:33.

Full Results 
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