Second Foot at Auld Reekie - Portobello Promathon

I headed down memory lane as I made my way down through Davidson Mains, through Silverknowes, around Crewe Toll and down through Leith to Portobello for the annual Portobello Promathon Four Mile Road Race.  I lived and/or worked in this part of the world for over 13 years.  I parked the car on Seafield Road and made my way down the promenade to discover a black cab and another car. These were the race HQ and when I registered my name the race organiser asked if I was the guy doing three races today. 

It’s only a few miles from Cramond to Seafield but here the weather was much stronger. The tide was lashing against the sea wall and the strong icy wind gave us all a reminder of what ‘the wind chill factor’ really means.  I had originally planned to run this race in my Scottish Veterans vest but soon abandoned this idea for a long sleeve wind proof top instead.   I was in plenty of time for the 11:30 start so, like many others returned to the relative warmth of my car until nearer to the start time.

Race 2 of 3

I had a decent  warm up and chatted with a number of other runners who had either ran or officiated at the parkrun and a number of east coast based runners that I know, before lining up with another 236 runners for my first ever running of this famous event.  I was informed that it was an out and back course and that there were other people using the promenade too.  I started beside Annmarie McCaffrey and we set off at a decent pace.  It was quite congested but no real problems.  There was an excellent field and, as usual, the elite runners dashed off leaving me to run at my own pace.  I was happy with my running and had completed the first kilometre in 4:01.  However my pace for second kilometre slowed to 4:15 and Annmarie passed me.  She was too strong for me and I had to let her go.  Instead I found myself jostling for position with Lothian’s Alec Agnew.  I could see the elite runners, led by Inverclyde’s Andrew Douglas, making their way back towards us.  The course narrowed ahead and I assumed that this was the turning point. Alex sprinted in front to get through the gap first but rather than turning here the route continued southwards along the pavement until we reached a marshal, ran around him and headed back into the wind.  Kilometre three had taken 4:20 and the fourth one 4:24.

By now I was competing against Davy Young of the Scottish Prison Service. He overtook me a few times but then seemed to slow down, which resulted in me leapfrogging him a few times.  As a result of pushing each other along we caught Alex Agnew.  The fifth kilometre took 4:22.  Annmarie was back in sight and I was catching a few runners as I dug deep in the sixth kilometre, which took 4:19.  Although it was hard work it only took me another 1:30 to cross the line in 27:10 in 89^th place.  A quick exchange of congratulations to Davy and Annmarie and I was heading to the car and on to race three.

Full Results