Third Foot in Auld Reekie - the One o'Clock Fun Run

Race 3 of 3 on 1/1/11

My third race of Ne’er Day was the One O’clock Fun Run down Edinburgh’s Royal Mile.  I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to get to the Hub for 12:30 to collect my tickets so I shot off straight after the Portobello Race.  Along Seafield Road, right turn onto Portobello Road through Hollyrood Park and along the Cowgate took me to the Grassmarket, a sharp right turn and I was on West Bow, where I parked the car and walked up the steps to the Royal Mile and the Hub.  Unfortunately although the Hub Cafe was open, there was no sign that the ticket office had been open today. I asked a lass with a race t-shirt on where she had got it and she advised me to go to the Castle Esplanade.  I passed the word onto the other puzzled looking would be runners and made my way to the Castle.  As usual there were a lot of tourists mingling and a few places appeared open for business, in fact you couldn’t really tell it was Ne’er Day.  After receiving my ticket, I traded it for the pink race t-shirt and headed back to the car to get changed and wee bit of heat.  With my t-shirt on, I returned to the Hub Cafe for another heat before braving the cold for my warm up. 

At about 12:50 we assembled on Castle Hill and were advised that we would have to remain behind the two lead runners for our safety.  I was standing right at the front of about 1,000 runners, with the lead runners at the top of the Lawnmarket.  As soon as Mons Meg sounded one o’clock I sprinted off and soon caught them.  I sat in behind them surrounded by runners on both sides as we made our way down one of the most famous and historic streets in the world with support from the many tourists and locals.  The leaders did a good job at maintaining a fairly steady pace of around 5:40 min/mile before giving us the all clear to race for the last 0.1 mile.  As I ran through the middle of the pace setters, I could see youngsters dashing along on both sides of me.  I was no match for the quickest ones but tried hard and was pleased with my overall time of 5:26, to finish in twelfth position and first veteran (35+), a wava of 80% , for my first ever Mile Race.  However it must be stressed that the run was downhill for the first five minutes before levelling off as we ran past the Scottish Parliament and into Holyrood Park for the finish, a total drop of some 220ft.

Summary

It looks like I may have been the only person in Scotland, if not the entire world who managed to run three races in 1/1/11.  I’m so glad that I did it and with respectable performances (for my standard) in all three of them. A great start to the year!  Once again huge thanks to all the volunteers, organisers, supporters and fellow runners who make every race that little bit special.