RR: Great Winter Run, Edinburgh (Scotland), 5K (Read 741 times)

Hi, there. I usually hang out on the C25K forum, but this weekend I completed my first ever race. It's taken me a long time -- almost a year and a half -- to finish the C25K programme, and one of the first things I did when I started again this autumn was sign up for this race. I figured it would be a good motivator. I fell off the wagon over Christmas, sure enough, but this got me out the door yesterday. The venue was Holyrood Park, Edinburgh. Now, I live on the other side of the country and only go to Edinburgh when I absolutely have to, so there were a couple of things I hadn't thought about. Leaving the station on Saturday morning (after a stop at the pharmacy to buy some emergency safety pins in lieu of the ones I'd left on my desk), I realised that I had no idea where Holyrood Park actually is, besides having been told that it was 'within walking distance' of the station. Luckily, I found some police officers and found the park quickly, and therein lies the second problem. I knew that I'd be running up and around Arthur's Seat, and I knew that Arthur's Seat was a big hill, but, you know, there's something different about knowing that something is a big hill compared with actually seeing it, and this, then, in my fell-off-the-wagon-over-Christmas condition, is what I'd be tackling. But no matter. My goals for this race were: 1) To finish. 2) To not walk. 3) To not come last. The route we were to follow was a steady incline, followed by a sharp incline, followed by a flatter-but-not-flat incline, followed by a downhill section almost to the finish line, where it would flatten out again. The first kilometer was tough. As I passed the 1km marker at 7:09 -- and one of the great things, especially since all the spectators were down at the finish line, was that there was no city noise, so us back-of-the-packers could hear the cheering from people as they passed the markers before we could see them, and that gave us a boost -- I knew that I wasn't going to make it without walking, but I told myself that I would get to 10 minutes before I started walking. That took me ~250m of the way up the sharpest part of the incline, and then I walked to the 2km marker. That was an ~11:30 split. I had no idea the human body could move that slow, but mine can! At 2km, wonderful, wonderful volunteers shouted at us that we were past the worst part, and I started running again. I lasted about three minutes, until I came around the corner onto St Margaret's Loch and straight into a 40mph headwind. At this point, the course is much less steep and there are no trees and it's starting to curve back around the Seat, so I could see pretty far ahead, and I saw three people who were actually running. (It should be noted that we were about 22 minutes in by now, so there were obviously people who had run it nearly down at the finish line!) Once around the corner and out of the worst of the wind, I ran. You only have to do five minutes and then you can have a minute to walk, I said. And then a wheelchair passed me, and that put the HTFU into me. And then, 6:30 after I had said that I only had to do five minutes, I passed the 3km marker (eight minute split, or about that, I wasn't really keeping decent track of it by then) and hit the downhill slope and I said, right, fuck it, you're running to the finish line. I made up a lot of time on that downhill slope. As the course flattened back out, at what I now know must have been about 350m from the finish line, a woman who had obviously finished some time ago stopped to yell encouragement at me until I sped back up, and then applauded. Runners are awesome. Less than a minute after that, a girl and I passed a couple of volunteers together and she shouted at them to ask how far we had to go. "200m," they said. "THANK GOD FOR THAT," we screamed, and took off. Sprint to the finish. And across the line. Chip time was 40:37. Honestly, on that day, on that course, with the complete lack of running I've done in the three weeks before it, I can't be disappointed with that. If you'd asked me even five months ago if I could ever complete a 5K, I'd have laughed in your face. Besides, I've got something to beat in March, now. I have no bar to measure against, but it seemed to me a good, well-organised race. The only thing I'd fault is that they might want to do better with their directions than, "Holyrood Park is within walking distance of Edinburgh City Centre." Then again, this is BUPA, the same people who do the Great North Run -- I know they do good, well-organised races, and, because I've worked the public transport phones on Great North Run day and the month leading up to it every year for the last three years, I also know that they are not brilliant at providing directions to start lines. There were plenty of volunteers to cheer us on around the route, clear markers, a staggered start, more volunteers at the end with water, a nice finishers medal and shirt (long sleeved, thick thick cotton, and honest to God the comfiest shirt I've ever slept in), and my official results were on the web by the time I got home an hour and a half later.

Hey, congratulations! Great race report And, while we're on the subject...I am coming to Edinburgh for the Albert- Bartlett marathon on May 31, can you recommend anywhere to stay in the surrounding area? Thanks, and keep it up, LP

Edinburgh is one of my very favorite (or favourite for you Scots) cities and as for Holyrood Park--I did a short run there a couple of years ago before the Loch Ness Marathon and I can say that there is no possible way to have a race there that is not really, really hard. For those not familiar, it's a MOUNTAIN! A big, steep, MOUNTAIN! And Arthur's seat is at the very, very top. The view from up there is spectacular, BTW. Anyway, sefkhet, you did good. Thanks for the RR, it brought back memories. And Zoomie, just do it!

Yeah, as I was reading that RR I kept thinking...shit, Edinburgh is hilly from what I remember! Perfesser...I wonder if people would send me money to fund my Loch Ness Marathon effort.

Sounds like you need a PayPal account!

Ah yes, the hills....fortunately I get to be in EDI a few times a month, so I've been practicing. And those hills haven't got beans on the ones here in FP at 5500'. Looking for a new PR... Sorry Sefkhet for the hijack