Edinburgh marathon festival 2024 took place over 2 consequtive days with junior, 5k and 10k races scheduled for Saturday 25th May and a half, full and team relay marathon on the following Sunday.
3 members of Grantham Running Club set off on an expedition up north to enjoy the wonderful of sights and atmosphere that Edinburgh has to offer in abundance and did some running whilst they were there.
The half and full marathons follow the same route initially, starting on Potterow, running down Princess road, past Holyrod Palace, Scottish Parliament and Arthur’s seat before heading down to Portabello beach and following the coast with a long stretch out and back, finishing in Musselburg, the half having a shorter out and back.
First up, stood Robin Atter representing GRC in the half marathon. The five minute race countdown to an 8am start time, mostly being drowned out by a downpour of rain ensured a soggy and cool start to the day’s proceedings. A slight Archilles tendon niggle in the final 5k slowed Robin slightly who finished with a very respectable time of 1:34:08, especially when taking into account his previous days walking mileage. All good preparation for his upcoming Race to the Stones Ultra 100K in summer.
The full marathon kicked off at 10am, still in rainy conditions. Mark Angeloni set off strong, enjoying the early miles and marathon experience. A recurring injury unfortunately caused Mark great difficulties, however with grit and determination he refused to DNF, changing to run/walk strategy and finished in 3:49:47.
Finally, also taking on the full marathon distance, Jo Grace was hoping to take advantage of the cooler conditions and set off for an ambitiously aimed pace. Working hard early on she was making good progress and on target at the halfway point however these early efforts caught up with her in later miles. Jo also had to resort to a walk/run plan to get to the finish line in 4:09:49, a significant improvement on last years time.
