The Next Challenge... by Skye_Trekker

No races for 7 months, then 2 in the space of 7 days...

Last weekend saw the trip down to Edinburgh for the Marathon Relay Race. We decided to make the most of the time away and although there were only 2 of us running, 2 others made the trip down with us 'to cheer us on'.  Any excuse for a couple of days in the big city I suppose.  RB1 & I had joined up with Tina and her colleague Africa for a Relay Team, entering under the name of

(its a very long story)

Finally arrived in Edinburgh very late on Friday, so no time for anything except sleep. Saturday morning we were up bright and early before heading out to hit the shops (and believe me when I say this is a novel experience for us, and it showed) and catching with friends for lunch, then meeting up with Tina and heading to the expo.

We could easily have given the Expo a miss - what a disappointment, really not worth going to at all.  Met Africa there then we all went back into town for a meal with Alaistair and Julie - and it was great to catch up with Alaistair again and to meet Julie.  Tina had made a good choice with the restaurant - Bar Roma - it was fab, and they quite happily provided me with a very nice Gluten Free pasta dish, so for once I wasn't stuck eating the inevitable baked potato.  The restaurant was heaving and we'd been politely asked beforehand to vacate our table by 8pm, and we could see why - by that time the queue was out of the door, so we were happy to finish up and get back to the hotel for an early night.

Sunday morning came, along with the correctly forecasted high winds and rain.  It was horrible.  RB1 and Tina left around 8.15 to catch the buses to their relay points, though as I had the very inaptly named 'glory leg' I didn't have to leave for another hour or so.  Had a wander round the town with RB2 before getting on the bus for changeover 3, while RB2 then got the bus to the race end where we were all to meet afterwards. 

The changeover point was a pretty miserable place, right on the seafront and with the wind swirling round the only real shelter was in amongst the other runners.  Changeover points 2 & 3 are in the same place so I met up with Tina (who hadn't left on her leg yet) and we waited for RB2 to appear. Our aim was for a sub 4hr relay, so we tried to work out when Tina should be leaving, but the time came then passed and we began to wonder what had happened to RB2.  Suddenly she appeared, handed the relay wristband over and Tina was away.  Time for a quick coffee before RB2 left for her bus and I then had a long, cold wait for Tina.  One minute the sun was out and everyone was frantically peeling off jackets and layers of clothing, then out of nowhere the rain would start and the wind pick up again and we got another soaking.  I was watching the marathon runners pass as I waited - and could only marvel at these people, all who were putting in sub 3-4hr individual marathons, and all ahead of our team of 4.  My relay leg was supposed to be 4.7 miles, so by this point the marathoners were all at the 21 mile stage, and the final 5 miles were all into the cold headwind, not a nice way to have to finish the race. 

As Tina appeared the rain began again so I ended up running in a lightweight jacket as my running vest wasn't going to offer any protection at all against the elements - and I was still cold.  There was a huge amount of debris on the road by this point - and as quickly as the half full water bottles could be cleared up, more appeared, and at some points it was difficult to avoid standing on them, and it would have been all to easy to have gone over on an ankle or slipped on one of the bottles that were in the middle of the road.  However more painful than that was treading on 2 lids which had come off a couple of the bottles - that hurt...!  All of a sudden the '25 mile' marker came up, and I looked in astonishment at my Garmin - it only read either 2.36 or 2.63m, so as I was expecting to run 4.7m I had no idea what was going on.  I just put my foot down and tried to get to the end as quickly as possible after that and finally crossed the line in 34m28s, with a Garmin reading of just 3.9 miles.

The finish was chaotic.  This year family and friends weren't allowed near the finish line/area, and the runners were to make their own way to a meeting point afterwards.  However there were so many people and so little signs that hardly anyone appeared to know what was going on.  Runners were frantically looking round to see if they recognised anyone in the streets, but as there were literally thousands of people milling around your chances of meeting anyone like that were slim.  After around 25 minutes I began to seriously panic.  I couldn't find anything to show the way to the meet-up points and I realised that I had no phone or money with me, and my bus ticket back to Edinburgh was in the backpack I'd handed over to Tina.  And I wasn't the only person with this problem...  Finally I heard someone trying to ask a marshal where we were meant to go and he gave a vague wave of an arm over to the right, so as a last resort I headed in the rough direction he pointed - and after another 10-15 minutes I was finally able to meet up with the rest of the team, who were by that point sitting rather dispiritedly in the middle of a field which was the official 'meeting place'.  

(and at this point we really were all Wee Grumpy Runners)

We had bought race bus tickets which enabled us to get transported back to Edinburgh.  Except the buses were miles away.  It took me longer to walk back to the bus than it did to run my relay leg.  We reckon it was a 40-45 minute hike - which must have been pretty rough on all the full marathon runners.  Some of the ones I passed during the closing stages of the race were struggling to finish - how must they have felt having to walk 2-3miles back to a bus after that?  It was bad organisation and we heard a lot of complaints during the long trudge back...  Finally got back to the hotel, with just enough time to shower and change before the return trip home to Skye. 

Would I do this race again?  No.  Both the RB's have done the full Marathon before and they enjoyed it, thats why we decided to do the relay.  However the organisers this year changed the way race was finished and it was a shambles.  The Relay legs weren't the distances they were meant to be (it wasn't just mine that was out), and the transport issues need to be addressed for the future.  And to be honest, to call it the 'Edinburgh Marathon' is a bit of a liberty as the majority of the race is run outwith the city.  Its a shame, as its the ideal chance to show off the Capital, but this, for me, just didn't work.