A large contingent of Moray Road Runners made their way to Edinburgh last weekend for this year’s marathon festival, which included 10k, 5k and junior races on the Saturday and the half and full marathons the following day.
The most impressive performance of the weekend came from the MRR who was actually the slowest in the marathon. However, Jon Ward did have the pretty good excuse that he’d done the 10k and 5k on the Saturday before doing the half first thing on Sunday, and then getting a Lamborghini back to the start and donning an elephant costume to do the full 26.2 miles, all in aid of the RAF Benevolent Fund. In the circumstances, his times of 38.09 for the 10k, 19.04 for 5k, 1.25.46 for the half and 5.11.29 for the full were highly creditable.
In addition to Jon, also taking part in the 10k on a chilly Saturday morning were Graham Stephen, who finished in 40.09, and Sharon Royan (52.01). Graham’s daughter Hannah took part in the junior 5k and clocked 23.44.
Sunday morning was very chilly and foggy. In the half, Michelle Stewart ran a time of 2.07.58.
Then 11 MRRs lined up for the full marathon. After a team photo at the start at Edinburgh Uni, the runners made their way to their respective start pens and tried to stay warm.
When the race got under way at 10am, the course took participants down The Mound, into Princes St Gardens, up the Royal Mile and past the Scottish Parliament and Palace of Holyroodhouse, through Holyrood Park and then out to Portobello and the beautiful East Lothian coastline. However, without mentioning any names, ( eh Sally) not all the MRRs managed to notice all these sights.
There were some impressive performances from the MRR contingent, with several setting new marathon PBs.
The full list of times for the MRRs were (*=PB):
Andy Alexander 3.05.34*,
Martin Bain 3.12.08*,
Maria McCloud 3.55.15*,
Robert Bruce 3.55.30,
Bernard Salmon 4.08.32*,
Karen Norvell 4.08.51,
Sally Bruce 4.14.37,
Matthew Wilson 4.17.33*,
Michelle Russell 4.30.48*,
Kevin Morrison 4.44.02
and Jon Ward 5.11.29.
From my own point of view, I really enjoyed the marathon and the whole weekend. I was delighted with how my run went, all pretty much according to plan. I ran a very steady race, with pretty even splits. To take more than 10 minutes off my previous marathon time was about as good as I could realistically have hoped for. and, apart from slightly heavy legs, I didn’t suffer any adverse issues afterwards.Now, when should I start thinking about my next marathon?
Report by: Bernard Salmon