Edinburgh to North Berwick - A shorter race for David Searil!

Arriving in Portobello on Saturday morning I was daunted to be able to see the end of the Edinburgh to North Berwick road race so clearly, see below. Twenty miles never seemed so far!

Once again I was lucky with the weather - sunny, cool and with a slight tail/cross wind which I'm told is unusual for this race especially over the latter, more exposed, part of the route.

Photo courtesy Bob Marshall Photos

Some 200 runners set off with dire warnings from the organisers ringing in our ears about staying within their time limits, i.e. go through 5 and/or ten miles above a certain time and you were out.  As a consequence I started faster than for a long while, falling into a small pack with half a dozen members of the Edinburgh Running Network, also going faster than they really wanted to.  We kept each other going along the lovely seaside route through Joppa, Musselburgh, Prestonpans and past the not-so-scenic power station at Cockenzie. Passing half way still feeling ok (escaping the clutches of the time police despite having had to make my now customary pit-stop) I decided to keep the pace up and over the next few miles caught and passed the ERN runners who had got away from me while I was stationary. I was still running steadily through Aberlady but  slowed noticably on the long exposed climb out of Gullane towards Dirleton.
Despite that I managed to pick up the pace again and began moving through the field a little as some runners were wilting in the sunshine. Fortunately the rumour in the field that the finish had been moved to the top of the Law turned out to be false and I actually enjoyed the long downhill finish into North Berwick. I managed to avoid tripping over the huge tree roots distorting the pavements and raced past a girl from Dundee Road Runners just before the line in a time of 2.58.35.

Sub nine minute miling for twenty miles is pretty good for me these days, sadly, but nowhere near a pb. By way of a bonus I also got a slight suntan!

The race winner was Ross Milne from Corstorphine AAC in a time of 1.53.39 and leading lady was Joasia Zakrzewski of Dumfries RC in 2.06.05, in an impressive 7th place overall.

I haven't heard any club members speak of having run this race in the past - can I claim to be the first Calderglen harrier to take part or does someone out there know different?

Well done David (and you still made Chatelherault tonight!). I've feeling there is a certain Mr McParland who may have done this one; Gerry, can you confirm?
Alan