Not the Edinburgh Marathon Festival

I love Edinburgh, it’s a great place to visit and a brilliant place to live. Unfortunately, since I left Edinburgh at the end of 2009 I haven’t had many opportunities to return. Earlier this year I was invited to attend a friend’s 40^th birthday party, but the event clashed with a race I was keen to do, so I didn’t attend. In hindsight it might have been a better option as I may not have ended up injured at the rodeo whereas I’m still not running properly after injuring myself racing. Still if we lived by hindsight our lives would no doubt be a bit dull. So I was delighted when I received an invite to the wedding of one of the Edinburgh AC athletes I used to assist the training of, back in the days when I was taking my first steps into coaching. A perfect excuse to pop back to Edinburgh, and being an athletics wedding, both Richard and Gail being established runners – though I think Gail may debate that fact slightly, it would be a great opportunity to catch up with many of the guys and gals I trained and raced with, many years ago.

So this weekend we were in Edinburgh. Of course, not planning to race, I was oblivious to the fact that the weekend also heralded the Edinburgh Marathon Festival, with races all weekend, but I should have known, Richard being such a keen runner couldn’t have organised his own wedding at a better time, with the place being full of runners. I was a little surprised that Richard wasn’t taking part in any of the races, in fact I’d have thought he would have done all four. As it turned out Richard did at least do the decent thing, taking part in a race on the morning of his wedding, the Edinburgh parkrun.

With it being almost three months since my last race I was hoping my achilles would be strong enough for me to also take part, yes I’d be slow and finish well down the field, but I don’t care who beats me (or so I thought) as long as I can run. After my failed attempt two weeks ago I was back up to running for 40 minutes, convinced I was running 10 minute mile pace surely I could do a 5k! I didn’t make any promises, my achilles is on a daily knife edge, other than, if I did run, I would join Richard and his friends in wearing a fairy outfit during the run – well if I was going to be photographed in a compromising situation, i.e. well down a field and shuffling like an old man, I might as well go the whole hog and dress up.

We travelled up on the Friday, driving through the hills on the way to Bonnyrigg, and the weather was great. Seeing the blue sky and the green hills made me long for an opportunity to return to Edinburgh on a more permanent, or at least more regular basis. The next morning was equally sunny and warm, I’d taken all nature of kit with me, knowing how cold and wet it can be, but the only precaution I needed against the weather conditions was my upf Hilly hat.

I’ve never done the Edinburgh parkrun before but know the area, though this was the first time I’d seen the Firth of Forth look so beautiful from that location. I met up with Richard and his family, friends and my friends, but there was no sign of any fairy outfits. With 5 minutes until the start there was still no sign of any fairies, I was beginning to think I’d get away with it, and then Dan showed up. It was a quick clothing change, skirt, wings and wand and off we set. Paddy Jumelle, of Corstorphine shot into an early lead, that he was never to surrender, closely followed by three fairies, Richard, Colin and Dan. I was some way back swallowed up by a mass of runners.

It took a while for me to settle down, constantly waiting for the achilles to give me the warning sign that I needed to stop or slow down. It took a while but as I passed the 1k marker, in 3:50, the niggle started to appear. I decided I’d be ok to carry on but needed to slow down. I hadn’t really thought I could get under 20 minutes but now I was slowing down I was disappointed that it was highly likely I wouldn’t get under it. A 4:10 second k confirmed this, but the pain had gone. We were at the point where you turned around to head back and I suddenly noticed another fairy, not that far ahead of me. Now I’m not the most competitive of people but there was no way I was going to finish behind that fairy. Without putting too much effort in I relaxed into a pace that drew the fairy within my grasp. As I passed him I got a sudden tinge of compassion and gave him some words of encouragement, to help him through his bad patch, and then promptly accelerated. It was a strong, relatively painless return journey, all the way passing those who had stronger achilles than me, but weaker hearts and lungs, the only downside being I didn’t dare release a finishing kick to put paid to the last few I had a chance to catch. I surprised myself, finishing in 26^th, well down on my previous worst parkrun finishing position, but a lot higher than I had anticipated and, further to my earlier predictions I managed a respectable 19:25 timing. But I paid for it later, my Achilles has been sore for days, though I have managed to keep on running.

The rest of the day was full of fantastic sunshine, Richard and Gail couldn’t have asked for a better day.

Now back in England it’s back to work on a number of things, thankfully still running. Next week there’s a bloke from Runners World coming to take my picture as part of an article for which I was one of the runners being interviewed. It’s about running as an older athlete. Last time I was interviewed for an article I was misquoted, hopefully that won’t happen again, though I can’t remember what I did say and, since the interview was some time back, I’ve matured into an even older runner since then.



Let's hope I look a little better in Runners World



Written by Roger Alsop

www.rogeralsop.co.uk