A bemused group of Japanese tourists found themselves mingling with a few hundred runners on top of an otherwise peaceful Sunday morning on Calton Hill. As they took obligatory pictures of Arthur’s Seat I thought I would try out my pigeon Japanese and say hello. They asked me what we were doing. I pointed out […]
Archive for the ‘Race reports’ Category
Seven Hills of Edinburgh, 26 June 2016 – Race Report
Posted: 29th June 2016 by mockjogger in Race reportsTags: Arthur's Seat, Hill Running, Hills, Seven Hills
Great Edinburgh Run, 17 Apr 2016 – Race Report
Posted: 19th April 2016 by mockjogger in Race reportsTags: 10mi, Edinburgh, Hills, Jetlag
The marketing folks at Great Run have been working overtime. This year the Great Edinburgh Run was re-branded “The World’s Favourite Race”, with T shirts to prove it. It is indeed a great city course, but somebody forgot to organise the weather. Again. So there I was, amongst about 4,000 fellow runners, jumping up and […]
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Tokyo Marathon, 28 Feb 2016 – Race Report
Posted: 29th February 2016 by mockjogger in Race reportsTags: Marathon, Sub-4, Tokyo
Race day. I woke at 6.00 with a sense of relief. After a week of jetlag-induced insomnia, rare for me, I had slept well. I had a finely-tuned schedule to get to the race and it started with breakfast in the room – granola and dry fruit mix carried all […]
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Mens 10k Edinburgh, 1 Nov 2015 – Race Report
Posted: 5th November 2015 by mockjogger in Race reportsTags: 10K, Autumn, Edinburgh, PB
Why “mens” 10k? I asked myself when signing up for this one. Why would a race organiser cut off half their potential sign-up population? Who knows, but there were a few undercover ladies applying moustaches near the bag drop area, clearly determined to bend the rules. They had my vote. The race started on Lawnmarket, […]
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Aviemore Half Marathon, 11 Oct 2015 – Race Report
Posted: 13th October 2015 by mockjogger in Race reportsTags: Aviemore, Half Marathon, Highlands, Scenery, Undulating, Water in Cups
You wait all year for a half marathon and then two turn up at the same time. Truth be known, the last thing on my mind after the Great Scottish Run last week was another race. Post GSR I had gone out for a couple of gentle runs and felt, I think the technical term […]
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Great Scottish Run, 4 Oct 2015 – Race Report
Posted: 5th October 2015 by mockjogger in Race reportsTags: Calf Strain, Great Scottish Run, Half Marathon, Jetlag
Preparations for this one were far from ideal. After a great month of running in August, expectations of achieving a good time in my first half marathon for a year were soaring, but that all dissipated when I came to a grinding halt in September. That, and a jet-lag inducing trip to Boston for the week […]
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Murieston 6k Trail Race, 5 Sep 2015 – Race Report
Posted: 6th September 2015 by mockjogger in Race reportsTags: Meet Ups, Murieston, Trail Running, Woods
So here I am once more, in the playground of the nervous starts* This time last year I was lining up for the start of the Great North Run. I would have been very surprised if you had told me then that it would be a year before my next race, but that’s the way […]
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Great North Run, 7 Sep 2014 – Race Report
Posted: 11th September 2014 by mockjogger in Race reportsTags: Great North Run, Heat, Running Injured
The Great North Run is not a beautiful race. There are many other races which have better scenery, more attractive vistas and more variety. The Great North Run is all about the occasion, the atmosphere, the scale and the support, and on that score, nobody does it better. I entered this race way back at […]
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Dundee Half Marathon (Half DRAM), 20 Jul 2014 – Race Report
Posted: 21st July 2014 by mockjogger in Race reportsTags: Half Marathon, Heat, Mental, Progress, Repeat Races
Ah, Dundee. City of Discovery. This would be the first time I had run the same race a second time, after clocking a PB (at the time) last year. Arriving at Camperdown Park the feeling of deja vu was strong as I walked, with all the experience of one who knows, past the queues waiting for […]
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Stonehaven Half Marathon, 6 Jul 2014 – Race Report
Posted: 7th July 2014 by mockjogger in Race reportsTags: Flies, Half Marathon, Headphones in Races, Heat, Hills, PB
I drove from Edinburgh to Stonehaven in the morning, parked in the leisure centre car park and strolled across a field to the rugby pavilion where the race would start and end. Putting two fingers up to the midweek BBC weather forecast, the start area was bathed in bright sunshine with just enough of a […]
