Edinburgh to North Berwick 20 mile race

Brian here.

I've scraped together a bit more mileage in the legs last few weeks, a couple of 13 milers culminating in a 15 miler a week or so ago. Not really enough, in my mind, to embark on this 20 mile road race, so I said to myself i'd just treat it as a training run (aye right).

En route to Portobello (via North Berwick to pick up Anne and Stuart Hay), my pre race karma was affected quite badly by witnessing a roe deer taking its final gasps of breath on the roadside after bounding through a hedgeline and onto the road in front of a van coming the opposite way. Nothing could be done for the poor animal so we carried on.

At the race, the plan was to stick to a steady and consistent pace, and i'd worked out that 8 minute/mile pace over the course would bring me over the line at 2: 40. Nice in theory, but with a stiff NE headwind, and with much of the route being west to east on an exposed coastline, that could be tricky - so a bit of expectation management might be required. Anyway, hung off at the start at a comfortable pace, felt good at both the 5 and 10 mile points. 13 miles passed without incident, and the gentle, but fairly long 'ascent' into Gullane at about 15 miles took a bit of time out my legs, though still managed to pass 3 or 4 runners at that point. A further barb was in store as we left Gullane and approached Archerfield/Dirleton, where a further little hill took its toll. Leaving Dirleton, and refreshed by a water stop manned by Neil Jones from the club and family, managed to pass a few more runners on the straight approaching North Berwick. I got buoyed up at this point and managed to up the pace considerably for the last mile and a half - where does that come from?

Clocked in at 2: 39, very happy with that considering the headwind. Still need to check the split times to see just how consistent my pacing was.

Great race, and nice route along the East Lothian coast. Almost falls into the category of one of those races where it is better to travel than to arrive...........