Edinburgh Winter Run 5k

My first race in 2020 was a 5k around Arthur's Seat with some of my favorite people.

No medal this race, but a beanie.

Why Edinburgh Winter Run

I had already planned my inaugural race of the year when a surprising email came into my work inbox shortly before Christmas.

The University of Edinburgh was sponsoring this winter run, and emailed all staff to say they would subsidize half the entry fee for the first 500 employees who signed up.

So for £6.50, never have I been so quick to sign up to a race. I then immediately emailed all my running coworkers to say, "we're all doing this, yes?!". 

Sure enough, we were all doing this.

The least likable t-shirt

One of the big selling points of the run was that the University was going to give its staff entrants a 'branded running top to wear on the day'. 

I was quite excited by this. I've never run representing a team before. Getting to represent my alma mater and employer, along with my colleagues, felt really special.

Until I got the shirt. When I went to pick up my top and race bib the day before, I was quite shocked at how awful it was.

First, it was a plain old cotton shirt, so something I would not run in. Second, it had the most atrocious slogan on it: 'WE BELONG'. In all caps. I felt like I was part of a cult.

(It did get Pat Benatar's song 'We Belong' stuck in my head, though, and that's not a bad thing.)

Also, there was no x-small option, which is a big pet peeve of mine in the running world. Sorry my being a tiny woman is too inconvenient for you to offer me a shirt that fits well.

WE BELONG to a cult.

The race

Wind, wind, wind

After finishing 2019 with an extremely windy 10k in Aberystwyth, I was facing similar conditions for the first race of 2020.

It was gusting around 30mph and drizzling here and there, but also patches of sun. Pretty standard Edinburgh weather, really.

Meeting up with my peeps

I arrived an hour before the start because there was a University of Edinburgh team photo. I did not wear the shirt, thank you very much.

I had told my colleagues to congregate at the 'red University tent' we had been told was going to exist. It did not exist.

We found each other in the end (minus one who was unfortunately sick). 4 out of the 6 of us were from my old department, so I really liked having the opportunity to run with them. I miss them terribly.  

The longest bag queue ever

The lie of the red tent was the first real indication of poor race organization. In all my races, never have I faced a queue so long just to drop off your bag.

Races of the world, let's be clear about this: just take the bag, and then sort by race number while people are running. Don't immediately sort when you take the bag.

There were only 1,000 runners. I've done races literally 30 times bigger that make this work.

The longest race warm-up ever

I'm not complaining about this one. I did like the race warm-up we had before the start. 

But it was surprisingly long and strenuous. It got to a point where I was starting to feel tired, and there was still an extinct volcano to run around.

The cutest photo ever

Before starting the race, I asked my crew to take a selfie with me. 

It was the most adorable thing because I, with the shortest arms of the group, desperately tried to take this photo but couldn't get all of us in it.

Thankfully, longer arms stepped in, and the situation was rectified.

We look so cute. My smile is a bit too intense, though.

Warning: aggressive smiler. Also warning: adorable people.

And I of course had to sneak in my own pre-race selfie.

Less aggressive smiler.

Moving past people

The awfully long race PDF guide (the first sign of terrible organization) said to line up by expected finishing time.

Unless you put people into pens or have some sort of time-related signage, people lining up aren't going to do this. Can you honestly expect runners to self-organize by finishing time? 

Also, they won't have read (or remember) that tiny little sentence in that super long PDF that said to do this.

This meant that the start was one of the most chaotic I've experienced since Manchester. Never have I fought so hard to squeeze into pockets and get past people.

This carried on for pretty much the first mile, which is a long time to be zigzagging around folk.

Up and then down

The first mile was also notorious for being predominantly uphill.

When I ran this route for the MoRun 5k in 2018, I remember my first mile being over 10 minutes.

This time it was 9:54, so I was pleased to know I made it up the hill faster despite the congestion.

It's a shame I wouldn't stop for pictures because the views around mile 2 were spectacular. 

The sun kindly made an appearance, which was welcome in the most windy leg of the race.

Mile 3 was a downhill spectacular. I ran it in 8:26. I find that contrast with mile 1 insane. 

My finishing time was 29:13. 17 seconds faster than my MoRun time.

I wasn't all that concerned with my result, but nonetheless, I'm pretty happy with it. 

More queues

The real takeaway about this race was that it was poorly organised. From the moment I finished, there was a massive queue to get a cup of water. 

It was getting to the point where the line looked like it was going to block people from passing the finish line.

After, I joined the bag pick-up queue, which was even longer than the drop-off queue. Between the water and the bag line, it took at least 25 minutes, which is ridiculous. 

I did have a delightful moment in the queue, though, while trying to make my location known to one of my colleagues. I kept vigorously jumping up and down until I was spotted.

It just amused me greatly that I'm the planner and organizer of the group, but my arms and legs are too short to carry out tasks like taking a group selfie or acting as a beacon. 

The silver lining was getting a race beanie. It's super cute, and I love it. It makes my head feel cozy.

That's one cozy head.

Thankfully, they handed out the beanies while in the queue, so I at least had some extra warmth for the long wait.

The other silver lining was all my colleagues ran great times, and I'm proud of each and every single one of them. 

The brunch

What better way to celebrate our excellent results than by going out for brunch.

We headed over to Hemma, which has a very appetizing brunch menu, but it was surprisingly slow service.

I think it's because we were sitting in this upstairs bit away from the action. But it felt kind of funny (and not in a good way) to go from long queues to slow service.

My brunch was yummy, though. Eggs with spinach and feta on a sweet potato scone. It did have chili flakes, which sent me into a coughing fit (the second chili-related fit of the week!).

Mandatory meal photo.

But let's be real, the best bit of brunch (and the race) was the top notch company. 

Hoping we get some other chances this year to get a big group together for races.

Next race

Run Falmouth Half Marathon

My first half marathon will take me down to Cornwall. I am equally excited to race a new distance as I am for the 11 hour train journey.