Edinburgh Half Marathon

I ran the hardest I've ever run at the Edinburgh Half Marathon and ended up with a new PB race time of 2:07:10.

Got USA shoes for my USA running outfit.

Why Edinburgh Half

I was meant to run the Edinburgh Half in 2020. It obviously got canceled due to Covid, so I decided to attempt it now that it was back on.

For a course in Edinburgh, it's actually pretty downhill or flat most of the way, so I was hoping this would be a chance to get a half marathon PB.

The journey

This is the first local race where I actually walked to the start! It was just over 30 minutes to walk, so I figured that would be a good warm-up for my legs.

It didn't take long before I was passing other runners making their way to the start as well. Then came the caravan of cars dropping runners off.

Pretty soon it was people, people everywhere. I've done 2 large-scale races in the Covid world, but this is the first one that felt genuinely packed to the brim.

The crowded baggage queue

The packed-to-the-brim descriptor especially rang true in the queue to drop off your bag.

I normally only write about horrendously long toilet queues (see next section), but oh my goodness, I have never experienced a queue worse than the one to drop off bags at the Edinburgh Half.

Every runner was trying to make their way along a narrow sidewalk with the baggage trucks on one side and a stone wall on the other, meaning there wasn't extra space to spread out.

I was uncomfortably close to other runners. It took nearly 10 minutes to make my way through to drop my bag off. Not ideal.

Arthur's Seat backdrop for the race start.

Still in the toilet queue at start time

Once past the baggage trucks, there was more space, but then I came to the dreadfully long toilet queues. So long that a lot of people were leaving the line to pee in bushes.

Runners queuing minutes before the start.

To be honest, it was not the longest I've ever spent in a toilet queue, but the bag fiasco took so long that I was actually still in line when the race officially started at 8am.

I wasn't too bothered by that, though, because I knew it would take a while for my pen to make its way to the start line.

I used the queue opportunity to ask a fellow toilet-goer if she'd take my pre-race photo, which she kindly did.

Ready to both pee and run.

When I got out of the toilet, it was still another few minutes before my pen even began walking to the start line.

Runners in my pen waiting to start.

I didn't start running until 8:17am.

A relatively spaced-out race

With so many runners, I was expecting a slow start trying to squeeze past everyone for the first bit of the race.

Minus one slight bottleneck right after the start, that thankfully wasn't the case.

Don't get me wrong, when things got packed, I made sure to do some competitive weaving to get past the other runners.

But I was pleasantly surprised how roomy things were for much of the race. Never did I get in a situation where I felt I was in a slow spot I couldn't get out of.

A very familiar route

I didn't take any photos on the route as I wanted no distractions from running as fast as I could.

But if you want to know what the route looked like, you just need to read prior posts on this blog because there were very few bits of this course I had never run before. (Update: I ended up purchasing my race photos, so you do get to see some of what it looked like.)

Granted, I live in Edinburgh, but the route wasn't local to where I routinely run, so I did find it amazing there wasn't much of this 13.1 mile course I hadn't done before.

It started on Holyrood Park Road, up into Old Town, down the Royal Mile, a bit up Queen's Drive before turning toward Meadowbank.

Passing St Margaret's Loch.

Craigentinny was the one stretch I don't think I've run before, but then it was all familiar, flat terrain from Portobello into East Lothian.

Running down Portobello Prom.

I think it's a great course and really takes in the best of Edinburgh and surrounding areas. I was definitely feeling some I-heart-Edinburgh vibes along the way.

The hardest I've ever run

While I wanted a PB for this race, I really questioned if it was possible. I've said it before on this blog, but it's rare I can run under 10-minute miles these days.

I don't feel as fit as I did as I did when I ran Great North Run in September while marathon training, and that race ended up being 2:16:35, more than 6 minutes over my PB of 2:10:00.

I didn't get much sleep the night before, so I thought that might affect my performance as well.

I can usually judge how things are going to go when I see how fast my first mile is. When my running watch said 9:16, I knew I stood of chance of getting a PB.

I told myself if I could keep that pace up for at least the first half, I'd be okay to slow down the second if I had to.

By mile 5, my longest mile was in 9:21 (mile 3). I slowed down to 9:39 for mile 6, but it was still faster than the pace I needed to be at to get a PB.

At that point, I started to challenge myself at each mile to run faster than 9:55, which was the average pace of my current PB.

I amazingly kept this up until mile 12 and 13, which were the only 2 to be above 10 minutes.

11 miles all under 10 minutes, when this has become a challenge for me even when I go out for a 5k run. Incredible.

It truly felt like the hardest I've ever run. In other races, I would have slowed myself down if that's what my body was feeling. But in this race, I actively kept pushing myself and testing my limits.

It culminated in a finishing time of 2:07:10, crushing my previous PB.

And on top of that, my PB is technically 62 seconds faster. I ended up running 13.24 miles along the route, but I did 13.1 in 2:05:58.

4:02 faster.

Finishing the race with an unfinished gel in hand.

My previous PB was from a random half marathon I ran around Edinburgh in April 2020, so I am extremely excited for my new PB to be from a race. 

It's nice to have the bling as a reminder.

A pretty outline of Edinburgh in the medal.

A weight off my shoulders

One of the reasons why I could keep up this pace was because of the elevation of the route. As previously stated, it was either downhill or flat. That certainly helped.

But some personal news helped, too.

Less than 12 hours before the race, my ex signed my application for divorce. I'll have a lot more to say about that when it officially goes through, but I don't want to write this post without saying the effect this had on my performance.

I genuinely wasn't sure if my ex would sign until the moment he did. But from that moment, it has felt like this massive weight I've been carrying around has been lifted from my shoulders.

A lot of that weight came off with the initial separation, but it's the legal untying that finally feels truly freeing.

I could feel it in my running at the half. I felt lighter. Bouncier. Unburdened. It was easy to push myself because I was happy and excited in a way I couldn't feel until those papers were signed.

A free mind makes for fast feet. 

A jump for a PB

In typical Lauren fashion, I can't end this post without a jumping pic. I didn't really have time before the race to take one, and at the end of the race, I was more concerned about finding a way to get home.

But after I got home, I made my hair all pretty, tried on my new EMF shirt, and jumped for joy for the incredible race (and weekend) that I had.

So much joy to jump for.

Next race

I'm going to be in the US next month. I'm hoping to do a race there, but it will depend on how hot it is.

So if not, my next race isn't until August, a 16-mile trail run in the Yorkshire Dales.