Edinburgh Winter Run 5k 2023

Edinburgh Winter Run becomes my first repeat race and the race I regret signing up to the most.

Uninspiring race, but better t-shirt this time.

Why Edinburgh Winter Run

I did the Edinburgh Winter Run in 2020 with a bunch of colleagues and had a wonderful time, despite the poor organization of the race.

Edinburgh Winter Run 2020 recap

With the University subsidizing places again (though I had to pay £12 instead of £6.50 like last time), I signed up immediately, thinking other colleagues might, too. But no. 

It was just me going solo to pay to run a 5k route that is now a parkrun route, so somewhere I can do a timed run for free any other weekend. I felt silly for signing up and was not looking forward to this race.

An empty race

The 2020 Winter Run featured long queues to drop off bags and at the finish. The 2023 run was practically empty.

I'm not sure if it was because they did staggered start times this year, but even so, I have never seen a race of this scale so empty.

I know it was empty because there was no queue for the toilets. That never happens!

No queue for the toilets.

At the race warmup, I had so much room. I remember it being a tight squeeze last time. 

A sparse crowd just before the warm-up.

The only thing giving the race life was a women's drumming group playing at the start. I was digging their purple jackets.

Commotion, the Edinburgh Women Drummers, livening up the start line.

The race

Trying to run my fastest

Since I was feeling so unfulfilled by doing this race, a third of a mile in I decided I would try to run as fast as I could.

If I paid money for this, at least I could try and aim for a good time.

The first mile is incredibly hilly, so I was pleased I ran it in 10:03. I was then surprised that my second mile was the same. I don't think I've ever had my first mile on par with my second in this route. 

I then went flying down the last mile in 8:23, finishing in 29:39.

But it wasn't faster than previous races

Compared to the previous parkruns I've done on this route in the past year, I ran much faster at Edinburgh Winter Run.

However, my overall time did not eclipse my 2020 time of 29:13, or even my MoRun 2018 time of 29:30.

That said, my pace has slowed a lot since mid-2020, so for post mid-2020 runner Lauren, I did really well.

Better swag

I will say this for Edinburgh Winter Run 2023: it had much better race swag than the 2020 race.

In 2020, I was so excited to get a University of Edinburgh running top, only for it to be an awful baby blue t-shirt with the University logo and WE BELONG in all caps at the bottom.

This year's shirt had the actual race logo on the front...

The front of the race shirt.

...while Uni branding was saved for the back.

Uni logo on the back this time.

I also prefer the grey beanie I got this time. I did love my blue one from 2020 and wore it for a long time, but this grey one is smaller, so fits my tiny head better.

I also got what I'd call a water bottle/bladder combo from the Puregym sponsor table. I think this will come in handy.

Sponsor water bottle.

So I guess paying more money went to better swag?

Anyway, lesson learned. Don't sign up to a race just because it's partially subsidized. 

Next race

I really hoped I would have decided on my next race by now, but I haven't. 

It's likely to be a 16km run in Dunbar, but still to be confirmed.

Wherever it will be, I think I'll be more excited for it than I was for this run.