An increasing number of runners have been out and about at various road races over the summer. Listed below are some of the performances we are aware of.

It was a major logistical exercise for all the various groups who travelled south on the weekend of 5 /6 October to Newcastle. This is the largest road race in the UK with over 47,000 entries this year. Our group Ian, Peter and Anne accompanied by Betty and Bob as the "bag carriers" booked accommodation for Sat 5th in a village about 20 minutes drive form Newcastle. The race starts in the centre of Newcastle and ends in South Shields. We worked out that the best plan was to park at one of the Metro stations and ride into town to the start area, and to use the public transport at the end to get back out again... (along with thousands of others). It was unseasonable warm and sunny – even the bag carriers got sunburnt, but all the runners made it safely over the 13+ miles. The times given are very inaccurate as it takes over twenty minutes for all the competitors to get over the Start line, (there is no use of electronic tags to provide an accurate time), but all agreed it had been a worthwhile experience.

There were 567 runners on the 10k race.

The Britannic is a 10k race for ladies held in Glasgow every year. It is the largest race in Scotland in terms of the number who enter.

There were 7930 runners

As well as the Edinburgh 10k, Great North Run, Linlithgow & Granton 10k races reported above, the Glasgow half-marathon and Rigg race reported in the previous Heralds, super-fit super-vet Alex Somerville has been out and about at several races over the summer. Below are some of his achievements.

Dunbar 10 mile Multi Terrain – 5 Oct

Not everyone was at Newcastle on the 5/6th October. Ian Morrice did the 10 mile Dunbar Multi Terrain run and described as rather hard. It was a brilliant course over tarmac, Farm tracks, Fields, Hills and more tracks and Fields. "I would certainly recommend it to anyone interested in off road running. It's an annual event although they do sometimes change the route". Ian's time was 1hour 13mins.

Ian also did the Aberfeldy half marathon on 16th September in 1hour 34mins. Ian describes this as an excellent course between Aberfeldy, past historic castles, country roads to Fortingale ( where the oldest Yew tree in the world is ) and where Pontius Pilot was born. Weather was very, very hot 25/26 degrees.

A marathon race returns to Edinburgh after an absence of a few years. We've a small supply of entry forms for the ballot for places (closes 10 Dec), so anyone interested should. Get a move on with their entry, should start a gradual build up in their training programme.