Edinburgh to North Berwick

Harvey is on his holidays. He is staying with his friend Sky at Innerwick to let me run the Edinburgh to North Berwick road race, tomorrow, Saturday. While he is away, he is having his hair clipped, so I hope I recognise him when I pick him up. More to the point, I hope he recognises me. I may be a bit peeky, because I have not run twenty miles for a very long time. So, you may ask, why am I doing it?. Good question; it goes back to the ‘80’s. During one of Haddington East Lothian Pacemaker’s exciting agm's it was announced that the classic race would not be run, because Edinburgh Athletic Club could no longer organise it. They had done so for many years, but their numbers had decreased and they couldn’t do it. I got up and suggested that we should save the race by getting together with other clubs and making a joint effort. As a result of this suggestion, I was appointed as HELP’s representative and I contacted a few other clubs and East Lothian Council. Shortly afterwards we had a meeting and the race was saved. This was a long time ago, but I can remember what motivated me. It was partly because I wanted to save the race, but it was also because shortly after moving to East Lothian in 1978, I happened to be in Dirlton, buying some wood when I noticed a group of runners passing by. Someone told me about the E to NB and I thought the runners were mad. A couple of years later I caught the marathon bug and the rest as they say is history. That chance observation of sweating men running down the hill towards Dirlton Castle, left an impression on me which over the years has remained sitting there waiting to be acknowledged. During the marathon years I couldn’t be bothered running 22 miles because it wasn’t a full marathon. Then I thought I would like to run it, but I was either away from home, injured, unfit or marshalling, so I never managed it.


Here’s a little secret, I’m still not fit enough for it, but I am going to play it canny and kid myself through. This assumes that I get a place … here’s hoping the north east wind doesn't blow too hard..