Leg 4

Leg 4

This was a lovely night for racing - dry and sunny, but not too hot. The race starts in the playing fields in Grindleford village and then goes uphill for over a mile onto Longshaw Estate, the latter part of the uphill being through a marshy field, where the unwary were up to their knees in peat bog! After a trot through Longshaw, the route drops down and across Burbage Brook at the top of Padley Gorge, before a very fast descent of the gorge on the trail through the woods. This is a great place to make up time if you are willing to commit everything on a path which is mostly strewn with boulders! At the bottom of Padley Gorge, the route goes right, crosses the railway and drops into fields full of sheep (and sheep poo!) before running alongside the river and crossing a knee-deep mud-bath between two of the fields. The finish is a wade across the river (up to your knees to clean off the accumulated mud), a struggle up a steep muddy bank, which thankfully was not slippery, and a final dash across the playing fields for a cup of squash at the finish. This race has everything: tough uphill, peat-bog, trail, fast descent, two water crossings and most importantly a great atmosphere. Marshalling and general organisation were excellent too, and all for £4. Maybe it should be a counter in next year's Club Championship?

The Edinburgh Marathon website reported the theft of at least 6,804 bottles of water (3 Pallets) and 4,040 Lucozade Energy gels which were stolen from the route in the early hours of Sunday morning. The thefts left two out of nine water stations on the Edinburgh Marathon route without water for a period of 40 minutes between miles 15 and 21. Organisers quickly organised mobile teams of police and support vehicles in an attempt to deliver water to those who missed out. 

Neil Kilgour, Race Director of Edinburgh Marathon, commented: “We are furious that someone would steal water and energy gels from marathon runners on a hot day but unfortunately that is the case.  It did leave us with problems which we unreservedly apologise for but I believe we did everything we could to mitigate the problem. When it became apparent that the water supply was getting low at water station 6 we moved water from water station 7 across the road to water station 6.  We also activated our distribution company who had picked up the surplus water at water station 2 (the 5.5 mile mark on Portobello Prom) and moved it to water stations 6 and 7 between Lyars Roads and Gosford House. Water was moved under police escort to get it to the stations as quickly as possible.  The marathon distribution company collected around 10,000 bottles of water from other water stations at the end of the event. In collaboration with the police and emergency services we set up mobile water stations for people that missed the water at these stations and we wish to express our gratitude for their support in trying circumstances”.
Geoff Sims, Chief Executive of the Edinburgh Marathon Ltd announced a £5,000 reward to anyone that gives information to police that leads to a conviction.  Geoff Sims went on to say; the marathon staff spend the best part of a whole year planning a race with the aim that every runner will leave Edinburgh having had a great experience and were devastated to hear that some water stations had run out of water.  Most of all our sincere apologies to all the runners that were adversely affected.  We will of course be increasing our security measures in future years to ensure that this never happens again”.

Amanda Cattell