The Edinburgh Marathon 2008 view photos

25 May 2008

Our fourth year participating in the Edinburgh Marathon went well with a number of personal bests and first timers too!  The weather was testing, to say the least, with a typical Edinburgh micro climate that changed from freezing cold with biting winds, to hot and humid 2 hours into the race. 

The MMT team met at 7.30am in the offices of Event Consultants where we were to be seen pinning race numbers onto our MMT running tops, sharing  our supply of aspirin and of course, vaseline too, as well as exchanging tips on keeping warm prior to the race. The result was that we all walked up the hill wearing bin bags, immaculately tailored to suit!  Except for Peter Peddie who was lovely in yellow, sporting a designer industrial disposable boiler suit from the farm!!!!!

It was a struggle to get to the start line. Squeezing through the queues for the portaloos was probably the second biggest challenge of the day - the biggest of course, being the next 26.2 miles! The race was long and hard for everyone, especially the final three miles and when the sun came out there was definitely a need for hydration. But, our entire team successfully completed the course and our relay runners too. Fastest lady was Christine Bowie with an amazing time of 3 hours and 41 minutes and fastest man was Bill Arnott with an equally amazing time of 3 hours and 44 minutes.  For both Christine and Bill this was only their second marathon and both achieved personal bests. Our Congratulations to you both and your prize for crossing the finish line with the fastest time will be a day at the Martin Wishart Cookery School.

Congratulations also to Jan Riley who ran her first ever marathon in under 4 hours with a time of 3 hours and 58 minutes. And also to Alison Gray and Jules Wickham, both first time marathon runners. Infact, well done to all our runners, too many to mention.

Thanks to our personal trainer Matt Holland for being out on the course on race day and for the help and support you gave us throughout our 16 week training programme. My personal thanks to Scott Black who kept me going through the bleaker moments - I am sorry I didn't manage to cross the line with you Scott but I wasn't far behind!  And also to the man in the blue jacket who has qualified for the Scottish Olympic Boxing Team, I never did ask you your name but we had a nice chat across the 24th and 25th mile, whilst walking.

MMT would like to thank all our corporate sponsors whose corporate logo appeared on our MMT running vests. The amount of sponsorship raised is still to be established. Our relay runners were required to match fund their corporate sponsorship and I believe that some of our marathon runners raised additional sponsorship too. A special thanks to Alison Gray, editor of the Scotsman Magazine on Saturday who persuaded the Scotsman to match fund her additional sponsorship, raised from employees of the Scotsman. And a message for Ali;  Fiona, who ran the marathon says "please donate another £1000!"

OUR THANKS TO OUR CORPORATE SPONSORS

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