Edinburgh MarathonHere's how RW members rated this race (1467 votes). 2005 race reviewed by: BlackToenail
 | | Overall score | | 80% | | Would you do it again? | | Maybe | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 60% | | PB potential | | 60% | | Atmosphere | | 60% | | Organisation | | 40% | | Value | | 40% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: I signed up as one of the FLM rejects hoping that this would live up to its billing as a potential rival to FLM. Not in my lifetime. I think Nottingham was better. Main gripes: few toilets, late results if not Edinburgh resident.
Date of review: June 15, 2005
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2005 race reviewed by: Super Jen
| | Overall score | | 60% | | Would you do it again? | | Maybe | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 60% | | Atmosphere | | 40% | | Organisation | | 40% | | Value | | 40% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 40% |
In short: Overall good event, but some tips for the organisers as per previous ratings by others
In full: Agree with most comments I've read so far. Lack of toilets at the start, poor organisation of where to stand and how to get in the pen! Mile markers, I missed a few as they were too low down. Some sharp turns and did not enjoy having to run on the cobbles, plus being told by the marshall to get off the pavement and run on them! Quite expensive entry fee and not a very a very impressive goody bag. Lack of toilets on route. Disappointed about the results. I live down South and can't get hold of the Evening News to review the pictures and results. I've e-mailed the organisers to see about getting them on the website, still waiting to hear. My third marathon and didn't quite manage my target time but still another one under the belt, not sure if I will do it again, might give somewhere else a go. And agree with someone else's statement that I thought the medal was a lot nicer than London.
Date of review: June 15, 2005
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2005 race reviewed by: big alan
| | Overall score | | 60% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 60% | | PB potential | | 80% | | Atmosphere | | 80% | | Organisation | | 40% | | Value | | 40% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: decent enough race let down by poor organisation esp at start (unbelievably few toilets - were they being saved up for the G8 summit?),
In full: Start area should have been a lot better. Everyone should have been summoned to the pens earlier and the signs showing predicted times should have been clearer and the areas larger. I'm sure that last year's was better organised. Don't think they should even think about increasing numbers until they get the basics sorted out.
The finish was a bit of a shambles. It should have been larger with more helpers to hand out medals, take off chips, deal with baggage, etc.
I thought the expo was a good addition to the event. I expect it will be larger in future years.
Delay in availability of results is inexcusable. I'm sure that it is entirely unrelated to the fact that the Edinburgh Evening News is one of the main sponsors and they had a results supplement with the Tuesday edition. If I was from outside Edinburgh I'd be a bit pissed off.
Route was fine although not keen on the doubling back sections.
Good support esp at relay changeover points.
I thought the route was pretty flat. Didn't notice the hill at the end - shows the state I was in!
Date of review: June 15, 2005
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2005 race reviewed by: Jim_Smith
| | Overall score | | 60% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 60% | | Atmosphere | | 60% | | Organisation | | 40% | | Value | | 40% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Toilets poor, but thanks to the scenery the race has great potential
In full: As others have said, there were very few toilets at the start, fewer, per runner, than any other race I have run. Can't someone work out a formula for how many loos one needs per 1000 runners? Shouldn't be too difficult. But apart from that, as long as you got back before the heavens opened, it was a good race. The runners were particularly friendly, the scenery was, in places, spectacular, and the atmosphere was good.
Date of review: June 14, 2005
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2005 race reviewed by: Jim_Smith
| | Overall score | | 60% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 60% | | Atmosphere | | 60% | | Organisation | | 40% | | Value | | 40% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Toilets poor, but thanks to the scenery it has potential
In full: As others have said, there were very few toilets at the start, fewer, per runner, than any other race I have run. Can't someone work out a formula for how many loos one needs per 1000 runners? Shouldn't be too difficult. But apart from that, as long as you got back before the heavens opened, it was a good race. The runners were particularly friendly, the scenery was, in places, spectacular, and the atmosphere was good.
Date of review: June 14, 2005
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2005 race reviewed by: Candyfloss
| | Overall score | | 80% | | Would you do it again? | | No | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 100% | | PB potential | | 60% | | Atmosphere | | 80% | | Organisation | | 60% | | Value | | 40% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 80% |
In short: My first marathon and it was great!
In full: Agree with other comments about the loos and the expo was tiny. I loved the cycle path as it made such a change to running on city streets. The people were lovely and the support brilliant, even when it threw it down the locals were still out in their macs giving out jelly babies. I wouldn't do it again as I've other races to run and other cities to visit, but I enjoyed it and I will look back upon my first marathon with fond memories.
Date of review: June 14, 2005
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2005 race reviewed by: Martenkay
| | Overall score | | 60% | | Would you do it again? | | Maybe | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 60% | | PB potential | | 60% | | Atmosphere | | 60% | | Organisation | | 40% | | Value | | 20% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Disappointing Expo, loos, goodybag, route and welcome home at the finish. Tuesday - I cannot find results on web.
Date of review: June 14, 2005
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2005 race reviewed by: Gerry MacCrory
| | Overall score | | 60% | | Would you do it again? | | Yes | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 60% | | PB potential | | 20% | | Atmosphere | | 60% | | Organisation | | 40% | | Value | | 40% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Good Fun but not up there with the best
In full: I have to say that I loved the idea of doing this run and enjoyed it immensely but a few adjustments and home truths will help to make it a belter!
I've run 5 Londons and 6 Great Norths.Edinburgh is kidding itself to think it could cope with 10,000 runners never mind 25,000.The cycle paths were okay but running the last 2 miles through housing estates and uphill was demorilising.Surely a left turn at the top of Lothian Road and using the Haymarket loop would have been beneficial.Couldn't Milton Road South have been used as a better option for finishing.
Date of review: June 14, 2005
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2005 race reviewed by: Marwell 10k RD
| | Overall score | | 60% | | Would you do it again? | | No | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 100% | | PB potential | | 60% | | Atmosphere | | 60% | | Organisation | | 40% | | Value | | 40% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Great scenery and lovely people - hard core crowd were appreciated but not quite value for money. This is the most expensive race I've ever entered but didn't quite get monies worth
In full: This race completed the set for me having already raced the distance in London, Dublin and Cardiff.
Edinburgh was slightly disappointing in some areas. The expo was very small and took only 10 mins to walk around. The kit bags were half the size they should have been especially considering the chances of inclement weather. Had to leave out a towel to put dry shoes/clothes in. The goodie bag was full of stuff that mostly went in the bin. Water stations were good - but got a bit confused with the combination of water and energy drink - would have liked them to have been separate. The organisation at the finish could have been better - queueing for medals, no photo's, waiting in line for kit bags whilst we got very very wet and cold. Not enough loos - I was struggling at 20 miles needed a toilet and found 2 cubicals at 20 miles but engulfed with relay runners and had to wait 3-4 mins to get in. On a positive note - all the marshalls and helpers were very helpful the course was mostly very scenic but didn't like the back and forth along the seafront. I appreciate this was done to try and flatten the course out. The cobbles were hard but unavoidable if you wanted to run through the best parts of the City
So overall an enjoyable weekend, just a few moans, but hope the organisers take them on board. Probably won't do it again because there are many others I would like to do.
Date of review: June 14, 2005
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2005 race reviewed by: John Kane 4
| | Overall score | | 80% | | Would you do it again? | | Maybe | | | | Details: | | Scenery | | 80% | | PB potential | | 40% | | Atmosphere | | 60% | | Organisation | | 40% | | Value | | 40% | | Beginner-friendliness | | 60% |
In short: Still got some way to go to be a "big one" but we've done our first marathon
In full: First ever marathon in 4:48 (we think!)
The Good:
Running for the RNLI - they were superb and looked after us fantastically afterwards - but we're glad we weren't just abandonned like all the non-official charity runners.
Scenery out by the Coast was beautiful and at that stage it was still sunny. Princes street and the castle was nice as well but the rest was a bit of a let down - the cycle track bit psyched me out and two contra-flows close together were not pleasant.
Great support from the locals and it was nice to have a bank of support at the relay changeover points.
Nice medal - we think it's prettier than London's!!
Ditto finisher's t-shirt
Marshals - very supportive and helpful - many thanks to everyone that gave up their time to help out.
The Bad:
Scottish Weather - need we say more!! We were by Portabello when that last big storm came and that made for a damp and unhappy few miles to the end.
Mile markers - we missed a lot of them and our GPS says we ran 27.6 miles (and we were close to the start)
The start - we struggled to get into the pens with the aim of working backwards to where we should have been but the race started while we were still in the 3-3.5 hour band. WHERE were the pipe bands etc - they all seemed to have stopped when we went past and we needed them.
Toilets - not enough at the start and not enough round the course. We could take 20 minutes off our time for queuing on the way round.
Results - where are they????
EXPO - we were expecting something bigger and better - where were all the big names?
Finish- having to take your own chip off after 26 miles and then prod someone to take it off you is actually very hard work!! No real system and we agree with the other comments about the contents of the goody bag - it may have saved a trip to the supermarket but the sugar - truly bizarre!
Above comments are made in the hope that the organisers will be able to improve things as the marathon gets older. However we did enjoy our day despite it feeling a little parochial and despite now missing a substantial number of my toenails I'm very pleased to have completed a first marathon!
Date of review: June 14, 2005
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