I was originally meant to do the EMF 10k as my first ever 10k race in 2016, but had to DNS in the end as my brother was getting married in Canada that day! As such, 2017 was my first trip to this running festival, and it was probably the hottest weekend I’d ever seen in Edinburgh at 30°C…
A well-known rule in running is ‘nothing new on race day’, but as the week leading up to the race went on and it became apparent that the very hot weather was not going to cool down by the weekend, I realised I had to break this rule and bought some running shorts in central Newcastle on the Friday before Geth and I caught the train up to Edinburgh. There was no way I could have done the race in leggings!
Our friend Lisa was doing the 10k too and a few friends were coming to spectate, so it was really fun to meet up with everyone before and after the race. Due to the heat it was a really difficult day out on the course, and the water station at the halfway point was so welcome (although I think I only took a few sips and poured the rest over my head!).
I’ve been back to do the EMF 10k twice in thankfully cooler temperatures, but I feel I’m done with that course now and will be moving on to other distances at the EMF in future. Geth and I had signed up to do the half distance in May 2020, which was postponed to September 2020, then postponed again to May 2021, then made virtual (so we’ll be running our own route somewhere in Newcastle instead)… oh well! We could have deferred to next year but it’s been the plan for a long time now that we’ll be doing the full marathon in 2022, which will be Geth’s first marathon. I might be tempted to return in 2023 so I can finally do the half ‘properly’. We’ll see. It’s always a great atmosphere, and a great excuse to go back to the old hometown 🙂