Gail Napier
ERM Runners
Fundraising for Venture Scotland
Story
The five members of ERM’s office all successfully completed the half marathon on Sunday, albeit in some challenging weather conditions. Here is their report.
The race started at Meadowbank Stadium, where we met up in the driving rain and about five degrees, wondering what had happened to the sunny weather that had been forecasted earlier in the week. We thought we might get to see Sir Chris Hoy himself, though we heard he had got married in the day before and apparently had better things to do!We were keen to get going at 9am, mainly to get warm. We felt a little out of place on the start line without the customary bin-bag smocks that appeared to be the fashion of the day. Luckily the rain seemed to ease a bit when we got out on the coastal path alongside the Firth of Forth. The respite was short lived and the worst part of race was during the third quarter when we all had to run an undulating section into driving rain that the wind was blowing in our faces, before the course turned for the final leg to the finish at Musselburgh Racecourse.
Sally was first home setting a personal best time of 1hr 37mins, followed by Pete W who stormed in around five minutes later. Pete B finished just over ten minutes later, shortly followed by who Pam did a fine job in the difficult conditions and came in bang on two hours, shortly followed by Gail who did brilliantly in completing her first half marathon. Gail even said afterwards that she hadn’t been put off by the weather and was thinking about her next event!!
The official results were:
· (1hr 37mins) · (1hr 42mins) · (1hr 53mins) · (2hrs) · (2hrs 9mins)After a very welcome hot bath and a rest we were all ready for some food (and drink of course), so we met up for some post race celebrations at a pub in Leith donning our race T-shirts and well earned medals….and then the sun came out!!
A big thank you to all of you who have donated money to Venture
They are raising money for a very worthy cause, Venture .
Venture runs social and personal development courses at bothies (mountain huts) in for 16-30 year olds with limited opportunities. The weekend residential courses are run by trained volunteers who lead conservation work and adventure activities. Longer term programmes, and locally-based follow-on activities are also offered. ERM Edinburgh has supported this charity over the last year or so. We have provided funding towards a water filtration system, have volunteered for a weekend at the bothy in Glen Etive, assisted them in drawing up an environmental policy and are now setting up a pro-bono project to help them with further sustainable development activities at the site. The money raised will go towards funding for staff time, tools, building materials and maintenance of the bothy to give young people the opportunity to improve their lives through learning new skills, developing social awareness and self confidence.