Runners all set to challenge each other at Edinburgh Marathon Festival - Athletics news
The Edinburgh Marathon Festival, comprising of a field of over 27,000 runners, will witness the biggest ever run in the history of the event, during its hosting over next two days.
Kicking-off the event while commencing shorter and middle distance meets, the organisers have planned to have 5k, 10k and junior races on Saturday, while the major contest of the festival, the marathon, will take place on Sunday morning.
Besides the mega event of Marathon, Sunday morning will also observe the commencement of Hairy Haggis Team Relay and Half marathon event. The races which have been decided to take place on Sunday will be held in Holyrood Park, while Sunday’s event will take
place on Regent Road.
The Edinburgh Marathon was initiated in 2003, but within a short span of time, the event has earned significant popularity in the UK. Presently, Edinburgh Marathon is the second largest long distance meet of England.
Sharing his thoughts about the event kicking-off from tomorrow, Neil Kilgour, director of the race said, “The running festival weekend will provide something for everyone with new races added and nearly all of those events sold out.”
He revealed that the route of the marathon has now been declared as fully IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federation) compliant, as the quality of the track had been significantly improved. He said that the Edinburgh track was among the fastest
marathon tracks in the world and thus, runners aiming at setting their personal bests could significantly benefit from it.
Concluding his remarks, the director expressed his pleasure over the increasing popularity of the event and said, “The popularity of the Edinburgh Marathon Festival continues to build year on year and it is great to provide all of our competitors with the
opportunity to be part of a marathon experience.”
In his words, the track was particularly supportive for runners looking forward to earn the Olympic qualifications or to assess the level of the training they had been through while preparing for the bigger events. Moreover, the event is also useful for
the runners who ever wished to run in a world class competition on a world class track.
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