‘Edinburgh parkrun - the Finish’

My wife and I started doing parkrun when Edinburgh parkrun started in 2009 and have been doing parkruns both here and in other parts of the British Isles and Europe, regularly since. It was a normal part of our Saturday mornings - until it all stopped almost exactly a year ago!

This evening, I went down and jogged round the course. It’s on the Esplanade at Cramond, on the Firth of Forth, looking across to Cramond Island and to Fife. The squally showers and the wind earlier in the day had died down and the sun was shining - it was beautiful weather to be outside! (See also extra photo!)

Today’s photograph is of the finish line.  Each Saturday morning, until a year ago, up to 800 people used to cross here (running, jogging or walking) between around 9.45 and 10.30, followed by the obligatory results barcode scanning and (endorphin fuelled) chat. 

A year on, the ‘FINISH’ sign, painted on the path, has faded. However, in the meantime, parkrun HQ has been encouraging people to keep the parkrun community alive (and to keep walking and running 5Ks!) by instituting  the “(not)parkrun“ - that people can run or walk in their own time and which they can then enter on the parkrun database along with the results that ended a year ago here.

It’s been a long time, but now at last things are gradually beginning to look up, and we are all hoping to be able to meet up and run, chat (and have coffee and cake) with old friends again soon!