800 brave bad weather for Meadows Marathon

AROUND 800 runners braved rain and hailstones during the Meadows Marathon with organisers hoping the event will break last year’s fundraising total of £40,000.

The event, which was set up in 2007 by Edinburgh University students, included a full marathon along with a half marathon and 5km events. The runners, some of them wearing fancy dress, completed laps of the Meadows but were hit by a shower of rain and hail at around 3pm yesterday while many were still on the course.

Toby Jones, 22, a student at Edinburgh University who lives in South Clerk Street, Newington, was part of a fundraising team who all dressed as tigers for the run.

He said: “I’m very pleased as I thought I would take over two hours. I had done no training at all so 1 hour 38 minutes for the half marathon wasn’t bad.

“Five of us were running to raise money for EGP, a student-led charity. We’re trying to raise £11,000 to build a community centre in Tanzania. The five of us are hoping to raise £2500.”

Joe Shaw, 19, an Edinburgh University student who lives in Pollock Halls, was dressed in a pink dress and blonde wig for the run. He said: “I was running to raise money for Edinburgh Students Charities Appeal, which raises money for many good causes.

“There wasn’t any particular reason for my outfit. It was just a good excuse to dress up as a woman!”

Other runners turned out for the event from further afield.

George Ward, press officer for the event, said: “We had 100 people sign up on the day for the fun run event, which was great, and overall it’s been a real success.

“It was a shame about the rain but you can’t do much about that in Edinburgh.

“We’re really pleased with the turn-out and hope we can build on that for next year.

“We’ll have the fundraising total in the next seven days and we hope to equal or better last year’s figure of £40,000.”