What a lovely weekend! The weather was absolutely gorgeous, hot with unbroken sunshine. The only cold thing about the whole weekend was the air conditioning on the train travelling up to Edinburgh. I found the train a lovely, relaxing way to travel instead of having to concentrating for hours behind the wheel of a car. For this adventure the Collins family were joined with more family and friends, ten in total.
On the Saturday morning we watched Han Ket finish the 10k at Holyrood Park. Han Ket finished in a leisurely 1 hour 11 minutes, enjoying the atmosphere and sun and hardly breaking out into a sweat. For the afternoon we went to Edinburgh Zoo to see the Pandas, Tian Tian and Yang Guang. Yang Guang popped his head out to see us and fell asleep in his bed but Tian Tian was playing hard to get and was sleeping in the only part of the enclosure where we were unable to see her. Never mind at least the kids got to see one panda.
Sunday morning, it was first the turn of Yuk-Lam and Phil to run the Edinburgh half marathon. Yuk-Lam did fantastic time coming in first in 2 hours 10 mins, smashing 9 minutes off her PB, followed by Phil in 2 hours 25 minutes knocking 5 minutes from his PB. Very well done to you both!
Lastly it was my turn with the marathon. By the time I started to run at 9:50am the weather was getting quite warm and I was very pleased to be able to manage even splits in the ever increasing temperature. I finished in 3 hours 17 minutes 25 seconds, my fastest run for 10 years. I must congratulate the race organisers and helpers for an excellently well organised race, with plenty of water stations to combat the warm, sunny conditions. I would also like to thank the people along the route who had their hose pipes out and hosed us down. At one point as we passed a garage and the men there used their pressure washer to spray us. There were even some young boys squirting us with their water pistols, all great fun!
After the race and a shower back at my hotel, it was time to find a bite to eat. We had been staying in the part of the city call Grassmarket. It was a lovely part of the city with plenty of pubs, places to eat and sit out. My friend Gary had recommended a place that sold roast pork sandwiches in Grassmarket so we hunted it out. It is a little shop called “Oink” which roasts a whole pig and cuts it up to make some fantastic sandwiches. I had stuffing and apple source on mine it was totally delicious. If you ever go to Edinburgh you must visit this shop for lunch. What a great way to finish a superb weekend!
Oink was sooooo goooood, I’ve added a weblink below:-
