The Great Edinburgh Run was an annual ten-mile road running race in the city centre of Edinburgh in Scotland from 1993 to 2017. It was part of the Great Run series of competitions, a 10 km (6.2 mi) event which extended to ten miles (16 km) from 2014.

Great Edinburgh Run
A fun runner at the race finish point in 2009
DateEarly October
LocationEdinburgh
Event typeRoad
Distance10 mile
Established1993
Official siteGreat Edinburgh Run

The race was first run in 1993 as the Great Caledonian Run.[1] It was moved from Edinburgh to the Balmoral estate in Aberdeenshire in 1998, and was hosted there for seven years as part of the Balmoral Road Races, a collection of races from 3 km to 10 km.[2] The Caledonian run became more of a national level competition in its stint in Balmoral as the 5-mile race. The race in Balmoral was voted the nation's most scenic run by Runner's World magazine in 2004.[3] The competition was financially supported by Scottish Enterprise Grampian in a partnership to promote tourism in north-east Scotland, but after the BBC decided to stop televising the event it returned to Edinburgh in 2005.[4] During the seven-year period that the run was not held in the city, a separate and unrelated competition was held there under the title of the Capital City Challenge 10K.[5] The Great Edinburgh Run acquired its current title in 2006.[6]

From 2005 the Great Edinburgh Run was held on a course within the city centre. Starting in Holyrood Park, runners would see a number of the city's famous landmarks such as Edinburgh Castle, Greyfriars Bobby, Scott Monument and Arthur's Seat.

The men's course record for the 10 km (28:03 minutes) was set by Martin Mathathi in 2011, while Florence Kiplagat is the women's course record holder with her time of 32:10 minutes from 2010.[7] Amateur runner Dave Lewis won the 1994 men's race ahead of Olympians John Treacy and Gary Staines.[8]

Winners

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Key:

 
Crowds gathering for the 2009 race
 
Latvia's Jeļena Prokopčuka won three times consecutively from 2005 to 2007.

  Course record   8 km course   5-mile course

Edition Year Men's winner Time (h:m:s) Women's winner Time (h:m:s)
1st[9] 1993   Gary Staines (GBR) 28:37   Lyudmila Borisova (RUS) 33:37
2nd 1994   Dave Lewis (GBR) 28:56 ? ?
3rd[10] 1995   Gary Staines (GBR) 28:48   Liz McColgan (GBR) 32:27
4th[11] 1996   Christopher Kelong (KEN) 29:11   Yvonne Murray (GBR) 33:16
5th[12] 1997   Christopher Kelong (KEN) 29:05   Liz McColgan (GBR) 32:43
6th[13] 1998   Abdellah Béhar (FRA) 22:52   Paula Radcliffe (GBR) 24:54
7th[14] 1999   Thomas Nyariki (KEN) 28:25   Tegla Loroupe (KEN) 32:26
8th 2000   Mark Carroll (IRL) 25:28   Jo Wilkinson (GBR) 29:26
9th[15] 2001   Dan Whitehead (GBR) 33:16   Janette Stevenson (GBR) 37:46
10th 2002 ? ? ? ?
11th[16] 2003 ? ?   Liz McColgan (GBR) 37:25
12th 2004 ? ? ? ?
13th 2005   Juan Carlos de la Ossa (ESP) 28:22   Jeļena Prokopčuka (LAT) 32:42
14th 2006   Fabiano Joseph (TAN) 28:38   Jeļena Prokopčuka (LAT) 32:25
15th 2007   Hosea Macharinyang (KEN) 29:14   Jeļena Prokopčuka (LAT) 32:53
16th 2008   Bernard Kipyego (KEN) 28:59   Benita Johnson (AUS) 32:20
17th 2009   Micah Kogo (KEN) 28:13   Deena Kastor (USA) 32:38
18th[17] 2010   Titus Mbishei (KEN) 28:46   Florence Kiplagat (KEN) 32:10
19th[7] 2011   Martin Mathathi (KEN) 28:03   Lucy Kabuu (KEN) 32:28
20th 2012   Tom Humphries (GBR) 29:23   Jess Coulson (GBR) 33:12
21st 2013   Andrew Lemoncello (GBR) 30:18   Jen Rhines (USA) 34:22
22nd 2014   Chris Thompson (GBR) 49:36   Gemma Steel (GBR) 56:06
23rd[18] 2015   Abeje Ayana (ETH) 48:44   Jess Coulson (GBR) 56:06
24th 2016   Daniel Wallis (NZL) 51:11   Hillory Davis (AUS) 66.13
25th (last)[19] 2017   Daniel Wallis (NZL) 50:23   Hillory Davis (AUS) 63:42

References

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  1. ^ Gillon, Doug (1993-10-02). Martin at head of the capital show. Herald Scotland. Retrieved on 2011-10-02.
  2. ^ Roden, Alan (2005-01-20). Road race gets set to run back to Capital. Scotsman. Retrieved on 2011-10-02.
  3. ^ Bupa Great Caledonian is voted most scenic run. Bupa (2004-01-28). Retrieved on 2011-10-02.
  4. ^ Smith, Graeme (2004-08-18). End of road for Balmoral races as BBC pulls out . Herald Scotland. Retrieved on 2011-10-02.
  5. ^ Mooney, Chris (2004-09-13). Capital city challenge 2004. Scotsman. Retrieved on 2011-10-02.
  6. ^ Edwards, Gareth (2006-05-08). Runners reign supreme in drizzle. Scotsman. Retrieved on 2011-10-02.
  7. ^ a b Martin, David (2011-10-02). Mathathi clocks course record in Edinburgh 10Km. IAAF. Retrieved on 2011-10-02.
  8. ^ Lewis runs away with capital title . Herald Scotland (1994-10-03). Retrieved on 2011-10-02.
  9. ^ Sporting Digest: Athletics. The Independent (1993-10-04). Retrieved on 2011-10-02.
  10. ^ Sporting Digest: Athletics . The Independent (1995-10-02). Retrieved on 2011-10-02.
  11. ^ Murray is the homecoming queen in road race. Herald Scotland (1996-09-30). Retrieved on 2011-10-02.
  12. ^ Confident McColgan sets record on way to victory . Herald Scotland (1997-10-20). Retrieved on 2011-10-02.
  13. ^ Smith, Graeme (1998-04-13). Scot yields to Radcliffe's brilliance as Englishwoman sets new world best McColgan bows to the queen of Balmoral. Herald Scotland. Retrieved on 2011-10-02.
  14. ^ Gillon, Doug (1999-04-26). Radcliffe is chasing an elusive dream Queen of the road aiming for track glory. Herald Scotland. Retrieved on 2011-10-02.
  15. ^ Smith, Graeme (2001-04-16). Radcliffe has to give up crown Wami takes Balmoral title in a late sprint to line. Herald Scotland. Retrieved on 2011-10-02.
  16. ^ Smith, Graeme (2003-05-12). Holmes toughs it out at Balmoral. Herald Scotland. Retrieved on 2011-10-02.
  17. ^ BUPA Great Edinburgh Run: Kenyan stars Mbishei & Kiplagat run away with the glory . Daily Record (2010-05-03). Retrieved on 2011-10-02.
  18. ^ Jones, Matt (19 April 2015). "Great Edinburgh Run 2015 Results: Men's and Women's Top Finishers". Bleacher Report.
  19. ^ Jones, Matt (23 April 2017). "Great Edinburgh Run 2017 Results: Men's and Women's Top Finishers". Bleacher Report.
List of winners from 2005 onwards
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