Feedback/Report on Inter-Office Relay Race & Fun Run 2003

What an evening we had! A record number of teams entered, 21 in all -some for the competitive Relay Race, some for the Fun Run to raise money for charity. For once we had really good weather there in the beautiful West Princes Street Gardens. However, that meant that the runners had to manoeuvre round tourists, prams, dogs and even the odd moving vehicle! But the biggest obstacle we nearly met was the closure of part of the course because of security alerts: what with Her Majesty in town and the opening of the Scottish Parliament close by on the Mound, the area across the railway line and immediately below the Castle Rock was padlocked off, by order of the Police. However, they / Her Majesty relented just in time and opened up the area to OASIS with 30 minutes to spare… Thank you, City of Edinburgh Parks Department.

Lots of stewards and supporters joined the runners at the Golden Gate below St Cuthbert's and cheered them on in good style. There was an especially warm welcome for a Biggart Baillie team from Glasgow! The atmosphere was friendly throughout, carnival-like for most but a tad tense for a few of the competitive runners. Above all there was a good buzz, the kind you experience in the pub first thing of a Friday after work…

Once again Adrian Stott of Run & Become, 66 Dalry Road in Haymarket was our expert time keeper, ably assisted by his wife and a member of St Cuthbert's Church, the lead church behind OASIS.

This year we had a celebrity race starter in Jim Fleming, the Scottish international rugby referee and second most capped international rugby referee of all time! Between leaving work in the city centre and later attending a Church of Scotland meeting in his capacity as Session Clerk of Viewforth Church, he was delighted to join us for this Race and Fun Run and to award the Quaich afterwards. More on that below.

So shortly after 6pm Jim had all 21 first-leg runners under starter's orders and off they sped round the twisty-turny course, sometimes negotiating right angles, sometimes turning 360°, sometimes on the flat, sometimes on steep bits - all on hard surfaces and with the aforementioned tourists and so on to steer past… The course is a mile long, so some needed the various obstacles and the sheer floral beauty of West Princes Street Gardens to distract them from the pain of covering the distance. Well, that may be true of one or two Fun Runners who were purely interested in doing this mad thing for good causes.

So how did the teams fare? Last year Burness won the Relay Race, with Biggart Baillie as runners up. The team that raised the most money for charity last year was Edinburgh Disability Benefits Centre.

This year's results:

1st - Standard Life A (Nick Dickson, John Cowan, Bill Ferrari, David Gibson): 20.27
2nd - Wood MacKenzie (Martin Purves, Andy Strachan, Gero Ferrugio, Tom Ellacott): 21.13
3rd - Standard Life B (Liam Clachers, Jonny Rust, Chris Hancorn, Jan Roxburgh): 23.03
4th - Burness A: 23:11
5th - Standard Life C: 24.23
6th - Biggart Baillie A: 25.08
7th - Shepherd & Wedderburn 25.09
8th - Davidson Chalmers: 25:49
9th - Standard Life D: 25.54
10th - Newton Investment: 26.53
11th - Standard Life E: 27.36
12th - HSBC: 28.31
13th - Standard Life F: 28.31
14th - Shepherd & Wedderburn 28.44
15th - Biggart Baillie B: 29.11
16th - Standard Life G: 29.24
17th - Burness B: 29.58
18th - Biggart Baillie C: 31.34
19th - Hughes Walker: 32.02
20th - Standard Life H: 33.54
21st - Biggart Baillie D: 35.20

Fastest men on the evening:
1st - Tom Ellacott (Wood MacKenzie): 4.43
2nd - John Cowan (Standard Life): 4.49
3rd - Nick Dickson (Standard Life): 5.01

Fastest women on the evening:
1st - Jan Roxburgh (Standard Life): 5.47
2nd - Karen Cassidy (Standard Life): 6.04
3rd - Angela Wood (Standard Life): 6.16

Anyone who would like to know their individual time, contact: janicetodd@oasisedinburgh.com

Special congratulations to Brent Haywood and Alan Strain of Biggart Baillie who ran laps 1 and 2 for their A team before running laps 3 and 4 for their B team! (Ed: now I know why Brent recently ran the Prague Marathon - to train far away in secret.)

All enjoyed the evening. Many were able to stay on for refreshments in the Lindisfarne Room at St Cuthbert's. When all the fine calculating was over, Jim Fleming was able to present the Quaich to Standard Life A and say a few words to encourage us all: it was the taking part and the enjoying of it that was the most important, he said. We laughed at his quips, like his wife not actually seeing any more of him in his "retirement" from international reffing but noticing there is less dirty kit to wash. It was great to have Jim with us.

We warmly applauded Standard Life A, and also Tom Ellacott of "Woodmac" who ran the fastest time.

And we went home to rest and look forward to next year.

Our thanks to the Sheraton Grand Hotel for giving us the special prizes. The winning Relay Team got a dinner for 4 people at their Terrace Restaurant and the winning Fun Run team a Sheraton certificate granting Thermal Suite access for 4 people at One Spa, 8 Conference Square.

Information that became available later in the summer:

CONGRATULATIONS TO TOP FUN RUN TEAM

The Fun Run team that raised the most money for charity was the Standard Life E Team comprising Derek Ramage, Caroline Gow, Marlene McCosh and Elaine Crossland; they were raising money for Shelter. Our warmest congratulations to them. Overall the sponsorship money raised by the 13 participating teams totalled £1379.60 - an excellent effort. As well as Shelter, these were the charities people were running for: Fresh Start, Bethany Christian Trust for the Homeless, Sick Kids, Save the Children, Scottish Community Foundation, Riding for the Disabled Association (Muirfield Group) and the Ethiopia Crisis Aid Fund.

We look forward to awarding the Fun Run Trophy to the Standard Life E team at the OASIS Community Carol Service on Tuesday 16 December.

See you all next year!

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