Edinburgh Moonwalk marathon 2010 Part 4 photos

And so the marchers struggled, bounced, joked their way homewards, now at mile 22, not far to go, beginning to wonder who this man was who kept appearing in front of them every couple of miles. Past Jock's Lodge, into the Queen's park once again, onto London Road, and then down towards Inverleith Park once more. I thing that once they saw the 26 mile marker there was a great relief until they say that there was still another 300 odd yards, uphill through the avenue of trees, in bright sunshine to that elusive and welcome finishing line - great relief, with tears flowing, cheers from waiting family and spectators, celebration breakfasts, hot baths, releiving massage, and bottles of bubbly - all very , very well deserved.

Edinburgh Moonwalk marathon 2010 Part 3 photos

More photos, this time on the seafront between Granton Harbour and the Starbank pub, where three sisters, all former Moonwalkers, had personally bought £60 worth of sweeties, Jelly babies, Jelly Beans , etc which they were distributing to the walkers to give them a sugar rush. Must say that all the walkers were really appreciative of this small gesture. One of the girls was actually a regular customer at The Mercat Bar, so it was nice to see her full of fun at 0330 hrs. They were even allowing the walkers to use their toilet in the house. A beautiful sunrise welcomed the walkers, majestic over the River Forth. My other less rude awakening was when my phone alarm went off at 0420 hrs for the third morning in a row !! Bit of practice for Monday morning when I have to head off to Glasgow airport.

Edinburgh Moonwalk marathon 2010 Part 2 photos

A selection of the marathon walkers, at this point they were only at William Street, with another eighteen miles to go !!

Edinburgh Moonwalk Marathon 2010 (intro)

What a wonderful night, total admiration for the thousands of women, and also the men who have just completed either the Edinburgh Moonwalk marathon and half marathon during the night.

Obviously I was there initially to support my own wife and friends (seen here at the end adorned with medals), but having seen the superb effort and self discipline by the other participants, I am proud of every single one of them - it was just fantastic.
Had I been physically able to participate I would have been there, but as that was not an option I played leap frog all night and kept popping up along the course ( at about eight different points) to jildy them on, a few words of encouragement and actually became acquainted with several during the course of the night.

This is my starter item, there will be several batches of photos loaded during the course of the day , once I get organised and return from a necessary session with Cruella.
BLOODY MARVELLOUS EFFORT AND A BIG WELL DONE TO EVERYONE.

The Bowmen were not disturbed.

Home from MacMerry and out into the sun in the garden, hoping for a bit of peace and quiet - FAT CHANCE, there was a so called music festival taking place in the grounds of the Craigibield House Hotel. MUSIC - big ??? as to what it was, rock, heavy metal, screeching noises, I suppose these young croups have top learn and practice but not to the extent that literally hundreds of locals had their Saturday afternoon and evening disturbed.

BUT it did not disturb the archers in the sports field who were concentrating on the task in hand.
This was a pretty big tournament organised by the Penicuik Archers, to be completed , same time, same place, tomorrow.

Fortunately, I had to take Mrs. B into town to meet up with Chris, Ailsa and Ailsa's ma who were deposited at Inverleith Park, with three and a half hours to wait before the off for the Moon Walk Marathon.

MacMerry's 61 st Gala Day

This one is for Go Jo - as promised Mrs. B. and self headed to the edge of the world to witness the 61 st Annual Gala Day. We were there to see young Amy take her place on the platform as part of the official party. The weather was clear and fine and improved as the day wore on. With the local pipe band to the fore the procession left the Miners Club, and aided by the Police caused a little havoc as they marched along the Old A1 road through the village and then into the park.
The official presentations were actually fairly quick but even so, the younger children were soon bored and looking for a bit of alternative entertainment - never mind, all went well and they were soon free to join in the games and general fun along with a good crowd of locals.

22 left feet and a "Ba heid manager"

Saturday morning here and skies are a bit overcast but it is warm enough, in the meantime England mourns, complains etc after a rather lacklustre game of footie in South Africa last night.

Hopefully Scotland's rugby team will do a bit better tonight in their match in Argentina, and young Mr Murray is sharpening his rackets for the start of Wimbledon on Monday.

On the other hand , our local archers are out in force in the field across the road, and there is no carry on from them at all - just do not run along he line of buts as they are firing, and tonight Mrs. B , Sir Chris, and Miss Talk a Lot are taking part in the Moonwalk Edinburgh Marathon in aid of breast cancer - we wish them luck.

Made it to the weekly meeting of the Cult yesterday morning, everyone looked a bit tired, I was up at 4 .20 a.m. again as my alarm had not been switched off from Thursday morning !!! silly me - but I went and did my bit for the Mercat Bar, even started to promote the x-mas lunches by wearing my musical X-mas tie ( no doubt RGB will be mortified).

Popped down to see Grant@Photogenix who says I am a jinx, every time I go into the shop one of his machines starts to act up !! I am sure he is exaggerating. One of his customers, the lady from "Mucky Mutts" dogwash called in , and I was quite impressed with the artwork on her van.

Into the Mercat Bar where things were running smoothly under the watchful eye of Sir Christopher, we even had a couple of excellent testimonials from customers - so well done the staff. Decided to head for home, but collected my motor cycle boots from Jody @ Leme where his cobbler had done a super efficient job at repairing them, so that is two pairs of footwear rescued from the bin this week and restored to their former glory, well done Jody.

Home, where, while the sun was shining I took the opportunity to do a bit of spit and polish with the cars, get rid of the ash from our neighbours fires, and managed to have them looking a bit more presentable - all before the debacle of a football match. Big contrast to the USA - Slovenia game in the afternoon which was full of excitement, enthusiasm and excitement - I still think the USA were robbed by the ref who chalked off their third goal.

Off shortly to Mcmerry to see young Amy taking part in the local gala day celebration, official photographer I think !!