Great Edinburgh Run

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.

DateEarly October

LocationEdinburgh

Event typeRoad

Distance10 mile

Quick facts Date, Location ...

Great Edinburgh Run
A fun runner at the race finish point in 2009
Date	Early October
Location	Edinburgh
Event type	Road
Distance	10 mile
Established	1993
Official site	Great Edinburgh Run

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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]