Edinburgh Marathon Festival 2022 becomes biggest sports participation event in Scottish history

Across the weekend, Scotland’s running festival featured eleven races including a marathon, half marathon, team relay, 10k and 5k, plus six junior events.

On Sunday, both Scottish and international runners ran one of the world’s fastest marathon courses, where they battled it out for the top prize.

Runners were set off by celebrity baker Mary Berry, of Great British Bake Off fame, who was the Official Starter for the event.

Matthew Gillette secured first place in the marathon, with a winning time of two hours, 17 minutes and 57 seconds.

Afterwards, he said: “Our friends were looking to book a vacation in Scotland when we discovered there was a marathon on in Edinburgh this weekend. We signed up last year and thought “alright let’s do it!”

“This was a great course! I’ve ran two marathons so far and this course was flat and had great views - I loved it!”

The women’s race was dominated by Virginie Barrand, Metro Aberdeen RC, who won with a time of two hours 45 minutes and 3 seconds.

She said: “Yeah it was really good fun, we couldn’t have got a better day for it - no wind at all, sunshine, not too hot, great atmosphere - there were people cheering us the whole way which was really nice.

"I had a pace I wanted to stick to, so the first 3-4 miles were quite fast then I just had to keep going.”

Durham’s Kieran Walker sprinted on the final straight to take victory in Sunday morning’s half marathon with a winning time of one hour 5 minutes and 19 seconds.

Kieran said: “It’s the first time I’ve ran in the Edinburgh Half Marathon, and I’ve ended up with a PB which is great! Really perfect conditions, probably one of the best halfs I’ve ever done, and I’ve raced a few!

Rebecca Burns of Pitreavie AAC was the winner in the women’s