Gold Runner Ian

25 NOV2010

Next year's Edinburgh Half Marathon was launched in style this week at specialist retailer Run & Become. The race, scheduled for April 10, is now established as one of the main events in the Scottish running calendar and this year will be special for around 200 runners who are expected to have signed up for the new Gold Runner scheme.

The scheme offers free entry to the Edinburgh Half Marathon for life plus the chance to select your own Gold number for life; a gold medal when you cross the finish line, a gold goody bag with lots of extra special goodies, and VIP treatment at the pre-event pasta party and post-event VIP hospitality at the Race Course. There is also the option to transfer your Gold place to another runner if you can't run for any reason. All this for a one-off payment of just £99.

The first runner to sign up for the scheme was exiled Yorkshireman Ian Dracup who started his running career in Bradford in the 1980s and has taken part in each Edinburgh Half Marathon since it was launched in 2006. Ian told scottishrunningguide.com: "The Gold Runner deal seemed to good to miss. It pays for itself in four years and you get the VIP treatment which was a clincher for me. Also I'm creating an incentive to keep fit in future years as I know that I'll have to do that post-festive season training to be in shape for the April race."

Already 125 runners have signed up for this great package which is limited to 250. Anyone wishing to find out more about the Gold offer should go to the Edinburgh Half marathon website.

Anyone wishing to find out more about the event as a whole should also go online. It is possible to enter direct from the website. The price for a standard entry is £27.00 for club runners and £29.00 for any other runner.

4,000 plus runners are expected to take part in the 2011 Edinburgh Half Marathon and enjoy a great course which starts from the track inside Meadowbank Stadium, taking runners out of the City to the Firth of Forth coast at Portobello before heading southwards along the coastline to a grandstand finish at Musselburgh Racecourse.