London Mini Marathon - 25/04/2009

Caithness athlete, Emma Dunnett recently made the long journey to London to compete for Scotland in the London Mini-Marathon.

This event is held in conjunction with the main London Marathon and is open to teams from the three nations, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, and ten regional teams from England plus 32 London borough teams.

The event this year had a total of 2,500 athletes, who completed the final 3 miles of the London Marathon course just ahead of the elite runners. This afforded the runners the opportunity to compete with all of the support from the crowds who had gathered to cheer on the first of the marathon runners.

Scotland Under 13 & 14 teams

This year, the London Mini-Marathon was started by Mo Farah, one of Britain's most successful distance runners and a previous winner of this event as a junior.

The Scottish team on this occasion comprised of 22 athletes who were competing over 4 age groups; 13-14 boys & girls and 15-17 boys & girls.

Due to a change in the selection policy, Emma was the first athlete from the North District to ever compete in this event and she coped well with the pressure of wearing a Scotland vest.

The athletes had to be up and out of their accommodation at Royal Holloway College by 6.30am for the hour and a half bus journey to the centre of the capital in a bus convoy of all of the national and regional teams.

Emma along with 5 other girls were the last of the Mini-Marathon runners to compete which meant that they had to deal with an hour long hold in Old Billingsgate Market before being taken out onto the course for a warm up.

The weather was warm especially for a north athlete and by 9.30am when the 13-14 girls race took place the temperature was up to 20 degrees.

Emma managed not to get snarled up at the start as the 300 runners in her age group made their way towards the Victoria Embarkment on what was a predominantly flat, fast course.

With crowds and bands along most of the route, this experience was a far cry from a north district cross country fixture with a cold spectator every couple of hundred metres. Emma worked well throughout the race and was still pushing hard as the runners entered Birdcage Walk.

The experience of finishing at the official marathon finish on the Mall spurred Emma on to a sprint finish where she managed to cross the line in 29th place. This placing was the third recorded Scottish place of the day out of four athletes to count for the team and gave Scotland a 6th team finish.

This was an experience that Emma very much hopes to repeat in the future as it afforded her the opportunity to compete against the best athletes in Britain and with another year in this age group, Emma would benefit from building on her first London Mini-Marathon experience.

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