PRIDE RUN 2022 Results: https://liveresults.finchhouse.org/#edpride22.csv
What: 5k run of pride flags and colour
Where: the Meadows (eastern end), Edinburgh
Course: Meadows paths
Day: 24th June 2022
Time: 19:00
Who: entries open to all, regardless of ability
How much: £12 (£10 for ScottishAthletics members)
Women/men/nonbinary entrants welcome. Showers and changing (including gender-neutral) available at the Commonwealth Pool, 10 minutes' walk from the race - remember to bring £2 to access the showers/changing rooms and a (refundable) £1 coin for lockers.
We're hosting a Ceilidh after the race at Greyfriars Charteris Centre (Binks Hall) from 20.00. Tickets are £10 including food, and to keep it even cheaper it's bring your own drinks.
It's a relaxed start on Saturday morning with the Pride March departing from the Scottish Parliament at 13.00, and we'd love you all to join in with the EFR contingent!
Cake & bake sale to raise money for our designated charity (to be released shortly). Baked contributions welcome!
Costumes, colour, and rainbows STRONGLY encouraged!!!
DETAILS
THE COURSE
Two laps taking in much of the paths around the Meadows, the course is *very* flat, so it's only the odd corner that'll slow you down (did anyone say 5k PB?). The paths are tarmac, and apart from the odd small hole are pretty smooth these days. We do share the Meadows with other users though, so keep an eye out for bikes and pedestrians, especially at crossing points - though our marshals will keep you safe (so follow any instructions they give you).
The start and finish is on Boroughloch Walk, just south of the tennis courts, and we'll have a pretty colourful selection of pride flags to guide you in, so you won't miss us!
When the whistle goes, head south, then turn left onto the path under the trees, and follow the route anti-clockwise for two laps. By that time you'll have run around the back of the tennis pavilion three times and you're nearly done - just turn south onto Boroughloch Walk again to finish!
Oh, and there's an animated version here!
FACILITIES:
On-site: Toilets are available at the Commonwealth Pool, so please call in while you're changing and dropping bags. The public toilets in the Meadows close at 6pm unfortunately, so don't rely on them unless you're turning up promptly!
For refreshments, your first stop is obviously our cake and bake sale raising money for our chosen charity, but if cake's not your thing (or doesn't contain enough caffeine), there are loads of places nearby - and there will also be food (and the rest of the cakes) at the ceilidh.
We'll have an informal bag drop area in the marquee, but it won't be guarded so you're responsible for it even when you're at the far end of the course - so please don't leave any valuables there!
Changing: The Commonwealth Pool, Dalkeith Road, EH16 5BB, which is also our Wednesday meeting and changing point for club runs/walks. It's a gentle 10 minute walk from the Meadows.
Ask for a shower at reception, and pay your £2; all changing areas have lockers for a refundable £1 coin. You can choose from:
- female and male gym changing rooms (cubicled showers with open changing area),
- the poolside changing village (all genders, with open and cubicled showers and separate cubicled changing),
- one of the five accessible showers in the changing village (shower, toilet, changing all in the one room).
Although there are toilets (including accessible) on the ground floor, all changing is downstairs. The lift takes you straight down to the changing village.
If you've any questions please get in touch - we're always happy to have a conversation about specific needs so we can do our best to help. Anything new also helps our conversations with Edinburgh Leisure, which then helps shape their policies for the future, because they're good listeners!
AFTER THE RACE
FRIDAY:
Eat cake!! Obvious, hopefully, but worth repeating ;) EFR's Pride Run has a few main purposes, one of which is to raise cash for charity.
The others are of course to raise visibility of the club and LGBTI+ folk in general, and the minority identities with the queer community in particular (hence the variety of flags). If you think you have a gender or sexuality pride flag that we haven't tracked down yet, get in touch and bring it with you! And yes, that's a challenge - we've spent a *lot* of hours searching for flags, ironing them, and attaching them to canes so we can fly them. And we're always open to learning about new flags and identities :)
CEILIDH! If there's one thing race-tired legs want, it's a post-race ceilidh, and EFR provide just that! The venue is 10 minutes' walk from the changing locations, at the Binks Hall in the Charteris Centre on the Pleasance. For cheapness and simplicity we'll be laying on hot food included in the ticket price of £10, and it will be bring-your-own drinks. The nearest places to buy alcohol (before 10pm!) are Great Grog, Co-op, and Sainsbury's.
The ceildh band will finish at 11ish, after which you are welcome to sample the rest of Edinburgh's nightlife or wind down quietly (or help the EFR team restore the hall to its former condition!).
SATURDAY:
The Pride March: the main event of the day. The march will start from the Scottish Parliament and finish at Teviot. EFR will be there in force, with the club flag and many of the pride flags from the race, and you're all welcome to march with us.
Community Fair: at Teviot and Potterrow, with EFR sharing a stall with LEAP Sports and all the other LGBTI sports clubs in Potterrow, so come and say hello to us there too!
The afternoon and beyond: We'll have a plan for this in due course, so keep an eye on facebook ;)
TRAVEL:
The start/finish and all-important cakes will be on Boroughloch Walk, just south of the Meadows tennis courts. Point your satnav to The Meadows, Edinburgh, EH8 9NL.
Please travel by foot/bike/public transport if possible - the Meadows are easy to reach in by a number of ways:
Rail: 10-15 minutes' walk from Waverley Station
Bus: about a third of the city's buses stop near the Meadows; the closest are 41, 25 (Melville Drive stops), 42, 67 (Buccleuch Street/Causewayside), and then 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 29, 30, 31, 33, 37, 47, 49 (Clerk Street/South Clerk Street: walk down Hope Park Terrace to get to the Meadows). See lothianbuses.com for full details!
Car parking: Melville Terrace is the closest street outside the central controlled zone and therefore free from 5.30pm; all areas are free from 6.30pm. For blue badge parking Melville Drive or George Street Lane are closer. Go here for full details and an interactive map! Note that there is absolutely no parking allowed on the Meadows itself.
Race terms & conditions!
To Follow
GENDER IDENTITY POLICY
Just a quick note to be absolutely clear on our entry requirements for gender categories: there's only one - that you're happy entering in that category :)
In line with general EFR policy (and the policy we'd like to see the whole world adopt), your self-identity is our only guide, we try to use the pronouns you introduce yourself with, and all we ask is that you enter in the category that you feel fits you best.
And for a bit of back story:
EFR were involved in the process leading to ScottishAthletics' introduction of non-binary categories into running, and although we weren't the first race to offer the third category (that honour goes to the Jedburgh Three Peaks Ultra and Jedburgh Running Festival in 2016), we were the first to have an official ScottishAthletics permit for all three categories, for our inaugural Pride Run 2017.
ScottishAthletics subsequently lobbied UK Athletics and secured a full rule change for road races from April 2018, while events under ScottishAthletics rules included all forms of road and off-road running.
April 2019 saw another highly significant step forwards that EFR helped advise on: all ScottishAthletics Championships events are now required to have a non-binary category as a condition of getting a licence. This means we have now broken out of road/trail running and into all types of track & field athletics, and all age groups! So if you're a non-binary track runner, triple jumper, hurdler, javelin-thrower or shot putter, high or long jumper, race walker, or all of them and more, you can now compete in the non-binary category; this is world-leading inclusion.
A BIG THANK YOU to our sponsors and supporters:
