The Leith Harbour Free 5/10km is celebrating its 50th free monthly time trial run on Sunday.
Organised by the Leith Harrier & Athletic Club, the first event was on a Thursday night in June 2019, when 59 runners gathered to run from the corner of Magnet and Neptune Sts to St Leonards, with some running there and back for a 10km trial and some running half the distance to Maia for 5km.
Club president Chris Sole said the idea was to have a free regular event for people to learn and practise their running, with cumulative results enabling people to track their progress over time.
Results that were professional, repeatable and reliable enabled both beginners and advanced athletes to gain confidence in competitive environments, Dr Sole said.
In 2019 little did the organisers (and the world) know that just around the corner was a global pandemic, which put paid to some of the monthly events, but as restrictions eased, the events were able to resume.
Dr Sole said to date there had been 1022 5km and 867 10km performances.
Club vice-president Lydia Pattillo said the Leith Harbour Free had more than 650 registered runners.
Between 50 and 100 runners turned up to take part each month.
The club offers two courses, one on a Thursday night at 6pm starting from the corner of Neptune and Magnet Sts to Maia (5km) or St Leonards (10km) , and one on Sunday mornings at 9am near the Harbour Mouth Molars to Vauxhall (5km) or The Cove (10km).
