10 keen Edinburgh Uni Students made our way down to London to compete in the 2nd addition of Ekiden! The race was contested over a 114km course from Windsor to Reading and back along the thames, with the distance shared between all 10 runners. As this was the clubs first time competing in this sort of competition, none of us knew what to expect when we signed up, but it’s safe to say that the weekend was all round brilliant!

With this being a race during the university summer, we were all scattered across the UK and had to made our own way there. Catriona and Katie were our sole travellers from Scotland and caught an early flight into Luton, where they made the most of the day by exploring on some of the city bikes! They safely made their way, along with Georgia, Freddie, Huw, Saskia and Grace to Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre in time to settle into the accommadation before the opening ceremony and pre-race dinner! Unfortunately, despite living in London, Joe and Ross got stuck in the rush hour traffic and missed the dinner, taking longer to arrive than Huw who travelled from Cardiff! I also sadly missed the evening meal and had to settle for a tesco meal deal on the train, but thankfully the 3 of us were happy enough to hear the meal was not particularly memorable! However, the team did get a picture with Scottish icons Eilish McClogan and Beth Potter! Huw, who clearly hadn’t done enough travelling for one day, very kindly came and picked me up from Maidenhead train station saving an hour off my journey. In search for some late night food, we ended up getting lost in the labyrinth that was sainsburys multi story carpark, but thankfully escaped and returned safely to Bisham Abbey. With all 10 members finally assembled, we headed to bed before a big day!

The race took place on the 2025 summer solstice, Friday the 20th June and was one of the hottest days of the year. With this being a long-distance relay, each of us had to navigate the complicated bus timetable to ensure we made it to our individual start lines on time. The race began at 8.30am in Windsor, with the iconic castle in the background. Catriona kicked things off for the Haries on leg 1, where she ran the 10.4km course to Maidenhead in a flying 43:11, being the first ever harie to wear the famous Tasuki Sash, customised into Haries green! She handed over to Huw, for his 14.2km leg to Bisham Abbey in which he remarkably completed in 53:26 despite his massive carbon shoe induced blisters (do not check his strava!). He handed over to Grace who carried the Tasuki 14.1km from Bisham Abbey to Henley-Upon-Thames in a speedy 58:35. Next up was Ross, a member of the Atheltics club who stepped up for his longest ever race, completing his 12.8km to Sonning in 52:21! Hopefully this experience will lead him to join the haries next year :). Then came the injured boys– Joe and I – each taking a 5.4km leg, with me taking us out to the farthest point at Kings Meadows in Reading and Joe beginning our journey home. Peculiar circumstances led to me having to race it without any shoes due to a painful nerve pinching, while Joe was suffering from a sore knee but wouldn’t let anything stop him from completing his last race for the club. We both pushed through for the Haries and the team to complete our legs in 22:33 and 21:24 respectively. Georgia made the first big dent in our Journey back completing her 12.8km back to Henley-Upon-Thames in a blistering 53:45, before passing over to Saskia. Despite originally wanting to do the 5km, due to the team injuries, she made a massive effort to complete one of the 14km legs, and smashed it 1:05:28. In fitting fashion, she handed over to club legend Freddie, also completing his last race in green. Continuing his fine form this year, he signed off in a blistering 51:04 over 14.2km. Our final athlete of day, Katie showed remarkable character to keep running after fainting mid-run and waking up on the side of the course with 2.5km to go. She was supported by the team all the way in as we finished the day in 10th place in a time of 8:22:22.

We definitely had the best team finish of the day as can be shown in the photo, and Ross’s celebratory champagne was very well deserved! The thames (much cleaner than expected) was the perfect setting for some of us to cool off post race.

So that concludes the Ekiden 2025 Race Report. It was an epic race to take part in and to farewell both Joe and Freddie :( . We hope to be back again next year, but perhaps without all the antics!