Dunfermline Press | Sport | Are you up to the challenge?

Thursday, 21st August, 2008

Published: Thursday, 1st May, 2008 14:30

Are you up to the challenge?

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WHEN it comes to being at work, most of us have thought of doing a runner.

Now, thanks to a new event taking place in Dunfermline later this month, you can pull on a pair of running shoes and show the gaffer who’s boss.

For the first time, this year’s annual Run Dunfermline Festival will feature a half marathon team relay.

And by backing the event we’re urging friends, families, work colleagues, businesses, villages, services and sports clubs to enter the Dunfermline Press Team Relay 2008 in a giant West Fife ‘Survival of the Fittest.’

The team relay allows family, friends and colleagues to share the half marathon distance, making it accessible for everyone, get fit, maybe help charity and have a laugh all at the same time.

The Dunfermline City Half Marathon starts at 11am on Sunday 11th May but instead of tackling the daunting 13 miles by yourself you can enlist your pals and go for a more manageable, fun-size distance.

Teams of four can run the half marathon as a relay effort – meaning each team member has to run just over three miles. Alternatively, two team members can do six miles each.

You’ll be right in the heart of a terrific feel-good challenge and each team will be chip-timed using the world’s top timing technology from West Fife firm Interloq, used recently at the World Cross-Country Championships in Edinburgh.

So why are you running scared? Enter the Dunfermline Press Team Relay 2008 today and let’s see who’s on their marks and who’s running on empty.

Which of West Fife’s five high schools is the fastest? Who’s no slouch in the staff room? Can Asda’s staff outpace Tesco? What about the business battle between Sky and HBOS? Is your street the quickest in Dunfermline? Who’s quicker, the army or the navy?

And, as it’s the Dunfermline Press Team Relay 2008 the exploits of you, and your team, will be front-page (or maybe back-page) news.

So lay down the challenge and meet on 11th May alongside Scotland’s best runners around the streets of Dunfermline.

Go to www.dunfermline-half.co.uk to download an entry form and set the ball rolling for the team relay and other races on the day including a fun run and 5K as well as the half marathon.

The Dunfermline Press Team relay 2008 has been backed by some of the most prominent figures in Scottish athletics.

Former Great Britain international marathon runner and now chief executive of scottishathletics Geoff Wightman told Press Sport, “I think in terms of making road running accessible while at the same time having the sense of occasion, infrastructure and crowds of a full half marathon, it’s a nice way of doing it.

“It also gets people working as a team in what is an individual sport.

“It’s a good stepping stone to getting involved in athletics and it keeps it fun – people will automatically be joining up with people of a similar standard.”

Chris Robison is policy director of the Scottish Sports Association, an association of the governing bodies of sport in Scotland.

With a half marathon PB of 62:58, he’s competed in seven World Cross-Country Championships and the pinnacle of his athletics career came with a 10th place finish in the 10,000 metres at the Commonwealth Games of 1994 in Victoria, Canada.

He told Press Sport, “I think it’s a great idea. It gives people an opportunity to get involved and I think it adds to the atmosphere.

“Running just over three miles is an excellent distance for someone who wants to get involved in athletics at a participatory level. It can be done as really light jog or a brisk walk – it’s very manageable.

“Not wanting to let your team mates down is another incentive where if people were preparing on their own, it would be easier to give up. Each team member will bring their own supporters to the event and it just extends the amount of people who come along.”

Robison also praised Press Sport for our involvement. “We all recognise we need to do something about our participation levels in sport and physical activity so I fully support anything like this if it gets people out,” he said.

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