HOUR TO THE TOWER 2026
By Tommo
Alan was very excited about this event. "I have an idea for the First Ever Club Race. Laps of Corstorphine, see how many you can do in sixty minutes. We'll call it Hour To The Tower. What do you reckon?"
Hill reps? Time trial? Off-road? A name that rhymes? You son of a gun, I'm in.
At first it was little more than a concept and a catchy brand, but the race soon grew a committee and a website and a platoon of volunteers, and then the 6th of September rolled around with a tepid southerly and a bit of drizzle to add more slippy excitement to the descents.
At the pip of 10am, a hundred and twenty one runners surged forward into history, immortality ... well, inaugurality anyway. Some folks headed out at a strategic pace, weighing the demands of the hour ahead. Some others headed out like greased lightning, and some of those even seemed to speed up during the event. This is a neat trick that I would very much like to learn.
The course claws its way up the steepening access road from Clermiston to the radio mast, passes through a gauntlet of marshals distributing lap tokens, takes a tight left at Corstorphine Tower, plunges down a trail section with low branches and high roots and all sorts of delicious injury risks, before bursting into the open for 150 yards of exquisite freeform let-'er-rip no-holds-barred downhill on the grassy slope back to the start/finish area. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Rest is for those who don't have something better to do with their Sunday morning.
Completing a lap was barely its own reward. The only thing certain was that another would begin immediately.
For all the shortness of the route however, barely a kilometre per loop, it's remarkably varied and interesting. There's your climb, there's your flat-out descent for the speed freaks, there's your ankle risk zone for the maniacs who want to overtake on the single track section. Hard work but entirely charming. Corstorphine is a beautiful place for running and readily accessible (hint, hint!).
After an hour of sustained athleticism, the runners wrapped up their final lap and filed to the finish for a tally and a medal and a beer and absurd quantities of snacks. The near-simultaneous finish meant we all got to watch the prize presentation and enjoy the fact that no matter how much we'd run, at least we hadn't done something silly like thirteen laps ... except for the two fellas who did. Incredible.
Looking at the lap counts though I see most punters got into double digits, and I'd bet my back teeth that nearly every runner did more vertical in that one hour than they do in a typical week. I see this as an absolute win! I'm a big fan of hillwork, and beyond the slumped bodies and the thousand yard stares I saw folks who really do like hills but just need a traybake in the mix. This, we can work with.
From a non-running perspective I have to shout from the rooftops about the phenomenal organisation, coordination, logistics, catering, medal design .... The attention to detail for this event from top to bottom was just superb, flawless, impeccable, and I am so very proud to be in a club with the folks who made it happen.
So – same again next year? Of course not, it'll be even better. We'll all run faster and further and higher. This is a gonna be a modern classic.