North Berwick Law Race Transcript

A video by Hugh Trevor

0:03 [Music]

0:09 Along the coast of East Lothian there’s

0:12 a hill 600 feet high, a small hill in

0:16 geological terms, but a big hill if you

0:20 have to run up and down it and on

0:23 Wednesday August the 1st 2007 that is

0:27 exactly what 200 people propose to do.

0:31 “Well this is the start of the 2007 Law

0:34 Race it’s the first of August, Wednesday

0:37 night half past seven in the evening and

0:40 that's the harbour down there where the

0:42 runners are going to start from

0:44 and then they’re going to sort of work

0:46 their way all the way up here to the top

0:48 of the Law Hill. This is just to let you

0:51 see the distance they have to cover

0:52 before they even get up here to The Law

0:54 Hill. They’re going to come all the way

0:56 out here,

0:58 round past the sports centre, that’s the

1:01 large building that’s just coming into

1:02 frame there and then hopefully they’re

1:04 going to make it all the way up here to

1:06 the top of the hill.”

1:08 “Hello, my name is George Salmons, I’m a

1:10 resident of North Berwick. It’s the

1:12 fourth time I’ve done the race and I’ve

1:14 thoroughly enjoyed the last three. Legs

1:16 have been rather tired after each one

1:18 but it’s a good race, a mixture of club

1:21 runners, local enthusiasts and people

1:24 that just fancy get to the top of that

1:26 big hill over there. It’s the first time

1:28 I’ve done it in sunshine like this and

1:30 I’m really looking forward to it.” “Good

1:32 evening my name is Bill Gardner from

1:33 East Lothian Council, we’re absolutely

1:35 delighted to have such a lovely evening

1:37 and so many people turning up as it’s just

1:40 entries on the night. We’re not sure at

1:42 this stage but it looks very promising,

1:45 there might be another record of number

1:46 of runners, lovely evening for for the

1:49 runners, we hope to have a super race.

1:51 Thank you”.

1:59 Hi this is the second time i’ve done this race, I did this last year with my son who is very

2:02 keen on running and who did very well in

2:03 it I came along with him and I thought I

2:05 was coming with him today but he’s um

2:06 moving house today so I thought, well

2:09 I’ll just come myself anyway”.

2:15 So Rory, tell us how far you’ve come just to run

2:17 this race.

2:19 “All the way from Geneva, Switzerland to

2:22 run this race. And I believe the publicity is pretty strong in Geneva

2:24 for this race. “It was you know the family

2:27 links just spread the word all the way

2:28 through I’ve turned up with my bottle of

2:30 champagne for the end just so that we've

2:32 got something to drink.”

2:33 [Music]

2:37 “We have Douglas Heseltine from

2:40 Warrington, Jamie Bamford from Gullane

2:43 Struan Stewart from Haddington and Jason

2:46 Sampson all the way from Farnham. Jason

2:49 has come all the way from Farnham in

2:51 Surrey to be on his holidays to coincide

2:54 with The Law Race this year.

2:56 Jamie and Douglas have done this before

2:59 and this is Struan and Jason’s first

3:02 time in The Law Race”.

3:07 What’s up?

3:15 “Hi, my name is Ken McMillan from Innerleithen

3:17 near Peebles and running this race

3:19 for the first time. Beautiful night so

3:21 hopefully it’ll go quite well thank you.

3:23 [Music]

3:47 Thank you.

3:54 [Applause]

4:02 This is a bird’s eye view of the runners

4:05 going by the big white sports centre and

4:09 this view is of the same area seen from

4:13 ground level.

4:19 [Applause]

4:23 Hey Gareth! The runners have reached the

4:26 lower car park now only another hundred

4:29 yards or so on the flat before they

4:31 begin their climb.

4:33 And here comes the first runner now

4:37 still running and not walking

4:40 making his way up the Law Hill

4:43 zigzagging a bit here to find the

4:45 easiest way up

4:47 and we can see the second runner

4:49 appearing there in the background as

4:50 well now.

4:52 Yeah, the first runner is making good

4:55 headway coming straight up towards us

4:57 up the front of the hill here.

4:59 He

5:00 disappears behind the rocks there for a

5:02 little bit.

5:04 There he is, there’s the man who’s in the

5:06 lead on the race,

5:08 he goes straight up the hill. Oh we have

5:11 to sit we’re filming straight into the

5:12 sun oh careful there, filming straight

5:15 into the sun so we need a wee bit of

5:16 shade, there he goes well done, going all

5:19 the way up to collect his token

5:21 the first man to the top of the hill.

5:26 There he goes.

5:28 Well done.

5:30 He grabs it and he's on his way back down

5:32 again.

5:34 Down he goes

5:36 and here comes runner number two

5:38 running past there he goes and there

5:40 goes number one all the way back down oh

5:42 look at the speed of that is like a

5:44 mountain goat going down there, careful

5:47 there he disappears down the hill

5:50 and there goes runner number two back

5:51 down the hill

5:53 and here's number three coming up and

5:55 number four passing us.

5:58 These are the front runners in the race.

6:10 Number five appears from behind me

6:13 coming up a different route.

6:15 He’s going a different way up there

6:22 and he goes all the way up there to get

6:24 his token here's another one coming up

6:28 another appearing from all different

6:30 routes now.

6:33 Another guy just appeared from over

6:34 there in a fetching shade of purple.

6:38 There he goes go on the sun gets his

6:40 token

6:42 and down he goes, gosh they’re coming from

6:44 all directions now

6:46 and they go and then they head back down

6:49 again

6:52 and they’re sweeping up the hill now

6:57 and sweeping back down the hill.

7:00 Lots of people up here on the top

7:02 watching them

7:03 from this good vantage point. Here they

7:05 are, pouring up this alternative route on

7:07 the crest of the hill here

7:09 and that looks like the first of our

7:11 lady runners

7:12 going up there I think

7:15 maybe unless I missed one.

7:17 No, that’s certainly a lady runner

7:19 Well done dear

7:21 go on you go and catch up with the rest

7:23 of the boys down there oh

7:27 and literally pouring up here now

7:30 grab the token the photographer getting

7:32 pictures of them as they grab their

7:34 armband I think it’s an armband they get

7:37 and there's another one of our lady

7:39 runners

7:41 certainly in the top 20 or 30.

7:43 And back down she goes.

7:47 Number two has taken the lead.

8:09 [Applause]

8:11 Oh, the red number is back in the lead

8:14 again.

8:16 Oh.

8:25 Down in the town centre everyone is

8:28 waiting for the runners to come back.

8:37 Here they come!

8:40 But no it's a false alarm.

8:48 At last here’s the real thing

8:51 [Applause]

9:03 [Applause]

9:14 [Music]

9:17 [Applause]

9:17 [Music]

9:24 [Applause]

9:25 [Music]

9:31 Thank you

9:36 [Applause]

9:43 [Music]

9:43 [Applause]

9:55 Thank you.

10:06 And now for the finishing line,

10:08 a medal, a drink, and a well-deserved rest.

10:12 [Applause]

10:28 [Music]

10:40 “Hi there, I’m Phil Mowbray, I’ve just won

10:43 the North Berwick Law Race tonight

10:45 on a fantastic evening, nice view of

10:47 the beach uh it's my first race in uh in

10:51 probably a couple of months or so now so

10:52 everything hurts and I’m I’m probably

10:55 feeling pretty unwell but it was a

10:57 fantastic, fantastic event and another

11:00 another great race”.

11:01 “I’m Dan Gray from Hunters Bog Trotters

11:06 and I was second

11:08 didn’t win.

11:09 Do you want me to talk about the race?”

11:10 Yes please. “Okay, well I think we, me and

11:13 my uh club mate Phil Mowbray we were uh

11:17 having a bit of a tussle basically to

11:19 the top of the Law, he led me up it uh by

11:23 about 10 meters and I got him down the

11:25 hill and I was just about a foot ahead

11:27 for a couple hundred meters after the

11:30 Law, but he’s like a proper International

11:33 road runner, track racer so I couldn’t

11:36 stay with him on the road on the way

11:38 back and he pulled away just before the

11:40 Lodge Grounds and I couldn’t get him at

11:43 the end.

11:44 So there’s about 10 seconds in it I

11:46 think by the finish”.

11:47 Would you show me your medal then? “All

11:50 right, everybody got one just the

11:51 participants medal. congratulations

11:54 anyway. “Okay”.

11:56 “Um yeah, no I’ve not been able to run for

11:58 a very long time and that was amazing to

12:00 do that race,, a sunny evening beautiful

12:01 view so thank you”.

12:03 Did you time it today? “Have I timed it? I

12:06 didn’t do very fast, 23 minutes something.

12:07 I’m not sure exactly what”.

12:09 Have you done it in before? “I’ve done it

12:12 once before in 2001 and then I’ve not

12:14 really run since then so it was nice to

12:16 come back and do it again”.

12:18 “Yeah hello I'm Claire this is Ewan, we’ve

12:22 just run The Law Race, I don’t think we

12:23 finished quite last, though it feels like

12:25 it and uh will we be back next year?” “Maybe”

12:29 “Only maybe?” “Probably” “When we’ve forgotten

12:31 about it we’ll probably be back next

12:33 year”. And where are you from? “We’re from

12:35 North Berwick”.

12:36 Thank you.

12:37 “Yeah my name’s Harry Stephen from North

12:39 Berwick and just to let you know this is

12:41 my last run up the Law because my

12:43 granddaughter Kelly’s got to take over.

12:46 This is her first one and this is my

12:48 last one and this is me wee boy okay so

12:51 we'll carrying on a tradition”.

12:53 Do you say hello?

12:56 Thank you”. How many times have you done

12:58 it already? “Oh 100”.

13:03 Hi After a very successful Law Race

13:06 in 2007. I’m delighted to say that last year

13:11 we had 189 runners and this year another

13:14 record,

13:15 204 runners and considering the blustery

13:19 conditions we had a fantastic finish. The

13:22 winner, Phil Mowbray of Hunters Bog

13:24 Trotters coming home in 19 minutes and

13:27 54 seconds which is a fantastic run so

13:31 hope to see them all back again next

13:32 year and hopefully weather similar to

13:34 this, thank you very much.