Run X+2
Length: 7km
Time: 32
Streets: 2 - Craiglea Drive & Place.

Short morning jog up to Morningside - up through Holy Corner and back via Myreside.
Craiglea Drive - nice open street of Georgian villas. 7/10
Craigievar Square - similar but dead end with footpath into Craiglochart Hill. 8/10
Totals L+25.9, T+111, S+5.

A year and a bit in, the blog finally starts.

Run X+1 (where X is the number of runs completed before blogging commenced).
Length: 18.3km
Time: 1:19
Streets: 3 - Craigievar Court, Square & Wynd.
Nice moderate to fast paced loop out on the old railways to Barnton, a faff around in East Craigs finding the streets by map memory and then back through Corstorphine and Murrayfield.
Craigievar Court - nondescript block in middle of suburbia. 4/10
Craigievar Square - small cul-de-sac of semi-detached houses at end of bigger cul-de-sac. 6/10
Craigievar Wynd - leading to Craigievar Square. 6/10.
This whole area has great potential for urban orienteering. If only I had the time and skills to map it.
Totals L+18.3, T+79, S+3.

Getting Started

It as an inauspicious start, a gentle cruise out from work to the deserted A1 Industrial Estate in the north east of the city, legs heavy from the previous nights marathon training run. But that was how the journey began with my newly purchased A-Z in my hand and a mind racing with thoughts of my new project. How long will it take? How many streets will I get tonight? How can I record it? What will I discover on my travels?
Next up was Abbeyhill and her 6 friends in the Holyrood area. A slightly contrived route was needed to get them in the right order but since they were essentially on the way home it wasn't too much hardship to get them all. 
From there it was only a couple of miles detour to head up to Morningside to visit three Abbotsfords (Court, Crescent and Park) - and it was a nice downhill from there to my flat. All told that was a 15-mile run but I visited 11 targets. This is going to be easy!

The Rules

Every good challenge needs some rules. These are mine:

• The index of the "Edinburgh Street AZ Atlas" (Edition 6) published by the Geographers A-Z Map Company in 2011 is the definitive list of streets to be visited.
• All runs must start and finish at either my work or flat unless I am in another part of the city for an unrelated reason and choose to run there or back.
• All items in the AZ index within the limits of Edinburgh defined below must be visited in the order they appear there, with the exception of "Areas" and "Places of Interest".

The definition of Edinburgh for the purposes of the challenge is:

• North: Firth of Forth.
• North East: Harry Lauder Road
• East: The A1
• South East: Council boundary with Mid-Lothian.
• South & South West: A720 city bypass.
• West: line joining end of A720 to Cramond Brig.
• North West: The river Almond.

The Project

Run Edinburgh. Every street. In alphabetical order.


Why?


I've lived and trained in this great city for nearly 10 years and I've got to know some of it very well. I have found great running routes and interesting places, I have my "10 mile loops" and favourite hill climbs, runs for windy days and runs for wet days and even the best places to go when the city is under a blanket of snow.  But it's all just getting a bit familiar. It's been a long time since I went somewhere new or found a new path. So this project will hopefully allow me to explore my city and get to know her a bit better. There are lots of other reasons and benefits... but I'll cover them as we get going.