In 2008 the race was cancelled due to poor weather.

This is a race combining raw geology, genteel east coast urban comforts - beer, fish and chips - and often overladen with Viking weather. All this in less than 3 miles.

The race starts down by the harbour on rock formed from tilted layers of ash and lava that poured from the volcano whose stumps are the Law and the Bass Rock. Those geological cataclysms are long past and North Berwick has settled down to a quiet and modest town with much to be quiet and modest about.

In spring and summer the mixtures of sea breezes and sunshine can create a blanket of mist that covers the North Sea and then rises to cover some margin of the land. Known by its Viking name of Haar this creates stunning patterns of mist with only the peak of the hill rising from the layer of mist. Under this wrapping, sounds are muffled and the sun is just discernible only as a brightly diffused light.

Dick Wall