A BORDERER in her first half-marathon thought she enjoyed running in the rain till facing a torrential downpour on Portobello Promenade.

Kay McAllister ran the Edinburgh half with friend Louise McMenemy in two hours 27 minutes and raised £395 for Save the Children.

Ms McAllister said: “Save the Children is very close to my heart and my aunt, Elizabeth O’Raw, manages the charity’s Peebles shop.”

The 28-year-old from Peebles took up running last year and completed three 10km events for charity before upping her distance.

Ms McAllister, who is about to train to be a primary teacher at Edinburgh University, said: “It was absolutely torrential, at first I thought, ‘Oh, this will be good fun’, because I enjoy running in the rain but on the section along Portobello Prom it was coming in from the sea totally sideways, like being under a really powerful shower and one of my earphones stopped working.”

Ms McAllister said she likes to run to upbeat music and feel-good songs when it gets tough and her top track is You Get What You Give by the New Radicals, which came on her mix just as she finished.

Ms O’Raw said: “I really appreciate everything that Kay did for Save the Children as it was a hard slog.”

Ms McAllister added: “Last year I signed up for the Glasgow Women’s 10k.

“At school I liked short, fast distances and was a sprinter and never thought I would do longer runs.

“I took up distance running because life throws you challenges and running is a really good way to work through those things and is very good for your mental health. Last year I ran two of the 10ks in memory of my my grandma, Marion McAllister, for Alzheimer’s UK and my gran, Betty Murray, for Parkinson’s UK.

“After the 10ks I though the natural progression is to do a half-marathon. Little did I know what the training would mean!”

Ms McAllister’s JustGiving page is still open at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Kay-McAllister2024

She said: “Seeing people be so generous and kind in their donations over all the events that I’ve done has been so moving.

“It reminds you that there really is good in the world and that we’re all in this together.

“I have taken a break just now to recover and I had thought initially that I would progress to a full marathon but I might have reached my limit.

“But never say never.”