Marathon Day

The Edinburgh Marathon (and the Half-Marathon) went through Portobello this morning and people were out in large numbers to cheer on the runners. Here I caught my friend S and her daughter. Brass Blast came out for a while to give the runners a musical boost. 
In the afternoon the relegations were confirmed for my two football teams - the Uniteds of Dundee and Leeds. Both had only the slightest of chances of staying up - I saw Leeds' chance of survival at 3% or 5% while United would have needed a four goal win away at Motherwell (having only won twice away all season) combined with a similar home win for Kilmarnock. For twenty minutes United were level on points with County, albeit still at least five goals behind, but even a GD relegation was beyond them as they slumped to another defeat. They ended with 31 points from 38 games, and a GD of -30, conceding 70. Although it sounds bad, such is the gulf in Scottish football between the Old Firm and the rest third-placed Aberdeen conceded only ten fewer. In fact United were closer to Aberdeen than Aberdeen were to runners-up Rangers. Leeds also signed off with a defeat, although the 1-4 home loss to Spurs felt even worse, even if relegation was all but certain. Leeds finished on 31 points as well, with the same -30 GD, although they scored and conceded eight more than United. However the teams who conceded within ten goals of Leeds were all in the bottom reaches of the table - also relegated Southampton and Leicester and Forest (16th) and Bournemouth (15th). Forest had the same GD and Bournemouth's was actual worse, but clearly they did just enough to ensure safety. Leeds lost 25 points from winning positions. I still wonder what happened in the home dressing room at half-time against Crystal Palace that prompted the collapse from 1-1 to 1-5.
I also felt for my school friend R who lives in Germany and supports Hamburg. They thought they had clinched promotion back to the Bundesliga (fans celebrated on the pitch at the end of their game) only for their promotion rivals to score twice in eleven minutes of injury time to snatch both promotion and the Bundesliga 2 title. At least Hamburg have another chance in they play-off so might still make it back to the top flight.