HBT

Welcome to the website of the World-famous Hunters Bog Trotters. We consider ourselves to be Edinburgh’s finest and most friendly running club. You’ll find us racing in brown all across Scotland.

HBT was founded in 1980 as a club for runners graduating university who couldn’t face giving up the student lifestyle. Our ethos is all about running and racing for the fun of it – there’s no training plans or minimum required times, and we enjoy a good trip to the pub. In essence, we are for runners who don’t take life too seriously.

A big part of the club is racing. Our members compete in cross-country, hill races, road races, (ultra-)marathons, boat races and pretty much anything else. Sometimes we win things too, which is always a nice bonus, but never the main aim. Our philosophy is that the club has had a good race if we had the first runner, the last runner, and the most runners.

We have many long-standing traditions and social events that might seem strange at first, but all add to the fun of being a Trotter.

Weekly Training

Training makes you better, faster and stronger which are all good for racing. We have several strenuous sessions which happen every week. No need to sign up in advance, just show up.

Trotter Training (TT): Thursday, 7PM at DVC (Corner of meadows nearest Summerhall).

It is the biggest training session of the week and invariably followed by post-training beers & refreshments in a local drinking establishment. There is sometimes a group run too.

In addition to our Thursday night intervals, we have training & social runs throughout the week and race regularly. Members also meet up for bonus training sessions and informal group runs, especially in the Pentlands.

Trottettes: Wednesday group run for members who identify as women & non-binary. Meets at a member’s home at 6:30pm and is followed by dinner. Contact Char for more info: broadleychar@gmail.com.

MPC training: Monday, 6:30PM by the Sainsbury’s on Middle Meadow Walk. Intervals or hill reps session.

Other training runs: Trotters have been known to irregularly / spontaneously arrange long runs depending on the racing calendar. Usually either goes to the Pentlands, or along the Canal. Sometimes both.