Wednesday July 16th 2025
Rubbish Runners Eskbank
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
Rubbish Runners Eskbank is Dalkeith’s largest community running group that provides people of all levels of fitness and running ability a comfortable space to improve fitness and overall health.
Established in 2006 by a local runner, Geraldine Furgusson, Rubbish Runners is a Social Jog Scotland running group that focuses on allowing beginners a space to improve health through running, developing a large community of local runners from around Midlothian.
“So I started it in 2006, so it’s been going on for a long time”, Geraldine explained, “So I had been running by myself for about a year, I’ve got three children so I hadn’t got time to do any other fitness.”
“It was when I was at a local playgroup with my youngest daughter, I got talking to some other mums about how much I enjoy running, and quite a few of them said they were hopeless at running. Then one of them said to me ‘maybe I’d join a group called rubbish runners because that’s what I am”.
Starting the group with that small group of mums who were rubbish at running, the group has expanded to around 50 to 60 runners at each weekly session with over 1000 people in the Facebook group. With support from Jog Scotland, the Dalkeith based running group started with a group of mums from the school gate running every Wednesday, now changing to three different run groups running on a Monday evening of all ages of men and women.
With the groups ages varying between 17 and 72, Geraldine and her rubbish runners have created both an outlet to improve fitness and a small community of friendships, with many of the runners meeting up outside of the Monday run club to either go on smaller group runs or meet for other types of social activities. Being initially drawn in by the motivation to beginning running, many of the groups members have continued to stay due to the community that has been built.
Geraldine explained, “I think that the community thing is massive, people there are certainly my best friends, the people I’ve gone on holiday with, we go running together, we cycle together, and we all met through the running group”.
“A lot of people have been the same. It’s a really nice thing and even people that don’t know anybody come along and within two or three weeks, they’ve got a little group of people they are familiar with. Sometimes the weather is miserable but if you’re pals going then you’ll go aswell.”
Geraldine runs the main beginner group. The groups vary from beginner level who are aiming to run a 5K to two other groups who are more advanced at running with many of them having experience running half marathons and marathons. Despite some of the club’s members being marathon runners, Rubbish Runners focuses on the social side of group running, not taking it too seriously and never leaving anyone behind.
“I know that there’s some running groups that would have hill sessions one night, speed sessions the next, but for us it’s much more about the social running side. Every term we seem to have plenty of people who want to give it a go, people like Graeme [running group member] who’s life has changed.”
63 year old Dalkeith Local, Graeme Sneddon, joined Rubbish Runners six years ago unfit and out of practice, now turning his life around, recently running an ultra-marathon.
“Six years ago, I moved to Eskbank. At the time, I was three stone heavier, I smoked and I was a binge drinker, I wasn’t fit in any form”, Graeme said.
Graeme got involved with Rubbish Runners after a realisation of how unhealthy he was after a conversation with his daughter during his son’s Paris marathon.
“When I got back, on Facebook Eskbank Rubbish Runners popped up. So, I thought, ‘I live in Eskbank, I can’t run therefore I’m rubbish.”
“It gave me a certain amount of reassurance and confidence that I wasn’t joining a running club full of elite athletes. Rubbish Runners said to me, “It’s folk who are rubbish at running therefore there is no expectation.”
Graeme before going Rubbish Runners alongside him 6 years later after running a marathon
Starting in Geraldines beginners class, he hated it, essentially doing Couch to 5K. Due to his lifestyle, he explained that his first sessions were hard.
He explained, “On the third week, unknowingly to Geraldine, we ran past my house after meeting at Eskbank Train Station, I was always at the back of the beginners and I said to a girl I was running with ‘I am just going to go home, this is not for me’ but then she replied ‘but your cars at the train station’. So I had to run back.”
Falling in love with running, Graeme stopped drinking and smoking, replacing his bad habits with fitness. Geraldine highlighted Graeme’s journey as one of the most influential and heart-warming stories from the group, going from someone who found it hard to run to becoming one of the leaders of the beginners group.
He completely changed his life, crediting all of the success to Rubbish Runners.
“Very quickly I was welcomed. What Geraldine has done with Rubbish Runners is she has divided it up into four different groups, running at different speeds. So if you’re very good you’re in the fastest group, then there is a medium group, then there is a slow group, then a beginner group.”
Geraldine explained that the beginner group is encouraged to gradually build up to a 5k, the medium group 6 to 7k and the faster groups 10k. This model is working very-well with the beginners group just completing a 10k run.
Rubbish Runners has allowed Graeme to not only improve his lifestyle but fall in love with running, beginning to run marathons for charity, recently completing an ultra-marathon which he explained was an un-achievale dream before he joined the running group.
“When I did the Edinburgh Marathon, I was 59. I did it in 4 hours, 12 minutes and 13 seconds. I’ve done 6 marathons since and I’ve never been able to beat the first time I did”, Graeme said, “Probably because now I’m 63 so I forget that I’m old, but I still want to run it as fast as I can.”
Since his first marathon, he has done the Edinburgh Marathon twice, London Marathon twice, the Paris Marathon once and a 50km ultramarthon from Port Seton to Dunbar.
“You don’t stop running because you get old. You get old because you stop running!”, he explained to me.
The camaraderie and welcoming nature is what makes Rubbish Runners a successful running group and outlet for fitness, improving people’s physical and mental health at a pace they are comfortable with.
Graeme explained, “We’re a group rather than a club, we arent training for marathons, not to get faster, we just train with the mindset of the more you run, the fitter you get. The important thing to stress is that no one gets left behind.”
“We always have a leader, myself or Geraldine, at the back. So no one is last.”
Alongside their Monday running group, Rubbish Runners organise a Christmas Fun Run, encouraging anyone to join them on a slow jog to raise money for charity. Last year, they raised £500 for Shelter, running at 9 o’clock on Christmas Eve.
Rubbish Runners Eskbank has grown drastically since Geraldine organised Wednesday runs with some local mums. Graeme is only one example out of the over 1000 people who have taken part since its beginning, who have changed their lives for the better, both improving physical health and developing strong friendships.
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