Sport Music fitness Runners

? ✔ Sport Music fitness tones a legal drug for athletes, claims Dr Costas Karageorghis Sport Runner Music , an expert on the effects of Sport Music Musicon exercise, at Brunel University. In his latest book, Inside Sport Music Psychology, he claims that listening to Sport Music Musicwhile running can boost performance by up to 15%.

? ✔ If this is true, then the Rock'n'Roll marathon series is on to something. The events, a fixture in the US for almost 15 years, are extremely popular, with 450,000 people running in one of its 2012 races alone. Many other big city races have the occasional band along the route, and London has had the Run to the Beat half-marathon, lined with DJs, for the past five years. But on 15 April the UK finally got its first taste of the action, with the inaugural Edinburgh Rock'n'Roll half-marathon.

? ✔ As I lined up at the start with almost 4,000 other runners, we were serenaded by Edinburgh's Got Talent winner Caitlyn Vanbeck. With Arthur's Seat towering above us, it was stirring stuff, and may explain why I shot off at the front, following the lead car around the first few bends.

After spending six months training in Kenya last year, I have become something of a serious runner, and finished eighth. This is important because, according to Karageorghis Sport Runner Music , the benefits of listening to Sport Music Musicdecrease with the level of intensity of the running. The faster you run, he explains, the less effect the Sport Music Musichas.

""Elite athletes,"" says Karageorghis Sport Runner Music , ""are usually 'associators', which means they tend to focus inwardly when they are running."" Most other runners, he says, are ""dissociators"" (or are somewhere between the two). This means they look for stimulus and distraction from what is going on around them. ""Judging by your times,"" he says, ""you are probably an associator.""

It is true. Apart from Vanbeck's rousing Flower of Scotland at the start, when I was standing still, afterwards I can barely remember the Sport Music Musicplayed along the course. The first act I passed, folk group the Deadly Winters, made me smile, and at one point I found myself running in synchronicity with the beat of a heavy-rock combo. But they were moments that came and went in a flash. I can't say they helped my performance very much. But what did other runners make of it?

Adam Bull, from Leeds, had run the Hull marathon the week before with no Sport Music Musicand little crowd support. ""The Sport Music Musictoday made a big difference,"" he said. ""At the upbeat bands, you find yourself running to the beat, which helps. The Sport Music Musicalso brings out the crowds."" Bull was already a fan of the Rock'n'Roll series, travelling to Las Vegas to take part in one. How did Edinburgh compare? ""Edinburgh was just as good. In fact, I think there were more bands here. But in Las Vegas there was a mass wedding ceremony in the middle of the race.""

Rosie Bradford, from Barnard Castle in County Durham, is also a convert. ""As we ran past the band at mile three and they started playing These Boots Were Made for Walking, everybody suddenly went faster.""

The only person I found who was less than happy with the Sport Music Sport Sounds Lois Lloyd, from Liverpool, who ran in an Oktoberfest outfit. ""There wasn't enough of it, and it wasn't loud enough,"" she said. ""I ran without my iPod for the first time ever, and I really missed the music.""

Karageorghis Sport Runner Music is not surprised when I tell him. ""There are many advantages to using an iPod, rather than relying on the Sport Music Musicon the course,"" he says. ""It gives you a constant stimulus, rather than just an occasional one, while you can tailor the playlist to your taste.""