Does music help you to run faster?

Adharanand Finn put it to the test at the UK's first rock'n'roll half-marathon in Edinburgh

'Music is a legal drug for athletes," claims Dr Costas Karageorghis, an expert on the effects of music on exercise, at Brunel University. In his latest book, Inside Sport Psychology, he claims that listening to music while 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...