F3 Big South Swim Dorney Lake

The Big South Swim Gallery is now live here:
http://gallery.sussexsportphotography.com/a.tlx?k=2rozers

Two new Swim Races being held at Dorney Lake this year - put on by F3 Events.co.uk

The 1.5k and 3.8k open water swims are more commonly known as the Olympic Distance and the Full Ironman Distance Triathlon Swims.
Also - being held on a Saturday it allowed people to go and compete on triathlons the next day !

Money raised from the event go towards the Princes Trust - which if you want to know what that is all about - have a quick click here - they put on lots of Triathlon, Cycling and other events with priveledged access to some amazing venues http://www.princes-trust.org.uk/

Full Results should be here http://www.f3events.co.uk/results.php and on Tri247.com at some point soon..

If you want to see the start of the races - click on this youtube link:
http://www.youtube.com/user/SussexSportPhotos
(apologies for the 1.5k ladies, it keeps crashing on upload.)

Anyway here's a quick summary in pictures:
A nice blue sky with a little bit of cloud marked the end of Summer as we knew it:



The beach entrance was adopted with a few sandcastles being made...

The start of the 1.5k was pretty sharp

Some good techniques were on show:

This is the correct finishing technique at the end of a swim challenge !


Mens 3.8k Start


Womens 3.8k Start (1,2,3 are the first three on the left there)


This was the view of the lead man at half way in the 3.8k He had a bit of a lead on the ladies ( top left!)


This is what he looked like after detaching the onboard motor and running up the finish ramp:


43 minutes for 3.8k (yes swim - not run !)


An alternative finish ramp leaving technique - flying !



There was a lot of pointing up at the sky at the planes as they went past:


A great event and one I look forwards to seeing again next year !

REP Worthing Supersprint Aquathlon

The Raw Energy Pursuits Worthing Super Sprint Aquathlon is now live here:
http://gallery.sussexsportphotography.com/a.tlx?k=1wszerr

The REP event page is here with the results: http://rawenergypursuits.co.uk/HTML%20Pages/eventsPages/littlehamptonEastBeachCaf%C3%A9Aquathlon/littlehamptonEastBeachCaf%C3%A9Aquathlon.htm

As you can see it was a nice picturesque evening to be down by the sea in Worthing. The sun was blazing through the blue sky and it was dead calm on the water - the seagulls playing merrily overhead. Oh sorry, that was last week. This week summer was cancelled.



Worthing Seafront has seen more wind, but not that often... This is the view along the whole seafront to the pier in the background. It was dark, windy and slightly forboding really. I had to brighten this picture up just so you can sort of see things.



Mental preparation for the race or staring in to the abyss was therfore the choice during the wait for the start.



It was rough out there...



NASA - we have a problem.... Engine failure meant a quick swap to another rescue boat to get the bouys out in place and keep an eye on the lemmings...



All under control, Mick had a spare pare of hands, or had he just caught a large fish and was explaining how big it was ? Did he need a tractor to haul it in ? Probably.



Final words of thanksgiving and ritual salvation to the Race Referee just before going in...



Tally ho !! (or words to that effect) Last one in is - er - sensible ? You all forgot your windsurfers and/or kite boards.



Wetsuits were not compulsory - Paul made a quick swim of it.



Rapid transition from swim to run...although in the wind it would probably have made sense to keep the wetsuit on for the run...



mind those stones... ooch owwch ooch owwch



The leading two decided to tag team into the headwind on the way out with 422 eventually winning home



It was soooo dark I won't start to try and explain - so this was with the flash, that then chose not to work for the prizegiving - sorry about that...


Hello Arunners !!!

Search on misc and/or marshal to see some other non runner photos in the gallery at:
http://gallery.sussexsportphotography.com/a.tlx?k=1wszerr

enjoy - and well done everyone on completing the race !

Weekend ahead - Arundel 10k Sunday 9.30am

This sunday is your one and only chance this year to go through into the Inner Keep of Arundel Castle on the Arundel 10k.

With the April 2008 race cancelled through snow (!), and no race this April 2009, then the last time you would have been able to do this would have been a year ago - unless you are a personal friend of the Earl.

On the day entry is £10 before 9am, so if you're still stumped for something to do with the family this weekend - why not pack the others off to the bird and wildlife sanctury (http://www.wwt.org.uk/centre/116/arundel.html) just up-river whilst you go for a nice zoom round the castle. Both start at 9.30 !

All funds raised go to the 1st Arundel Scouts and this year all the photos we take are going to be free for you to download - so what more of an excuse do you need to get in ?!

The race website and information is here:

http://www.arundelscouts.org.uk/10k/

Basically - race is on this Sunday, don't forget its a bankholiday.

Starts at 9.30am

It's 10k long, or about 6.5 of the finest English miles you'll find anywhere.

Voted something like the best run in the whole of the universe on runners world ever: here

The weather forecast is here - and is fine as I type... but a bit grey each side of the race...

and the Arundel castle race start is here on a map

See you there then !

(p.s. we aim to have the free downloads online and ready before wednesday, I'll blog again when they are...which will hopefully be tuesday)

International Birdman Swim 2009

On what is possibly the last weekend of official summer down'south it was the International Birdman Swim held next to Worthing pier. a 2k and 1k race plus dash to the finish line for final position.

Race briefing was a pleasant experience, with the blue sky making up the atmosphere:


The Raw Energy Pursuit Flags marked where the high tide was going to end up and where to finish:


Deep contemplation just before the start and assessment of the current was important.


or just looking 'ard for the cameraman...


For the 2k start it was a straight in affair with some good running in


Things got quite tight on the way to the first bouy whilst things settled down


First out of the water were the 1k race, and some tight running into the finish for that elusive 1st place:


If you are in the lead of the 2k you have time to delicately remove your headgear


sometimes the seaweed proved just as big an obstacle as the crashing waves:


wetsuits were not compulsory:


but the Ursula-Andress look was not required to post a good time:


Several people got caught out by the hard surf on the swim exit:


And the waves did start to barrel in as the tide got closer to the finish line


But the main aim was to have some fun, a good race and enjoy the day:


Whilst the crowd cheered on:


Don't feel bad about not winning, you lost to an international !


Results are on www.Rawenergypursuits.co.uk and Tri247.com
The crazy birdman stuff is here: http://www.worthingbirdman.co.uk/
and the BBC have a birdman report too - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8219525.stm?ls

And of course - your photos are here: http://gallery.sussexsportphotography.com/a.tlx?k=3rkzerc

Enjoy !

Hard as Snails 10k Gallery now live

The 50th year of the Sussex Wildlife trust was marked by the Hard as Snails 10k Race organised by Toby at AllAboutTriathlons - with proceeds from the race raising funds for their work. If you're interested other events in the year are on here: www.surreywildlifetrust.co.uk

With 354 people braving the very temperate morning, sandy paths and frankly killer hills (yes that's why there's a graveyard at the top and a church) it seemed to be a pretty perfect 10k cross-sountry affair, one I would have happily had a go at if it wasn't for (a) my ruptured achillies and (b) having to work.
The good news is that some people even said they were likely to come back next year -Runnersworld rating So do have a moment to comment on the race too.


Here's a view of the fence along the path towards St.Martha's at the top of the hill. f2.8 if you're wondering at 200mm.

To answer a few of the questions I was asked this morning as some of you were considering other things except running up the hill for the second time - why do I always go at the top of the hill ?.
Well - for one thing - it has the best light, nice backdrop, puts the church in context (if you run in the right line) and gives you something to remember the day by ! Also there isn't a lot of choice on the course to be honest, the other spot in the track at about the 9k mark was covered by my better two halves, and pretty much everything else is in the woods.

And - why don't I go somewhere in the woods ? like this view here - right near the 9k mark which you would have seen had you been enjoying the scenery :


Well this lovely shot took 1/8th of a second to find itself recorded in the camera, as opposed to the 1/1600th that it was taking on top of the hill. Now I know that every single one of you was moving too fast today for 1/8th of a second to get a decent action shot of you and essentially that's why we don't go in the woods. It's dark in there, and we need the light.

Anyway - the race today wasn't just a two horse race. The horses were watching yes (as seen here at the 8.5k mark), but at the top of the (big) hill the first time the running order was 50, 55, 79 with 14 seconds an 6 seconds splitting them.


By the second time past the top of the hill the order had switched to 50, 79, 55 with a 19 second and 20 second gap now showing between them... one that number 55 wasn't going to be able to reduce on the way back in.

With that gap between first and second closing to 9 seconds at the finish line it must have been a hard chase down the hill between the two of them. The winning time of 36:31 frankly being quite superb on the conditions underfoot.

7th place Man - Alyn Morgan 39:10 (last of the sub-40s)

First Lady - Emily Alden 42:51

280th Gerhard Grueter 01:06:34 still had too much energy at the 8.5k mark...

You can now see how hard you were working and how brilliant you looked putting in the hard yards up the hill and back into the finish here:

http://gallery.sussexsportphotography.com/a.tlx?k=50kzeql

And the results can be found here:
http://www.allabouttriathlons.co.uk/results.php

Many thanks for visiting, please remember to get your copies before they are archived.