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.