New Years Day Serpentine 10k

Hello and Happy New Year to you from me !

I hope you have had a good break and managed a bit of exercise, no matter how small (unlike me - I've done none). Meanwhile, apart from the odd Boxing day race, the first opener for 2010 was at the Serpentine New Years Day 10k in Hyde Park.

The pictures from the 2010 New Years Day Serpentine 10k are now online and available here:
http://gallery.sussexsportphotography.com/a.tlx?k=4l7zf80

The Sun shone. Very Brightly. Too Brightly. Far Far too brightly. It threw almost everything into shadow, or melted it. See if you can see the marshals face in the photo above and you'll see what I mean - and that one's with extra flash. You can just about see the big wheel.
Despite this rather major technical challenge (bright sun, low on horizon) we did manage to get some pretty panoramic photos:
http://www.mikeanton.com/360panos/Miscellaneous/AlbertHall.htm
http://www.mikeanton.com/360panos/Miscellaneous/Serpentine10Ksigningon.htm
However if anyone tried to take a picture of the runners with the Albert Hall in the background - they were going to be disapointed, just like we were, so no halfway race pictures this year I'm afraid. The sun was bright and the silouettes dark.

The race started smoothly enough and on time - as you can see below (the winter wonderland blaring out music in the distant background)



Some people even managed to give a shout out to their brave-the-cold supporters (it was extremely cold all day):


The race was eventually won by Serpentine homeboy Nicholas Torry in 30:23 age-graded 89.1%


Whilst Hannah Walker from Tring, didn't walk it in 35:48 to win the female race age graded at 85.7% - the same as the overall second place in the race - and miles ahead of the next lady.


The race sponsor Andy from Brooks (who do shoes, by the way) made it round in a respecatable 48:18 or something, I won't mention his age grade as he is currently still a friend. And no, he has not tried Newton shoes yet according to my sources.


There were some competitive finishers pushing things along as they came into the final straight.



And the sweeper bike this year did an excellent job of making sure the course was clear and finished. He was also faster than last year, and we have a positive feeling he may yet speed up next year too...



So remember the gallery is here:
http://gallery.sussexsportphotography.com/a.tlx?k=4l7zf80
and you can see pictures of the marshals and other serpie nice people by putting "marshal" or "misc" into the race number search box.
The results are on the serpentine page here by the way.


Finally let me take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy New Year for 2010, may your running plans become a running record, and hopefully in some small way our photos will help you to set some of these down and commit them to memory and perpetuity.


Have a great year and see you out at a race soon !

Anthony