It's a bit of a linktastic blog here tonight. Three events from the weekend are now online and ready for you from the weekend. A bit of a mix with an offroad event, a woodland run and an all day Cycling Sportive.
So - links to the galleries in race order:
Bolt Race Gallery link is:
http://gallery.sussexsportphotography.com/a.tlx?k=2n5zgmx
REP Bluebell Gallery link:
http://gallery.sussexsportphotography.com/a.tlx?k=3uuzgmy
remember - these are
Free downloads - so fill-yer-boots !
The
F3 Events Chilterns Dipper Cycle Sportive, Gallery link:
http://gallery.sussexsportphotography.com/a.tlx?k=291zgmw
Suffice to say it's been a busy weekend, with more than 370 miles driven to get to events, and the price of diesel now well over £1.40 from the cheapest (that's £6.36 per gallon for those of you who remember £1 per gallon). I managed to eek out about 47mpg so by my maths that was over £50 spent on fuel alone. Phew !
I'm not saying I'm suffering a bit from tiredness, but on Saturday I drove past the A3 junction by mistake and used the M3 junction instead. That was plain silly, as everything said I should have gone down the A3. It only added 3 minutes to the journey, but I did feel a bit stupid.
The Bolt round the Holt as ever was well attended with about 770 individual finishers. A quick look at the indexing data that we have and we have 774 unique catalogued numbers to search by - so I'm guessing that we have everyone. The next bit of analysis on the spreadsheet can wait, but I'm quite pleased with that given how busy the race is during it's peak time. It would be quite easy to miss people in the mix.
It was however perfect conditions for running, as the lead runner pointed out with his winning gap of 2min40s in the 21km/half marathon time of 1:16:20 Not bad on dusty track surfaces.
 |
| positive encouragement |
 |
| on the last lap - reasons to celebrate |
 |
| Family help on the 10k finish |
 |
| focus at the finish |
So saturday was the small matter of about 12,000 images to work through which ended up at about 10,500 once we had sorted through them. Then it was up and out on Sunday, either to the Raw Energy Pursuits Angmering Bluebell Trail Run, which is about 10k - with a mahoosive hill at the finish just to sort you out if you took it too slowly whilst looking at the views, OR it was off to the Chilterns Dipper Sportive organised by F3 events.
Starting the year off with Raw Energy Pursuits in the way they mean to go on, all the photos from this race are available on free download - so get in and fill your boots. The bluebells were out and the sun shone nicely to make a nice dappled sunlight in the shade.
 |
| Nice running through the Bluebell woods of the Angmering estate |
 |
| clearly the Nightgarden is based on this view |
 |
| That last tough hill up to the pub at the finish |
The F3 Chilterns Dipper started off at 7:45, so it was up and out at an early 6am to make it the 100 or so miles through Henley to the finer countryside north of Reading.
 |
| Down through a fast right hander |
 |
| clear blue skies and open roads |
 |
| At the top of one climb where the Ridgeway crosses |
 |
| Down the road off the top of the hills as fast as you dare |
All in all it was a very pleasant day to be sat taking photographs, with some great locations, if a bit slow at times compared to the hectic day previously. Parts of the course and the other photographer had the confusion of the other Sportive from Princes Risborough going past his spot - so we've left a few in there in case you were in that one too.
With the car nearby my spot I left the radio on and listened to the F1 race from China. Then at the second point I covered again I left the radio on - but must have left the ignition on an extra notch.
After all the fun of the day, which included acquiring a bike to repatriate with a rider from Marlow after his accident (he's going to be ok - no blood) - which seemed the least I could do as he had to to go Hospital, I got in the car to start it up.
Nothing. Dead battery.
eek.
Here in the middle of nowhere, one car every half hour, not cool.
However, my luck was in, almost immediately a car came along the road, flagging it down the young lady phoned her friend who lived just round the corner to bring out some jump leads. Magic !
She duly turned up some 4 minutes later with the most industrial jump leads I've ever seen, and we proceeded to give the touran a good kick start to get it going. Clearly good karma was prevailing after my offer to repatriate the accident bike.
I attach a photo of the kind lady who came out at a moments notice with the jump leads - you can tell how quickly she came to my rescue - she hadn't even had a chance to get changed out of her pyjamas. Well it was 4pm !
 |
| My Heroine - jump leads to the rescue, in dressing gown and pyjamas. |
So enjoy the photos, the free downloads, and the memories of the weekends racing. Well done to all of you who did the london marathon, you may have seen those pictures by now, checked the prices and the quality - so I hope to see you back checking through some of your better preparation races to get the ones of you looking strong and fast !
Take care, I hope the recovery works out well for you all from the weekend and see you out soon - possibly the other side of Easter, unless you're at the Folkestone 10.
http://folkestonerunningclub.co.uk/folkestone-10-mile.php
Until next time, train well, time for some speed training now the marathons are done for spring ?
Anthony
__________________________
Click here for our race finding link page on the blog
Race Finding links
|
Who ?
|
Just click on the Logo
|
| Fetch Everyone: Race finder |
|
| The Sussex Race Planner |
|
| Active Network |
|
| Run 247 |
|
| Runners World |
|
| Running Diary |
|
