Hello again, and so soon !
Yes all the race galleries from the weekend are now live and online. With over 68,000 images from the weekends action for you to saunter through, or indeed search by individual race number.
Here are the direct links for each race - click on the name and then use your race number to search for your images:
The Maidenhead Half Gallery is here
The 2nd Pharmalink Maidenhead Half Marathon organised by Purple Patch Running went off very smoothly this year with perfect running conditions (compared to the torrential rain endured last year). Triple Gold medal winning Maidenhead Paralympian Sophie Christiansen started the race and with over 1800 runners completing the course and supporters lining the traffic free routes it was a very well turned out event.
The remapped course ensured everyone got away with a smooth start to take on the two lap course - the same top half of the course last year. This is relatively flat - and the whole field seemed to take advantage of it with 96% of runners finishing in under 2hr:30mins - we're used to that being about 3hrs:30mins - so it did get very busy at some points at the finish, but probably a lot more PB performances than normal.
For me it was the second finish gantry that has fallen onto my head, although I'll say the gentle deflation of a finish arch onto my head is vastly preferable to the sudden landing of a scaffold tower. The un-fixable failure of the air blower for the arch was the guilty party this time, not malicious unplugging which is something I've also seen at a few races.
Full results and race reports are available via the race website on
Purple Patch Running here and I'd thoroughly
recommend their other races - the next half marathon of note is the Grand Union Canal Half Marathon (very scenic and flat) as well as the Reading O2O 10k - again very flat and along the river.
The Chestnut Tree House Coastal 10k gallery is here
The Chestnut Tree House Coastal 10k hit a record 984 finishers raising money for the fantastic charity work that they do. Their full
race report is online here . Hopefully you didn't get taken out by the Storm-trooper and possibly ran a little faster because of it. Big congratulations to Leanne and the team in organising the race and all the road closures and logistics involved with the event - it's growing year on year and likely to be even larger next year, so make sure you get your entry for next year in early
http://bit.ly/Chestnut-10k-coast-run-entries-2013
We donate money raised from the sale of images to the charity - so help raise a bit more by getting your pictures !
The Pilgrim Half and Full Marathon Gallery 2012 is here
The Pilgrim Half and Full Marathons
The latest Pilgrimage from Sandy nr Farnham to Guildford and back attracted 463 runners on the Half marathon and 291 runners to St. Marthas Church near Guildford - and back.
With the Cycling Tour of Britain finishing in Guildford on the same day, the TV crews were out and about - and you can see our friend Ruth getting interviewed here !:
http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/story/2012-09-16/runners-finish-pilgrims-journey/
On a course that is very sandy, hilly, tree-tunnelly, and with some spectacular views (if you look behind you) it is one of the toughest marathons and half marathons in the calendar. With again perfect weather on Sunday - some great times were put in across the competitors. Dave Rollins - race director of the
Brutal 10 Races won the half marathon in 1:25:13. To give you some idea of the terrain toughness - that's about 15 minutes harder than the Maidenhead half.
Just for a change the women beat the men in the marathon distance - with Holly Rush from Team Bath (which is a bit of a clue to her pedigree) setting a 3:07:03. To be honest you would have done well to do that time in a car given the traffic around Guildford on Sunday with the bike race. An outstanding performance, and given her PB is 2:37:38 on the road again shows how tough it was - 30 minutes harder than normal.
So for the mortals amongst us - add 20% to your normal race time and you'll be in the right reckoning for this one. You can check your results from the link on the main race page here:
http://www.farnhampilgrim.org.uk/
A General point on internet etiquette
We hope you all enjoy the galleries, by the end of play yesterday at about 11:30pm we had indexed through over 92,000 images, put about 85 man hours in at the office, and 45hrs in at the events, so over 130hrs in the past four days. You can figure out how much that costs, even at minimum wage rates. It is an intense undertaking !
By 1am in the morning, just from Tuesdays gallery views over 480 images had attempted to be stolen from our gallery of the weekends photos. i.e. people had tried to take watermarked copies without paying for the real thing. How successfully the watermarked images were taken I don't know, but even at our minimum price of £5.99 (less than two pints of beer and will last considerably longer), that represents almost enough turnover to cover most of the costs associated with working at these events - which we do for free, and even donate money to the charities from sales.
If you want more detail on internet etiquette - here's a guide on sharing without stealing
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33098/How-Not-to-Steal-People-s-Content-on-the-Web.aspx but considering we do have a direct link and tweet button on every page for you to use - it should be easy to share without taking watermarked copies !
Here's another good reason from
@eddiephoto
From a survey I did once, 100% of people knew it was wrong to take watermarked image copies from the internet, and 95% of people said we should name and shame them. (i.e.
Phoenix AC - is this one of yours? ) So if you fancy having a look at the images people are/trying to copy without paying for them, and in turn jeopardising our ability to provide this free gallery service - and if you can bring some socially conscious pressure to bear on them - just "advance search" on the keywords contain "hide" when you're in an event online. Or if you're viewing an event -
just click here and have a look to see our "most popular images". If you know them - do us a favour and have a word please, it would mean the world to us. Thank you !
Your Next Race
The next events we're at this weekend (Tonbridge Half and The Pleshy Half) are all full and registration is closed, so see you there if you're all prepared and organised.
Otherwise the main event this month is the Ealing Half Marathon on September the 30th. It's going to be the largest race we cover this year and the newest and largest half marathon in London - with easy access from the west of town. An ideal early autumn pace-setter for you and over 4000 entries so far.
Enter it here now:
http://bit.ly/Ealing-Half-2012-race-entry
And now, as ever - here's a handful of pictures from the weekend - try to spot the race as I'm going to jumble them all up for you !
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| Pre-race preparations at the town hall |
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| Sophie Christiansen's Three Olympic Gold medals is the new qualifying standard to start a Race. |
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| The start of 13.1 fast miles ahead |
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| All systems go for Malc. using Bean power. |
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| Paralympian Sophie Christiansen's golden postbox about 100m up the high street on the race course |
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| I'd love to see this footage |
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| Half way - get fresh sweatbands then |
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| Fast finish for the 1:10:57 from Jonathan Stead of Herne Hill Harriers |
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| Busy start like last year but with no loop - so far faster |
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| Something about that corner makes you want to stick your tounges out ? |
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| John Terry completed the course in a Baywatch disguise |
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| Far too happy ! |
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| The correct position mid-Mo-bot |
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| In training for the bank robbery |
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| woah there ! |
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| The surrey Countryside and Pilgrim way |
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| Dave Rollins adds one to the collection |
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| Strong finishing in front of the crowds |
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| always a strong start for the full marathon |
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| Nice to run with some company on the country lanes and paths |
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| Dave was so fast we didn't catch him at the top of the view |
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| Angle one - a good high jump |
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| The frame is this wide |
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| For the win - Holly Rush wins the Marathon for Team Bath with her suitable surname. |
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| The view is to the right... |
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| A mild touch of the Julie Andrews |
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| Here's the view to the right |
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| Angle two - the mid race jump |
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| The prompt start from the Mayor on the seafront |
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| James lead from the start to the finish for 33:43 |
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| Makes me wonder what he would look like with a chimney on him ? |
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| Excellent family day out raising money for the charity |
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| The Storm Trooper with a stolen Princess Leia cloak. |
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| A near perfect Mo-Bot - note the symmetry |
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| Hello Ruth !. Looks like you went fast enough and did push yourself, despite the ability to do an early training run the next day.x |
And remember to smile next time you see us. 6 years later and you might end up in the news (hopefully for good reasons like saving a life)
http://t.co/YgCNqs0U , we have over 5,000,000 images in our archives all catalogued by race number, so remember to look us up if you need a press release...
Until next time, and I hope you're enjoying the perfect temperatures for training at the moment
Anthony
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