The Brutal Long Valley Gallery is now live and on line here:
http://bit.ly/Brutal-Longvalley-race-gallery-2012
Results are on the race website here: http://www.brutalrun.co.uk/results/
The Seaford Striders Mince Pie 10 race gallery is now live here:
http://bit.ly/Seaford-mince-pie-gallery-2012
Results and a race report are on the Race website here: http://www.seafordstriders.org.uk/Link%20Pages/Mince%20Pie%20Race/mpracereport.html
A weekend of two off-road races of contrasting scenery. Firstly over at Long Valley near Fleet the Brutal 10 yet again lived up to it's reputation for being, well, Brutal. If you want to see just how brutal the course was - here's the map - http://goo.gl/maps/Ej8Xh
To get a real feel for it - save the KML and look at it in Google Earth with terrain at x3 - makes the hills look like what they really are...
This years Long Valley technical challenge had to be the Swan Lake - which on Friday the course designers had been wading about in it to clear the ice sheets - although come saturday no such joys remained. Waist deep in near freezing water is never a nice thing to be doing...but at least this time everyone went through it and not round it.
It was also a perfect day to do a spot of marshalling - no wind, crisp blue skies and a warming sun - it wasn't too bad outside at all. However the marshals who dealt with poor Zoe who popped her knee probably had a harder time than usual, we wish Zoe the best of luck in recovering. The course itself had less mud than last time, but considerably more water - so if you didn't bring a spare set of warm clothes and a towel for afterwards, you probably didn't get home alive.
Sunday at the Mince Pie 10 was a different matter - the mostly trail race around the south downs near Peacehaven - did have a few muddy bits, but mostly it was safe paths and tracks. What nobody mentioned was the cold bitter north westerly wind that cut through whatever clothing you could find. For the first time I went for two coats, the outer one being a big yellow high viz long coat - that stopped any wind cutting up my back, but even after 2 hours the ankles started to feel the chill as it finally ebbed in. The sun was mostly hidden from view by a bank of cloud out to sea, but the sky above the downs was mostly clear blue for most of the race. As usual some of the runners managed to turn out in fancy dress, including one Santa Morph, a few Christmas pixies and some reindeer antlers - which always encourages a bit more of a shout from the marshals and brightens the day up.
Some photos from the weekend below, next weekend is the last race before Christmas - which is the RPAC Holly Run http://www.rpac.org.uk/index.php?p=hollyrun - it always attracts some good race entries for the junior races - under 11 races to under 17's and then senior races. We will be covering the Junior races from 11am to 1:30pm - races that include a pedigree of Mo Farah taking part - so a good base for athletes of all abilities ! Fingers crossed it won't have snowed by then - but you can't be sure given this weeks forecast.
Last order dates
After that it's Christmas, please don't order mugs after this Tuesday 11th if they are going to be for presents as we can't guarantee delivery from the printers in time. I'll be doing digital orders here in the office right up to Christmas eve - so you have your last minute lifeline for those - you can print them at home if you need to.
Prints - last day for those orders to get to you in time is the 18th - we send everything first class, but I really don't want you to risk it and run it late.
So - if you like a bit of certainty - this is what we recommend:
- Tuesday 11th - Mugs
- Tuesday 18th - prints
- Wednesday 19th - CD's in the post
- Friday 21st - Full size collections by server download
- Monday 24th - noon on christmas eve - all other digital files by email
After that, see you on the other side - at the next Brutal on the 29th of December no better way to slay the pudding.
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| The long wade through Swan Lake |
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| Doing his best Petr Cech impression |
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| All ok here. Honest. (280 didn't look all smiles a few frames later) |
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| Last one in, be a darling and fetch the arrow... |
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| 2 WP up the hill (that's wolf power) |
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| Gritty running up the last hill |
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| double brutal |
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| My goodness it's extremely cold mother. |
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| Singing was optional |
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| Chivalry is not dead |
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| Thumbs up from Sy |
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| Matching Tshirts, but what happened to 80 and 81 ? |
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| Victory is in the doing. |
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| Happy Christmas from Santa Morph |
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| Ever felt you're being followed ? |
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| it was her fault |
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| those are leg tatoos |
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| Christmas Pixies getting some pre-day training in |
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| Boxercise all the way |
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| Natasha takes the win |
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| Naughty |
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| Still got that followed feeling ? |
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| No need for a scarf |
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| This isn't just any running photo, this is a M&S running photo |
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| Requested proof that it was muddy out there |
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| Special Santa hats with direction indicators |
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| Happy Christmas back to you Marc |
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| Snowy enjoyed the days outing |
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| Marshaling has it's benefits - just look at that view (behind him) |
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| Running Bunnies ? |
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| Look out behind you !! |
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| Santa sought anonymity in races to get some pre-day training done |
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| The tinsel three |
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| Morning ! |
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| Antlers all the way home. |
So before I too start to look at my own New Years training regime, this leaves me with just enough space to say Happy Christmas to you all, thank you for being out there and doing your thing. Keep Running and see you in 2013.
Until next time
Anthony, Sally, and the SSP team.
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