Sandwiched between two wet and rainy days, and just far enough East to avoid the rain in Brighton, Saturdays Beachy Head Marathon was held in perfect conditions.
With what was described as a "magical" tail wind back up the final coast trail by
Stuart Mills (he should know), the temperature was perfect for the race, producing a fast sub-3 winning time of 2:55:42 by Hastings runner Jeff Pyrah (he really didn't get value for money out on the course did he!) and 3:30:24 by Andrea Green to win the women's race.
We tried to capture the race at a few different locations to previous years - for example given the run route up and round the valley side it's very very hard to get the Cuckmere Haven river consistently in the background. It's just basic angles and it doesn't make it easy. (ok - it's impossible).
Here's a rough map of the locations we planned to have covered: http://goo.gl/maps/UcFL1
We had one small hiccup in our planning for the new 10k, given the on line description of
the course with "
the same initial notorious hill start before winding along the coastal trail and looping back around to finish at Bede's " from the 10k website, we thought it went along the cliffs first, and then inland (i.e. clockwise), only to discover on the day that it went anti-clockwise. Next year we will double check ! It's a pity as we could have got the belle tout in the background if we had been in the right place. I'll request arrows on the map next time !
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| the Highs and the Lows - the emotional roller coaster that is Beachy |
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| Lost skateboard |
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| Found beer, (and small child) |
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| Discovered freedom |
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| oops photobombed |
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| Double thumbs up from Debbie is always a good sign |
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| Good teamwork from Arena80 |
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| Better Teamwork from Bracknell |
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| Mind that Horse over your shoulder Albert |
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| Caped crusader salutes all those who took part ! |
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| The highest view we ever get of any start |
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| Chilling with the Mayor after his win |
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| Another lost skateboarder |
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| Good times crossing the bridge at Alfriston |
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| Shiny garmin watch ! Precious... |
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| Yes, Taxi for three to Eastbourne please |
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| No Taxi required. Full Pack required. |
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| On the long march - we say - Never surrender Stevie C |
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| Replacement Sweat, in a handy bottle |
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| He didn't like being overtaken |
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| another shiny watch. Precious... |
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| Why are we always at the top of hills ? Look at the view and you'll see why ! Oh yes ! |
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| Cheating - with those three legs... |
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| which way did you say his skateboard had gone ? or was it his pogo stick ? |
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| what happened next ? almost, but close ! |
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| double down thumbs. Not quite on top of the world. |
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| Almost done for another year ! |
Until next time, when I hopefully won't have been staring for 4 hours into a galeforce gusting headwind that smashes my camera into my forehead continuously (that was fun) and with a big thank you to our team around the course who did an excellent job in tough physical conditions, and the office team who worked through Sunday and Monday to bring the gallery catalogued and online quickly !
Phew !
Anthony
p.s. get your entries in for this next weekend - free downloads:
Loseley 10k near Guildford, just off the A3.
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