Seaford Striders Mince Pie 10 and The Hogs Back 2013 - galleries now live

Start of the 2013 Hogs Back at Loseley House

Almost there !
The running of the annual Seaford Striders Mince Pie 10 is my seasonal marker - I try very hard to make sure this is the first time I eat a mince pie before Christmas. It's the only way that I make sure I don't start eating them too early and start getting fatter than I already am. This also means much respect to everyone who takes on this challenge across the south downs - which has some lovely views especially on a day like we had on Sunday, and even more respect for those of you who did it in fancy dress !

Also up was the Hogs Back Road Race - with Free Downloads now available on the gallery. Although there was a bit of a rain shower before hand, the race itself was dry and very fast at the front of the pack - despite the ascent up to the top of the Hogs Back - one of running's tougher challenges with an ascent of 552ft across the 7.25mile course.

Logo	Race	Gallery link
	Seaford Striders Mince Pie 10	http://bit.ly/18Rgh25
	The Hogs Back 2013 - free race downloads	http://bit.ly/1aRaCTG

Free race downloads are becoming an increasingly popular feature of our race coverage - so if you're interested in sponsoring a races coverage please get in touch and we can take you through how it works.

Next is the current race coverage planned for the next few months - I've clearly got a bit of admin to do to get this table populated - in the meantime have a search for the race names shown.

Call for entries:	Race Entry links for selected races:
	some of these still need filling in !
December 2013
15th - RPAC Holly Run	http://bit.ly/RPAC-Holly-Run-entries
28th Sat - Brutal Longmoor	http://bit.ly/Brutal-10-homepage
2014
JAN 2014
5th Sun - Sussex XC Champs @Falmer
18th Sat - G3#1 - Guildford	free race gallery downloads
19th Sun - Fred Hughes 10miles
25th Sat - SEAA XC Champs Parliament Hill
26th Sun - Epsom Perch
26th Sun - Canterbury 10
FEB 2013
2nd Sun - Watford Half
2nd Sun - Ashford and District 10k
2nd Sun - ETL Bookham 10k
9th Sat - G3#2 - Guildford	free race gallery downloads
9th Sun - Deal Half Marathon
15th Sat - Brutal - Windmill Hill
16th Sun - (Brighton Half Marathon)
23rd Sun - Hampton Court Half Marathon
MARCH 2014
Sat 1st - G3#3 - Guildford	free race gallery downloads
Sun 2nd - Berkhampstead Half Marathon
Sun 2nd - Steyning Stinger	http://bit.ly/The-Steyning-Stinger free race gallery downloads
Sun 9th - Roding Valley Half Marathon
Sun 9th - Surrey Half Marathon	http://bit.ly/Surrey-Half-Marathon-entry
Sun 9th - Lydd Half Marathon
Sat 15th - Brutal Bordon
Sat 15th - F3 Dorney Half Marathon
Sun 16th - Colchester Half Marathon
Sun 16th - ETL Tempest 10 and Spitfire 20
Sun 16th - Cranleigh 15-21
Sun 23rd - Richmond 13.1 and 10k	http://bit.ly/Richmond131-half-marathon
Sun 23rd - Back 2 the Trenches #1
Sun 23rd - PP Water of Life Half Marathon
Sun 23rd - Brentwood Half Marathon
Sun 30th - Warrior Run #1
Sun 30th - Paddock Wood Half Marathon
Sun 30th - BHF Bournemouth Half Marathon
more to follow...

The Mince Pie 10

Perfect conditions, hardly any wind to speak of (for the top of the downs near the sea), about 10degreesC with a southerly wind and a lie in until the race start at 11am. No rain, hail, sleet or snow. What more can you want on a downland run with over 500 entries and perfect marshalling from the Seaford Striders ? I guess a mince pie at the end is always nice !

Whilst it did get a bit chilly in the wind up top just standing about - for the runners it was a fast one - with Darryl Hards taking the sub-one hour victory in 57:04 - almost one and a half minutes ahead of Andrew Mynott in 59:28. Respect for the sub-hour times on such a hilly course.

It was a similar story in the womens race with Emma Richards (Hailsham Harriers) cracking 1:12:05, but again almost one and a half minutes ahead of Miki Floyd in 1:13:30. Again fast times - and I'm not sure where Miki has gained all this speed endurance from - but its very good !

Overall it was nice to see some fancy dress, sparkly tights to running Christmas trees and Santa Morph suits, amongst the tinsel belts and Santa and elf hats... 

Once again well done to the Striders for a well marshalled, organised event - these things take time to set up the day before, the administration and paperwork involved and the organisation on the day so everyone can turn up, race and leave in an organised way. It's never easy and the Seaford Striders always do a good job of it.

Santa on the Run

Miki - storming around the course

Careful with those tree lights

The view at the top of the Telscombe road as the race enters the Downs

 

Why ?!

Being chased by two Christmas trees, Dancer made a dash for it

 

Having missed the Devils Downland Dash last weekend, he gave the Mince Pie 10 some action

New winter hats to keep warm

Stopping to show the camera his Christmas Legs

The Hogs Back Road Race

Meanwhile over in Guildford it was all over before the Mince Pie began - with a 9am start on the "new" course from Loseley house it still takes in the iconic Hogs Back, but slightly safer by not being in the middle of the dual carriageway A31, which can be a bit unsettling, for the cars.

Again a fast pace set out at the front with Joe Morewood covering the 7.26 miles in 37.27 - which is frankly ridiculously quick for the course, and he was almost two minutes ahead of Gilbert Grundy in 39.25

AAT have now been organising this race for a few years, and are also setting up the new Surrey Half Marathon in March 2014 - ideal if you're thinking about going a bit longer in the new year - so check it out and we hope to see you there too !

Running up that first hill

Competitive finishing coming past the crowds

All's good for a double thumbs up

Before the race - good enough to make it to second team overall !

Starting in front of Loseley House

Flying through Compton on the way back down to the finish

So that's it remember all the Hogs Back race photos are free to download - so that's equal to the usual £19.99 "all my images at screen resolution" collection - make sure you get yours before they are archived - because they won't be free after that ! Here's the race gallery: bit.ly/1aRaCTG

Facebook links
Finally at last ! - you will see that we have managed to integrate the facebook share button on the gallery pages - which means if you see a photo you want to share on the gallery with your friends on facebook - you can just click the button and exactly the right link will get posted to your facebook page.

Thumbnails - Unfortunately, due to open-graph meta links being in the head, and canonical url links, we have not yet managed to put a thumbnail into the facebook share post - but we are working on it ! There must be a way... all suggestions welcomed...

Anyway, we use add-this.com as the sharing tool, and it seems to do most of the job. Next plan is to try to sort out the facebook like button too...
Anyway, please use the facebook buttons to let people see your race photos, or indeed share your friends photos with them ! I might even see if I can put the comment box right there on the gallery pages...

in other news... we are also trying to refresh the static website which still goes back to antbliss.com (a brand we stopped using over 7 years ago!) so hopefully that will get tidied up sometime soon !

Finally - you will also see an advert for One-Life ID bracelets, tags and other things on the gallery. These are made by one of our photographers (his other job), and speaking as someone who has broken a foot whilst out on a training run - I can strongly recommend these as a great Christmas present for your best training friends/wives/family/kids.
They are a great way of saying you care about them and want them to be ok whilst having their brand of fun ! (and no - you don't have to have a major health issue to need to carry ID with you conveniently) - the gift cards are at the bottom of the products page...

Until next time, I hope you all manage to find some time to do some training over the December weeks - last race before Christmas is the RPAC Reigate Holly Run - with races for all ages - so I hope to see you all there !

Anthony