Back to a weekend of two races, and fortunately not quite the rain that has been falling over the past few weekdays, just a bit wet and muddy up at Newlands Corner for the G3, and a two x single lap course at Fred Hughes 10 instead of crossing over the M1 because of some road flooding over there.
Neither of these situations caused any problems for the smooth running of the races which is a testimony to both race organisers and their efficient marshals.
I hope your New Year ambitions are staying strong, and welcome and hello to everyone who has taken up the baton of running this year as something good to do !
Hopefully we can help you start your running photo scrapbook of progress and happy memories for many years to come - even the painful ones make it more memorable when you look back later...
The AAT G3 race #1
Saturday saw us at the AAT-Events season opener with the G3 race#1 at Newlands Corner. In contrast to last years snow and ice, we had some heavy rain from the south, so the wind wasn't too cold but wet all the same. Some 344 starters made it around Surrey and the flooded roads of Sussex to make it to the start line - all clearly with a sense of humour and self-challenge in mind.
The leaders were wearing XC spikes for the muddy conditions, trail shoes would have made a big difference and old worn flat road trainers would have been your undoing on the slippery parts - which probably explains the mud covered sides we saw on a few people...
Very nice to see so many regulars at the G3 too, and I hope you are still enjoying your free race downloads ! Post your favourites onto
our facebook page !
Some Gallery changes
Regulars will see that we have changed ("updated") the free download gallery - hopefully it is cleaner and simpler to use - although the "download all" button is a click away in the thumbnail view - in the toolbox on the right - (hint: you want the "Actions" tab).
Also it should be easier to view and navigate through on a tablet or phone, as well as the single click download also easier for those technologies - saving a single file as a normal jpg file and not a zip file (which tablets and phones can't usually deal with).
Let us know if you think it is better/worse/cleaner/harder/easier - and if so how ? a quick email to
info@sussexsportphotography.com about it would be fantastic and very helpful - then we can continue to try to improve it.
 |
| Dave shows the young'uns the way forwards |
 |
| See it's easy running up St.Marthas |
 |
| Just a bit muddy on the way round and not that steep ! |
 |
| The Church is at the top of the hill... |
 |
| Dave gives us a wave on his way back |
 |
| If you hold the edge - watch out for the branches |
 |
| Poor number 30 took a bit of a Mr.Tumble |
 |
| Run like an Egyptian... |
 |
| Rory didn't make it up the hill, he was DQ'ed for being on a bike |
 |
| The Brutal warm-up welcome |
 |
| Runners on that there horizon - what better sight for a Marshal ? |
 |
| Smiling, happy, and a little muddy... |
 |
| To be clear, this says that "he ran happy", not "Running in Iran made him happy running in Hell". It's confusing I know and not to be misinterpreted ! |
A small word of thanks to the nice people at
Tillings Cafe in Gomshall that fed the Marshals and event organisers after the race for the post race debrief with an excellent breakfast. A new location for us since the popular 'The Barn' Newlands corner Cafe unfortunately shut in the past week after the Chef apparently went ill. Best wishes are with them after many years of great service.
Fred Hughes 10
The
Fred Hughes 10, organised by St.Albans Striders went off in good weather, with bits of blue sky breaking through the clouds and even sunshine bursting across from the low sun.
The course was in good condition with a few puddles in places, and a few slopes to make people work for their place made for a fast run out and excellent conditioning in the early season. The winning time of sub-52mins by Daniel Woodgate of Luton #853 in 51.37 is exceedingly quick and basically caught us a bit by surprise during the race - by my watch he only took 17 minutes to complete the first lap of the race loop... The winning margin was 90 seconds over second place a consummate performance. I rest sound in my 400m
PB being faster than his though... (a small insignificant point) He is however the Bedfordshire County XC champion from last week, so comes into 2014 in good form already.
 |
| Daniel - Out front and out of sight from 2nd place by the 2 mile marker |
 |
| 626 clearly outperforming expectation from 733 |
 |
| Naomi looking far too happy, we needed more weather like NYD Serpentine 10k ? |
 |
| Lucky 666 making it look easy |
 |
| Excellent application by 194 Sophie Delderfield to win the Womens race in ;:01:09 |
 |
| Mark, having prepped his hair blows kisses of love for you |
 |
| Rosemary Conley - responsible for 5 stones going missing - and #91 made the 8 mile mark ! Awesome effort ! |
 |
| A bit of a push up the slopes of St.Albans |
 |
| 70's retro style |
 |
| A New Hat ! |
Technically a tricky race to photograph with the low winter sunlight, high road side hedges and country lanes we had to work hard to get the right angles on the shots and try to capture the countryside element of the race. Hopefully we have managed it this time !
Well done to Lucy the Race director and her teams of marshals, admin and helpers and the whole St Albans Striders club on putting on such a smoothly run event, we hope to see plenty of you running at your nearest rivals race the Watford Half Marathon next month....
Until next time - which will hopefully be the South of England XC championships at Parliament Hill next Saturday !
Anthony
