Wednesday 25 June 2014

Great Yorkshire Bike Ride, Back 2 the Trenches, Capital to coast 2014 galleries now open

How's it going ?
The sun comes out, you get used to a few quiet weeks, and then bang, three events with over 1000 people each and 20 hour days. On the plus side, I don't think anyone suffered from sunburn !

There was a lot of other events going on all over the place, with south downs marathons, north downs marathons, multiple sportives (some clashing on routes with others at one point near Horsham) and some football on the telly too. It was a perfect weekend for being out and about and lots of choice.

Two days later, with over 80hrs of office staff time put down to get it all indexed and searchable for you - and those muddy numbers are very tricky to read accurately - so please browse responsibly !

A favour :
One small request before you go off looking at pictures and ordering them - is please can you fill in my little questionnaire here for me - and then you'll be in for a chance to win one of our exclusive SSP Tshirts !! - click here and give it an answer: http://bit.ly/Facebook-Likes-Photo-Survey go on ! Limited to only 100 answers so make your answers count and get your entry in !


Event Logo Gallery link

The Great Yorkshire Bike Ride 2014 - http://bit.ly/GYBR-2014-Gallery 

Back to the Trenches - The Big Push
http://bit.ly/Back-2-the-Trenches-2014-Photo-Gallery

The Capital to Coast Cycle Challenge from London to Hove http://bit.ly/Capital-2-Coast-2014-Photo-Gallery

Right - I don't have a collection of pictures for the blog of the GYBR - because all that work got done in sunny Yorkshire and we get the master data tomorrow, so I apologise now for them being missing from here - but you can of course go onto the gallery and have a browse through the folders - which by the way is what you need to do if you didn't have a number showing. Or search by 000, but there are more than 2000 of those and that's the limit for the search engine.

So meanwhile in sunny Sussex we had the Capital to Coast bike ride - from the London Eye down to the Kings Lawns in Hove - going over Devils Dyke, and nearby near Reigate we had the Back to the Trenches second race of the year - "The Big Push". Check out these small selections to get a feeling of the action !
At the top of the course on Epsom Downs by the race course. It's all downhill from here.

The joy of riding

Heading out with the peloton south of Dorking

Enjoying the fine weather

moving fast past Hammer Pond

the glorious South Downs

See that hill behind you...

Taking in the view of Devils Dyke, half way up the climb

The Victory finish at Kings Lawns

Family Support for finishing the 75 mile ride - much longer than that BHF ride the week before.

The joy of finishing !
Well done to the new team at C2C and Norwood on putting together another great ride. We raised £250 last year for the charities from sales of the race photos - so make sure you get yours soon so we can give them plenty of money again from this years race !

The Back to the Trenches race#2 The Big Push was again organised by the great team headed up by Marcella. With three routes of 6k, 12k and 18k there was choice aplenty with a few cooling water dips that nobody seemed to complain about in the summer heat !
Star Jumps, over hot coals
Not two tired then

Joeys lookalike gave it a go

Extreme Mud. No wrestling allowed

Steel eyed Richard sets his sights on getting the hell out

Double thumbs up for the water crossing

The joy of exit. Good new mats too (note to other race directors there)

Hands up who's blowing bubbles, it's not a natural Jacuzzi

far too much style for Mr Bolt to even attempt

total control. Honest. All intended.

Major Slide takes the salute

Money raised and profits made from both these events goes to the event organisers Charities - Norwood and Prostate Cancer. We can only raise money, and indeed only cover these events - if you buy the images, every little purchase no matter how small counts towards the good causes we support. 
Last year alone we raised over £6000 in charitable fundraising and donations given, and we hope to be able to do it again in 2014, so please help, get your genuine unwatermarked copies today ! 
We regrettably have to drop events that don't help us to achieve these goals, so please help ensure coverage for next year. I really should add a list of events that haven't cut it so far this year...but that would be unfair on the race organisers and those competitors, but you catch my drift.

It's now past 2:30am, so despite my promises to myself to get some early nights I've failed !

Entries are still open for all of Next weekend on the 28th and 29th of June - 
and you should of course be getting your autumn half marathon entries in before the summer holidays if you don't want to miss out. Takes a bit of planning, but Ealing and Reigate are the ones for you to be sorting yourself out for right now !

until next time, enjoy the late summer evenings before the nights close in completely...even I managed to go for two runs last week now my toes better...

Anthony

Friday 20 June 2014

REP Arun Swim, Summer Breeze and ETL Polesden Lacey 2014 now live

Hiya,

My apologies for the lateness in the week of the blogs in the past few weeks. Not the monday/tuesday delivered productions that you are used to over the past 500 or so. I've stopped working late into the 2am timezone to get them out - often I was starting them at 11pm after getting galleries live on the day of an event after getting up at 5am!. They do actually take a lot of time to write...
Recently I have had to take the sleep option for my own health resulting in the blogs being later in the week, I hope you understand and can bear with me. Sorry about that, I'll try to get things back on track in the next few weeks, so thanks for your patience.

All is not lost though !
If you are keen to get an update on events when they go live - we always tweet immediately on @uksportphoto , and also post onto facebook - so follow us on those two mediums for the fastest and quickest updates available.
Because these blogs are a bit more weighty and do go to email inbox's I try not to make them spammy, because - well - nobody likes that, and I do try to keep them to only one per week. Plus I know many of you just want to see the pictures (you know who you are ;-)  ) I apologise in advance, not being so tired might not result in as many captions of questionable quality...

So onto the new gallery links from the weekend:

Event logo: Race name: Gallery Link:
River Arun Ironman Distance swim - Free downloads http://bit.ly/REP-Arun-Swim-2014-Photo-Gallery
Summer Breeze 10k and Half Marathon http://bit.ly/Summer-Breeze-2014-photo-gallery
Events to Live - Polesden Lacey Fun Run and 10k http://bit.ly/ETL-Polesden-Lacey-10k-2014-Photo-Gallery
Saturday was a strange day - with a dry sunny warm day predicted it ended up being quite cool and dark. Very dark. Darker than a winters evening at one point if my camera settings are to be believed. ISO2000 and 250th of a second at F4...
There was passing rain, and at Littlehampton I confess to having been caught out in light summer trekking trousers and a tshirt, which only just proved adequate as the temperature plummeted to about 14degreesC from about 22. How we suffer for our art ! I was shivering badly at one point.
The event itself was fab, well organised and as always great to see and chat to everyone before they went off into the water. Always enjoyable seeing the relief on peoples faces as they make it out of the Adur without being swept out to sea too... Congratulations to Mick and the REP team on making a large event feel so personal.

The REP Arun swim photos are on free download, and have proven popular as ever with the volume of downloads. We will of course be covering their Worthing Triathlon next month - again with free shots, so make sure you book your place if you have not already done so...

If you're wondering where and who organises these events with free photos - then REP and AAT are our two main partners who we work with, so check their events lists (most are free downloads!) and see what they are up to - and of course - enter their races !

Talking of free things - and planning ahead, I've always believed that entry to a gallery or a show should be free. One of the reasons I've only gone to the triathlon or running show has been when it is free. Well good news - for the 2014 Running and Endurance November (!!) show you can get yourself a free ticket too - just enter the quiz (I don't condone answering it incorrectly) - and they will send you a free discount code to get a free entry ticket - http://bit.ly/Running-show-quiz-and-free-code  

The new Summer Breeze 10k and half marathon races went off organised by Perseverance Events - organisers of the Richmond 13.1 amongst others - so excellent pedigree, as well as an overnight endurance event (which we didn't cover) all in and around the winding woods and paths that make up Wimbledon common. Well done to Richard on this inaugural event weekend over Saturday and Sunday morning - if for nothing else - staying up for 36hrs straight !

By Sunday, the weather had calmed down a bit - warm bits and just a hint of rain - but this time I took my coat just in case - ready for the Polesden Lacey 10k organised by Events to Live. The fantastic national trust grounds were beautifully manicured and they also had a beer tent and burger stand - so what's not to like ? The 2k fun run was very well attended this year, and the main 10k race which takes in some very tough hills up to the pilgrims way - also had a significant increase in numbers. My thoughts went out to the chap from Sportsystems doing the timing who had been up all night timing the Summer Breeze enduro until 5am. 
Well done to Nicky and Alan on another great ETL event - if you like them get yourself onto their Bacchus Half Marathon later in the year and their Badger Half marathon - as they are both entries selling out fast

This weekend coming - and entries are still available
This Weekend we have another visit to Back 2 the Trenches - B2TT - The Big Push - just outside Redhill if you're interested in a bit of mud, sweat and hard work, but fun and a bit more fun. Always very well attended and always a lot of smiles, if you can see them through the muddy faces !

Also on Sunday we have this years Capital to Coast Bike ride. C2C runs from the London Eye down to Hove lawns, or Kempton Park Race course (if going into the middle of london isn't your thing) - entry is still allowed on the day - so if you missed out on The shorter London to Brighton ride last weekend - then this is the one for you - http://bit.ly/C2C-ride-info

We are not covering the Brutal Enduro that starts on Saturday - but they deserve a mention for such a popular event and very good luck to everyone taking part in the team or individual races.

Finally, would I be British without a whinge ? Lets just say, if I read another journalist condoning (i.e. agreeing with) copyright theft - something they rely on for the very value of their work and income, I'm going to bang my head against a big wall of irony.

So, to the photos !!! There's some important bits after them - so read those links too.

Trying to spot the non-swimmers before the start

Use body glide, to stop chaffing. As advised by your friendly local Doctor

To quote Malcolm Tucker "This is not the Hokey b*&^% cokey."

Standing around casually striking a pose like a Next model, and you will get your photo taken.

Two wise men retreated to the church for final requests

That concentratey look

Jack Nicholson managed to get a bit of training in using his wetsuit disguise

At least one of them was ready for it

The second wave starts off...

Relief is shown in many ways. I like this way.

Officially - None of the swimmers caught crabs at the event.

Ouchy hamstring crampy thing hits home.

Smiling relief, in an onshore not quite 007 moment. Well, Hello Mish Rubbesh Shuit.

Great work from the Support team who paddled all the way up and all the way down.

Fantastic fundraising efforts by everyone involved in the race and organising things. I hope the free photo downloads help everyone to raise even more.

Due to the tightness of the course and the lack of light in the woods (trees are very good at absorbing light in their leaves - because that's what millions of years of genetic development does) we had to stick to the finish line at the Summer Breeze 10k and half marathon - all the same - we had some good finishing styles:
For the win

Top running style

The wave of victory to the fans. Not a discus throw.

check the results to see who won !

The flying victory salute. A classic.

The ETL Polesden Lacey race was a lovely family day out and the 2k was a great event with may proud parent moments...

Flags, always use the flags

a smooth start, once everyone was on the right side of the start mats

And off to the tour of the grounds

Correct finishing technique - whatever the race !

Double Thumbs is always welcomed from a winner !

He's looking at you son !

strong finishing in the little bit of rain

No Surrender !

Nicky and Alan finish off the prize giving and save the Austria Ironman stories for later

So here's a list of recent events from the last month from May.
I must confess that things have been very very slow on the sales side of things over the past month, worryingly so if I start to analyse it statistically compared to previous years, so it might just be that you've overlooked, not known or missed the link for your photos - so check them out here and please make sure you get them before they are archived (where they end up costing more money).

All event gallery pages have a link to the race website so you should be able to find your race number from the results quite quickly if you need that to find yourselves.

15/06/2014 ETL Polesden Lacey 10k 2014
14/06/2014 Summer Breeze 2014
14/06/2014 REP Arun Swim 2014 - free downloads
08/06/2014 Mid Sussex Tri 2014 - free downloads
08/06/2014 Seaford Half Marathon 2014
01/06/2014 Dorking 10 2014
01/06/2014 Worthing 10k 2014
25/05/2014 REP Arundel Tri 2014 - free downloads
25/05/2014 F3 Windsor Half 2014
21/05/2014 Mundays 5k 2014 - free downloads
18/05/2014 Bognor 10k 2014
18/05/2014 Godalming 10k 2014
11/05/2014 Oxford 10k 2014
11/05/2014 East Grinstead Triathlon 2014
11/05/2014 Marlow 5 2014
Finally ! yes finally -
Make sure you have your autumn half marathon entries sorted out now - before they get booked up - because you know they will as soon as everyone gets to August at the start of the summer holidays.
Two large ones in particular that you need to get in on now before they go:
1. The new Adidas Run Reigate Half Marathon on September the 21st and
2. The Ealing Half Marathon - on September the 28th voted very highly by Runners World readers
So don't delay !

Until next time, when hopefully I'll have some exciting news about free downloads, have a good race, ride or run whatever you are doing this weekend, don't get sunburnt !

Anthony