The end of Winter, the clocks go forwards and everyone finds it a little bit too early to get up for a race last Sunday heralded the beginning of Spring. Along with some strong wind and rain to make it feel almost like April, it was a tough day to be a marshal.
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| The start of the Bolt 'round the Holt - 5k,10k and 21k (Half) on the forest trails |
We processed through so many images this weekend - we finally edited through had 127,000 fully catalogued and online by Tuesday lunchtime from the 5 events we attended.
And for everyone waiting for caption corrections from the impossible-to-read-numbers at Back to the Trenches last week - that's the next thing on our list to do. Apologies for the delay but it really has been 20 hour days here to get galleries online and preparing for the next races.
Links to the weekends race galleries are here:
Some of you may have noticed we are trying to put the event's facebook feed onto the gallery pages for you - making it easy as a place to find out and engage with the event afterwards.
We know races love to hear your feedback, comments and ideas for next years event - so get over onto those facebook pages and tell them:
Social Media links for you to get involved or read what others are saying on Facebook
AAT Bolt -
https://www.facebook.com/aatevents
ETL Tempest/Spitfire -
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Events-to-Live/125491094161256
Colchester Half -
https://www.facebook.com/ColchesterHalfMarathon
and on Twitter
AAT Bolt -
@allabouttri
ETL Tempest/Spitfire -
@Events_to_Live
Paddock Wood Half -
@PaddockWoodAC
Colchester Half -
@ColHalfMarathon
Spring and those pesky clocks
I don't know how it was for you ? we usually have to get to races an hour before the start, which on Sunday meant that I was up at 5am to get out of the house by 6am, and off to Colchester by 8am for the 9am race start. So in "real time" (GMT) I got up at 4am. As I regularly go to bed at 2am during these busy half marathon months, then having to go to bed at 10pm was a bit weird to say the least ! I did manage 5hours sleep, so knowing that I was in no shape to run a Half Marathon off that, I hope that you managed to get more than we did...
No doubt we have all recovered from the jet-lag that the clocks induce every year ? no? me neither.
The Bolt
Here was some action from the Bolt on Saturday
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| Lead from the front |
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| Cheeky stop for a photo - but wait. NO NUMBER !! so he's unlikely to find it. |
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| Mike puts his serious face on |
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| low fives |
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| Strong win in the 21k |
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| Dog Sat Nav ? |
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| Unique top, my eyes have recently stopped bleeding |
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| Lap one jump for joy. He wasn't doing this on lap 4... |
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| When you have multiple laps to cover you can start taking "higher risk" shots at the end - here's a portrait that seemed to get it all. Runners World cover ? |
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| Our model here is wearing the photographers standard winter clothing - from October to April = Waterproofs over Saloppettes, knee pads, gaters, tech tshirt, 3 layers of Merino Wool including hoodie, Fleece, Gortex outer, wooly hat and gloves optional. And High-viz tabard for extra protection and super powers, plus SSP limited edition buff. He was still cold. |
Colchester
On Sunday at Colchester, apart from getting stuck behind a Mariva every journey we made to get on the course or back to the stadium, arriving and leaving...we got very lucky with the weather with the bulk of the finish not really suffering from a lot of rain - which with the wind straight down the lens - made a massive difference. We had been making plans as to where to go if the rain was heavy - so glad we didn't have to use those. Overall a very smooth race, every year the organisation gets slicker and slicker - but that is in no small way down to the hours and hours of time the organisers put into communicating to runners before and after the race. The facebook feed is legendary.
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| All starting and finishing at the Colchester Stadium |
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| Running up *THAT* hill to the high street |
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| Those ETL Bacchus T'Shirts get everywhere |
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| All going well |
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| Captain America hadn't planned on rain |
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| Tripping in for the win (again!) |
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| Correct moment of joy at the finish |
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| We would all like Wonder Woman to help out at these moments wouldn't we? - great competitor support |
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| Good team effort |
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| Top Mo-Bot of the day |
Meanwhile over at the Mabac
Cranleigh 15-21 race was a little bit of rain and wind.
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| Always show us your number !! |
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| Running tall and strong |
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| Those compression socks can lead to strange things happening |
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| See what I mean about compression socks ? |
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| Andrew burning up the course |
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| Probably over burnt up the course ? |
Over on the Dunsfold Aerodrome, where the discontinued programm BBC's Top Gear used to film
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| "Yes Clarkson has left !". Allegedly. |
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| All good for Luke, with his team |
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| Top Xempo and SSP limited edition Buff wear ! |
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| Seaford Striders in fancy dress.... |
And finally over at Paddock Wood
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| All go at the Start of Paddock Wood Half Marathon |
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| Happy Team Running |
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| Always write motivational messages where you can read them |
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| Motivational messages can stop you forgetting things |
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| Flying along in the countryside |
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| After the bridge the road goes - *this way* |
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| For the win ! |
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| Outrun everyone |
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| The barriers are there for a reason - don't cross at the race finish... |
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| MoBot Shot |
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| Probably just the right amount of warm - top effort |
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| Good work to cruise in at the finish |
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| Get that wolverine look when you push for the line |
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| All good if you go Dutch on the course |
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| Checking your phone stopwatch before the finish line will slow you down |
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| Correct during race pose for the win ! |
So across from Surrey to Essex it was a wet and windy one - but everyone seemed to cope very well in the conditions - if you kept up a good pace then you would have stayed nice and warm, the wind was from the West, not the East or North, and everyone seemed to survive !!
Excellent organisation from all the races, not aware of any traffic problems of note, although we did hear about a few road-rage drivers at some courses ignoring the marshals and behaving dangerously. Our only tip to anyone who ends up marshalling in those situations is to get a photo of the car numberplate asap - you'd be surprised how that can help later, and also if engaged with the car driver - a video during the conversation can calm things down very quickly... although it can depend on the lunacy of the driver you are talking to at the time.... which is why there should never be one marshal at a busy junction - but I digress.
Next weekend...
Upcoming Featured Race... Fancy a real challenge?!
So, until next time, keep training and start your last miles for the marathon training through April and start your taper !
Anthony
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