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| Start of the Cambridge Town and Town 10k |
Apologies, it's been a bit of a busy one and I missed last weeks blog time - however as the main point of this is to tell participants about the race gallery, and both Cambridge and Abingdon emailed all their participants as soon as their race galleries were ready on the Monday - this seemed a bit superfluous. However that leaves me with too many images to try to shoehorn into a single blog, so you'd think there after some good editing and we'll have a smashing selection of images and witty captions to entertain you on your commute or coffee break.
I'm not sure how well I can live up to your expectations on that one, but I'll give it a go in a bit...
Meanwhile - here's the list of galleries, and the (almost) last list of the year for you to enjoy... 2019 races are booking up quickly and hopefully a few new ones, and a few more events with free downloads - so continuing to push forwards with the events to make you even happier !
At some point I am going to turn this into a "how to put your race number on properly" slideshow. Because lets face it - it's not *that* difficult really. If everyone at the national cross country championships can put them on properly (and I mean literally *everyone* and there's a lot of them across all agegroups) then why can't a seasoned 100 Marathon Club runner, *for example ? I get why people wear coats, I understand why people think that tri-belts are a good idea, I fully comprehend why people think that pinning numbers on their shorts are a good idea - and I do understand why folding a number up might seem like a good idea at the time. So here's some thoughts - your legs are not big enough, your tribelt is sagging around your back like an inverse fig leaf, you took your coat off and tied it around your waist like a belt over your number, your number is pinned too low, and using four pins isn't extravagant, plus it's in the rules that you don't fold your number exactly because that will give you an advantage over your fellow competitors, and frankly the sponsors who subsidised the cost of your race entry would like to see their name displayed (that's the whole reason really). Other than that - if we can't read it - we can't index your race numbers with it, and then you can't search for it easily and quickly.
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| nope - they can't read that race number |
What's the solution ? - pin it to the front of your leg shorts, so it shows the number vertically. Not the side so we can only see one digit if we are lucky. Or pin it on your front
Up on your chest, not down on you belt, so when you do unzip your coat to show us - and do the superman chest thing - we can see it !!!! (please don't unzip your coat leaving a one inch view of the central digit, that's pointless).
And if you are going to put on a ultra vest for gels and water with shoulder straps and everything else on over your number - please don't. Just don't. Put your number somewhere else. Vertically on the front of your leg perhaps ? (ref #967 as an example) ON THE FRONT, not the side. We CANNOT read around corners, and believe me we waste a lot of time squinting at the screens trying to work out from a corner of a digit if it's a 7, 1 or 2 ... Font choices are critical sometimes.
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| It's under here somewhere, they get smaller in the cold |
And for all of you who casually say as you pass "It's ok, I'll find them later" I say you're lying or insane - because you literally have no idea how big that task is. After Beachy Head - where we have gone through every single one of the 136,000 images we took (that was roughly 140 staff hours of work across Saturday night, Sunday and Monday) and put about 98,000 images online - of that over 18,000 images were tagged with no number visible - (with three zeros if you want to do the search "000") Having had to browse through those search results myself to find a friend who we had their photos all around the course except at one particular point, and only because I can get to the admin side of the site - I found them in about 15 minutes. But I had time data, location knowledge, photographer info, and knew they were wearing a pretty obvious set of bright clothing. Everyone else browsing throught the 000 results for Beachy Head will be pretty much wafting through page after page of people wearing black, all in a jumbled up order (ok you can adjust a search setting to show it by time of day) - it's going to take you at least 4 hours I reckon. Wouldn't it have been easier just to wear your number visibly - you could possibly run most of the race again in that time !!!
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| frankly better than nowhere, but we usually miss the next runners if we take this shot. Is that fair ? |
The alternative logic is that people are relying on everyone else to wear their number so that the 000 results browsing time is minimal. This (based on the 18,000 images) is a false option, it's a bit like relying on everyone else to get their kids vaccinated so you don't have to. It might work if only two other kids are not vaccinated, but when 20% are not - your odds of saving time have drastically reduced, and goes to show you can't rely on others to do the hard work of putting their number on properly so you don't have to... I'll add that cases of measles are up, and it can kill.
But here, have a browse and see how it looks and get my point - these are in reverse time order of taken - which makes it a bit easier -
https://sspimg.com/beachy2018-000 and you can see almost all the ways how not to wear your race number...
NB there are so many search results - you have to "refine the search" by orientation of vertical or horizontal images in order to see them all - as it will only let you browse 10,000 results at a time.
Lightboxes and corrections
But finally - if you do find your images and want the cataloguing corrected so that a)you can search for them, and b) they are included in your order of all your images - then do this
1. put them into a lightbox (click add to lightbox !) call your lightbox something inspirational like Beachy Head runner number 1234
2. once done, and you have found all the extra images you think are not catalogued correctly - use the green share button to share it with us on info@sussexsportphotography.com
3. add a handy message that explains your race number and that the lightbox is for re-cataloguing
4. we then get the lightbox share and your email
5. we correct the images cataloguing where you are in focus and a subject of an image. (if you're not, it's not a photo of you is it !)
6. we let you know it's corrected by email and rescind the lightbox share.
So here's a selection of images...
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| All go at the Abingdon Marathon - in the starting fog |
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| oops facepalmed a friend |
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| we're flying through the roads |
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| world record twin buggy marathon achieved! |
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| Nobody was quite sure what the mime was, except it was from the 80's |
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| OOh, it's Ian Fetch, good to see him back on the running wagon |
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| Russ loaned out his water weight dumbells as he's overused them recently |
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| make a point, win the race. |
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| smooth at the last corner |
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| We always try to position ourselves at the best vantage points. This was the view from the static wideangle finish camera. It didn't look like this when we set it up... |
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| waiting around in the sun for the start of the Cambridge Town and Gown 10k |
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| getting going in the sun |
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| Little did he know he was being chased |
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| high fives on kings parade |
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| The crowd hadn't anticipated an Eric Cantona reaction to their taunts |
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| Yes that's a phone in his pocket. |
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| Because you never know when you might need to make a call |
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| style and grace |
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| Alice being chased by one of the college Dementors |
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| Almost at the finish |
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| That last full on sprint to the line |
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| Flying in at the finish |
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| Brave Oxford Uni Athlete putting in an appearance |
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| Just Gotta run ! |
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| Wasn't really fancying it at the start |
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| The wonderful riverside views along the college boathouses, are quite nice to run along |
Meanwhile at the Beachy Head Marathon
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| That first Hill victory |
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| Haverhill, , near Balsham, where I once lived. Who knew eh? |
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| Three very different reactions to a camera |
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| They just won the Election |
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| Andrew just remembered he was supposed to be at work |
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| The Birling Gap food hadn't gone down too well |
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| Nice try to show me your flapping number. Yes you stopped it flapping. |
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| Still not sure what's going on here |
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| Taste that fresh country air ! |
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| ooch, ouch, ouchy, ouch, ahh, ouch, argh, ooh, ow... for 26 miles... |
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| did you get my message? no. #awkwardfor26miles |
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| What are Fetchy friends for if not bunny ears ? |
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| Surrendering |
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| This did bring a slight delay to proceedings |
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| Just enjoying the view on the 10k |
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| This isn't what we signed up for ! |
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| That's a no vote for running 10k in sandals then |
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| Classic photobombing |
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| That's not how Rhino's run |
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| **shouts** get away from the edge you cretin |
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| Good to have support and the medical backup at a race |
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| Tring Tring |
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| Yes, Taxi to meet me at Birling Gap |
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| Mind the elbows |
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| Walk Like an Egyptian |
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| Yes it was cold. Now we can't see your number. |
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| To win the match with his left foot he scored a drop-goal for 3 points. |
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| A modern dance interpretation of the pain of Beachy Head. |
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| Friends eh? Bants. (nope can't read either of those numbers either) |
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| That top hill start view |
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| off you go !! |
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| Smashing win - we've seen her steadily develop over the years - from races as far back as Ealing |
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| He lost three places for this Selfie, and judging from the screen, ours was better... |
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| Well done Debbie - great to see you out there !! |
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| When you win - you're on fire !! |
So that's it for this week. Sunday we have the anomaly that is the veteran car run, and they have good clear numbering (most of the time). As an event we have archives going back now to 2004, we know a lot of the participants and recognise a lot of the marshals, and also know the favourite spots for photos. Personally I'll be at the finish - and thankfully the temperature has risen and the rain forecast has been moved, pop down and have a look if you're anywhere along the route or in Brighton on Sunday.
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| It's always blue skies at the Veteran Car Runr |
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| You never know - you might see someone famous. or not. |
Until next time, enjoy the dry, if chilly, weather
Anthony
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