Macmillan Mighty Hike Eryri (Snowdonia) - live gallery

That start line early in the morning sun. 

 Yes we got lucky. Not so lucky to have to drive up the country on a friday into rush hour bank holiday friday half term traffic for 8 hours instead of four - I blame the M6... but very lucky on the saturday with absolutely no rain at all ! 

And they're off - tutu's and colourful leggings not compulsory (but they help) (and can someone turn the backlit background down please)

Our intrepid team of 5 covered the route at 9 locations, including the Menai Bridge, Lake Ogwen, and that bit just after the last pit-stop which happily had Mordor, Mount Eryri (Snowden) in the background of the shots too.

a small gap in the hedge is all I need, and a bit of timing, and I can get that bridge in the background - fetch me a hedge trimmer for next year though

It does remind me though that I should take a battery powered hedge trimmer and a saw for a bit of visual enhancement for the backgrounds at this time of year - google street view just can't be trusted with new hedges growing everywhere...

Boom - Mighty Marshal power pose !

Also - who would have thought there would be no parking spaces left on the course with all the public parking spots at 8am in the morning on a Bank Holiday weekend Saturday already full... ? Outrageous - people having holidays early in the morning.  Perhaps next time could everyone else not on the hike please take a lie-in ? Many thanks to the kind police who let one of the team park on a double yellow and not get towed for the duration of him being there - I think it helped that he was *just there* next to the car, hadn't blocked anyone and hadn't actually walked off for 8 hours, and was of course wearing the all powerful access all areas hi-viz tabard - which gives anyone full official rights *obviously*. (*phew*)

a lot going on here, all operating on different levels of fun and cool

Billed as the hardest route so far on the mighty hike schedule - with a very large amount of 4560ft of elevation to climb up - it certainly tested many of those taking part.

The mightiest Marshal ?

Personally for me I think that I'd know just how far away Snowdonia is from Sussex, having an ex-mother-in-law south of the area, I have done the drive a fair few times, but via Shrewsbury. Going in from the Keele services direction of the M6 - prepare yourself for the last leg - it's 110miles. Frankly cambridge is 120 miles from home for me. *Thats a long way* especially when you've driven 200 miles already.

"I've been tangoed" marsshal mayhem. Probably caused by the Hawthorne pollen which was also out of control.

I am very pleased to say that all the barcode reading and gallery search worked properly and behaved itself well this time - so we pretty much had the start and 3 miles online by 10am and then just kept the rest of the photos live from the half way and the full finish going up every half hour or so - meaning that by the time the last finisher crossed the line at 8:30pm we had the last images online by 8:35pm

Nice to see you, to see you, nice !!

Add in the human quality control checks on sunday afternoon and everything was delivered - provisional gallery live and quality checked by 6pm Sunday. There's no doubt from looking at the facebook group that the photos make a massive difference for everyone to remember their experience, and it's difficult to put into words the job satisfaction associated with providing the service. As someone who's father passed away in 2017 from myeloma cancer, its great to be able to help magnify the fundraising this way. Not only helping with the fundraising as proof, but also driving participant loyalty - it's gone from 8 marathon events to 15 weekends all with a full and a half marathon distance - it has grown considerably over the past 6 years.

He's happy because Mordor Eryri (Snowdon) is in the distance behind him, and he doesn't have to climb it.

So on that note - if you have an event you like to take part in, but they could do with driving some more entries and customer loyalty - let us know which one, because you know you'd like free photos on the day too ! (plus increase fundraising).
Drop us a message - (info@sussexsportphotography.com) and we will get in touch with the event director - and see if we can help them with our services.

There can be only one

This weekend is the new London Mighty Hike, which you'd think would have a lot of londoners ready and willing to get into a walk up the Lee Valley canal and back round through Epping Forest to finish back at the Olympic Park - so it will be interesting to see what sort of a mix of people we have, and on the google analytics - where in the world everyone looking at the photos on the day and afterwards is looking from... are they londoners ?

A strong Half Hike Finishing team

Can we check if the Mighty Marshals are allowed to enjoy it this much ?

Super volunteer team who gave out the medals at the finish

Success hugs all round !

Ewe have got to be seeing double by now

When a great team finish and are brought together by love, care, memories and friendship for a good cause

So thats about it for this week - Mighty Hike #2 done out of 15, and we have plenty of space if you want to enter one yourself - https://www.macmillan.org.uk/mighty-hikes the south coast (if you're a sussex based person) is ideal and a lovely route - I've walked much of it myself over the years - and can confirm it will be a wonderful day out for you.

We have a return to a few running and triathlon events the week after next with the Hoppit and the Mid Sussex Tri too - so get in there if you need some trail running or tri action...
https://hampshiretrailmarathon.co.uk/

https://midsussextriathlon.com/

So until next time, train safely, and hopefully my ankle will stop rolling over, and my achillies will have settled down too and I can go for a run... this HIT training is hard work ! (And so is this entrained mediation too!)

Anthony

REP Arundel Tri 2024 - Gallery now live

The Raw Energy Pursuits Arundel Triathlon gallery 2024 is now live

 https://bit.ly/REP-Arundel-Tri-2024-Gallery

search by your race number, and if you can't find yourself - have a search on 000. Apologies but we only got the first bit of the sprint tri swim - because the standard tri runners started to finish from around 8am...

it's a castle and flaggy things ! lovely !

don't go in the paddling pool over there

arty shots because no mist, and dry. Elbows hurt though.

not quite a drone shot..

again, dry ground and nice sunshine...

Amanda waved hello as I said happy birthday

more arty stuff...

that's a lot of water to be churning about to go forwards

it's the fun downhill bit innit.

That arrow is actually part of his bike seat post

fast machine

I think he's bent the frame

it's about this wide

come in number 1

happy days

Nice one Ed

happy to finish that run in the sun

Love a double thumbs up :-)

I present the referees and race directors... always buy them cake and coffee

so that was a quick day - 12hours end to end to get the gallery live - off 5hrs sleep, so might just go for my run in a moment - but first a word from my grey matter...

Mental Health Awareness week :tldr : Do some Mediatation. just as much as you go to the gym or go for a run.

So it's the end of mental health awareness week, and here I am up at 4am to take photos at 5:45 of people seriously committed to their physical health. And there's all the evidence that physical health helps your mental health - need to clear your head ?  go for a run !, or perhaps even a walk.

and does mental health help your physical health ? well judging by the triathletes I saw today...

Do you know why it helps clear your head though ? because your brain is prioritising balancing, because if it wasn't for balance - we wouldn't be humans. Preproception (balancing subconciously) is *the* way to force your brain to forget all the other noise going on and concentrate on keeping you upright.

And it works - having a stressful trip to the Bodyshop as your senses get assaulted by the temperature, light, sound, colours, crowd, and yes - the smells ? Need to calm things down  ? well just balance on one foot. Nobody will see you do it, and it will take 100% of your mental capacity - and all that other sensory stuff your brain thought was important back then - has just been dropped like sack of coal. Because Balance. Apparently it's important - who knew ?

So running and walking, and even cycling - because it's balancing or sorts - just sort of push everything else out of the way. You feel good, but when it comes back to brain clutter central, it hasn't strengthened your brain to process that stuff faster and get rid of it faster. It's still going to take you about 15 mins of running to even start to clear that mind of yours.

So what else do we have that could ? Whats the mental gym workout that we should all be doing *just as much* as the physical workouts we all do ?

Meditation.

*ugh as I hear a collective sigh* he's gone all hippy on us again...

Hear me out now...

Real meditation is not "taking a break" or "having a rest" - it's real mental hard work to clear your mind. Like physically going up to the attic and giving it a good clean out - it takes effort and on the way you will find a few old memories on the way that will slow you down - but you have to make the effort to clear it out. It takes time and effort.

But the rewards - just like going to the gym, your brain literally will build new and faster neural connections. This is called neuroplasticity. Start to do it and after a couple of goes - you'll be stronger and can do more hard work - just like going to the gym.

Your brain will speed up, you will remember things faster, you will have a quicker wit, you will be able to process a gabble of social situation faster and more easily, and you will be able to process irritating things faster and more efficiently - instead of them stressing you out. The left-right connection in your head will get stronger and faster - you will be able to connect up all those emotions but also be more reasoned and in control. Things that used to overwhelm you - or you were sensitive to before (cold, light, smells, difficulty with hearing) - simply won't register as you just process those signals faster.

A real meditation is hard work - learning to clear out your mind, letting thoughts in and moving them away - requires brain power. Just like the gym, you might feel weirdly tired after a meditation, but you will feel strangely relaxed and more mellow, chilled or connected for a time afterwards. You may even feel more focussed and ready to concentrate and in full flow. Let it go !

The goal (of a lot of meditation types) is a brain frequency (yes the brain has a processing frequency - just like your computer) - and aiming to operate in what are called Alpha waves = ~10Hz. There are other wavelengths of Beta, Gamma, Theta and Delta, and it's the Beta ones that lock you into stress, depression, exhaustion, fogginess etc. (we don't like the Beta, but that's what the outside world makes us think at).

https://sspimg.com/types-of-brainwaves

So how do you get to an Alpha wave state ? ("Practise Anginsen!", or "wax off, wax on" if you're a bit younger...)

Bilateral / Binaural music
Here's the good news - just as a piano playing middle C to the choir so they all know what's going on - you can play Alpha-wave embedded music to your brain to get it "into the zone". 

This gives your brain a really good example of what to aim for, and most often becomes "entrained" or "harmonic" with the music you're listenting to. So it turns out there is a short-cut kick start to meditation, listen to a bit of alpha wave music and you'll be chilled out and productive sooner than you know.

And here's the weird thing - I combined (because obviously why WOULD YOU DO THIS?) listening to a bit of this bilateral / binaural music whilst I went for a run. The one I have is a bit like "spa music" but you can hear on the stereo headphones - the change in stereo left and right. It was weird to start off, but then - I noticed my shoulders were more relaxed, the breathing was deep and sound, and then I checked my watch and I couldn't comprehend it - I was running 7:15 mile pace instead of 7:50 mile pace, and I kept it up for four miles. Nothing made sense anymore. I finished expecting to be utterly exhausted, but I wasn't and hey that was good.

But I also listen to it in the house on my headphones or around the house. Message me back if you want to know the track I listen to, and I'll put it in another blog for you or email you back with a link. I cunningly put it on in the house when the kids need to concentrate on their homework or something similar, or I have an important bit of work to do - and everything just flows. A friend of mine with a very sensitive 6year old played it in the lounge and kitchen for a couple of weeks - and the kid completely chilled out (and that was without headphones) and even said "I'm a lot less sensitive to things now". Yes, alpha waves work.

So, without pronouncing what else we need to know on Mental Health awareness week - I put it to you - if you look after your physical health and put time into that, they you might well want to consider putting time into meditation - and giving your brain a workout too. Because meditation done right - is hard work and builds it up, just like the gym does for your body. And if you believe in physical health - then I'm guessing it's not a big leap of imagination to believe in actually doing something for your mental health too.

If you think physical health deserves some of your time, then Mental Health - via meditation work - deserves an equal amount - and no less. (PS long term meditators live longer and look younger - so yes mental health does effect physical health).

enjoy your training, and until next time 

It's not a bad venue is it

That morning calm - always the best time - what your mind should be like

Sunrise, 5:25 over the fence - see that in another years time then...

cheers for now, don't forget to let me know if you want the music track...

Anthony

Norfolk Macmillan Mighty Hike #1 2024 - live on the day galleries are a thingy

here's the finish funnel sight - what a relief !

I didn't blog that much with news  since the covid break, beacuse after that it was really the responsibility of the event organisers to tell participants where to get their free downloads - (www.mightyhike.photo) and to be honest - they did - because when you're paying for a service - you want to get your value for money out of it. And as they had the emails for all the participants - then they could and they did. That sort of suited me fine, but I'm also aware I wasn't telling people about new events and things they really ought to be interested in... so here we are 2024 and getting back on with things. SO - get yourself entered into a Mighty Hike - even if you think you're a runner really - as a way to facilitate a short break somewhere and see some lovely countryside - this is the way to do it - https://www.macmillan.org.uk/mighty-hikes/choose-a-hike

Norfolk is nice (what you can't see is all the twitchers looking for a purple Crane - it's because they're all wearing camoflage)

Saturday at 7:30 am saw the start of the seasons Mighty Hike series for Macmillan. For the past three or so years this charity hike series has been the top of the charts for justgiving fundraising events. As a victim of it's own success we're now covering 15 events this year - up from the original 8, (who said free photos help with promotion and customer loyalty ?) but also a zillion and one other major and minor charities are all deciding that they can get in on the fundraising action of hikes along nice trails.

travelling light - battery, laptop, camera kit, power cables, food, chair and camera

Quite a lot are promoting places and entries into a general walk - like the Ultra Trail series, and there will be lots of charities there taking part and being represented. Others are putting them on but are not attracting the numbers for the organisers to cover the large fixed costs that need covering to put the event up into the "excellent" experience category. The macmillan ones certainly fall into this with large marquee tents at finishes, excellent catering, stops and food, and frankly the cleanest toilets ever seen in event history. As one of the regular "crew" at these events I'm slowly getting to know the team that "do the toilets" - which are a great bunch, and always have a good chat (unless I'm doing the tip toe dance and dash between finishers), but it's incredible what a difference to the event this standard of infrastructure can make to everyone's days. 

shiny tentage with great food options

Also - not all the rival events have free photo downloads. On the day. Ok I'll say that more clearly - none of the other events have them. Some of the cynical participants thought the endless messaging at the start to say show your numbers were a scam to rinse them of more money (like disney), and were overjoyed to find out that they were free and all part of the event. It makes a massive difference in participant loyalty, engagement and according to justgiving - if they use them on their profile - they raise on average 13% more - which if you at least enable everyone to do it and give them the material to do it - when they are raising £750k of a single weekend - then that 13% goes a long way - we like to think we help them pay for our services.

the rather nice event vibe at the finish area on the saturday

Saturdays event went smoothly enough - with 39,000 odd images all uploaded and done by the time the last walker crossed the marathon finish line. Thanks to the event organisers installing a Starlink web connection (no I'm not telling you the password!). Sunday - less smooth when it turned out that the search facility on the gallery had mistakenly been disabled by the gallery providers during an overnight *upgrade (not an upgrade). They're in New York, so a tense few hours waiting for them to wake up on a sunday, smell the coffee and get with the beat Baloo. They did and so thankfully at 4:30pm everything kicked back into easy search and download... but it was a tense few hours. A disarmingly relaxed "that's all fixed for you apologies for the inconvenience" was all I got back, which culturally rubs me up the wrong way and certainly didn't feel like an apology for spoiling a few thousands peoples moment of getting their photos - but sunday night is when the real online action starts - and we had that - so all was ok... and then just the 4hr drive back to the office with the data...

was a lovely sunset, but that north sea breeze does cut down the air temperature...

a lovely view ready for the start of the shingle. Lasted about an hour with the boat there.

not knocking these guys also turning up for work, but it's not the view we were thinking of at the time - an dyes they parked it there and went fishing...

The north sea comes with warnings. My warning is don't sit in the sun facing the off shore breeze for hours on end without a very very warm coat and factor 50 suntan lotion...

This is the bling you're thinking of

The medal awaits the returning hiker, and a sturdy glass of "no-prosecco" alchohol free refreshment

they went thataway..

early practice arms - you're only at Sherringham !

It's like baywatch, but in green

voila the finish !

synchro fours entry to olympic finishing

no surrender, even if they are thumbs up

swim practice begins

bring me sunshine... all the while...

great to BEE here...

TAXIIIIIII !!!!!! nope.

it was a bit weee and a bit woah

They filmed Dads army near here you know. Including the surrender scenes as reimagined here

jump to the ryhthm, jump jump jump to the rhythm...

So that was the weekend. Top tip  - be prepared for the onshore cold north sea winds. Even if it's sunny and hot out of the wind... you will get sunburnt, wind burnt and salted.

Next weekend is the famous REP Arundel Triathlon - 5:45 am start and sold out - https://rawenergypursuits.co.uk/ but come along to spectate anyway... the traffic is super easy that time in the morning. (note to self to check A27 overnight opening).

so until next time, I expect to see you at the Snowdonia mighty hike, all ready and set for a great weekends walk...

Keep training and enjoy the nice weather

Anthony