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