REP Arun 3.8k swim and Giants Causway Mighty Hike 2024

all calm before the off

 So if you're into cold baths and rubber suits, then the next step is to enjoy doing that and thrashing your limbs about - and hey presto - you could be an Ironman swimmer. Granted - possibly not on the flat in a lake, but if you pick one of the fastest downsteam rivers in the UK - then you might be in with a chance of completing things. Not quite - but all the same - welcome to the Raw Energy Pursuits River Arun 3.5km swim.

You would need some skill to get back to shore at the end - slowest is still under 2 hours - if you miss the last turn into the lifeboat ramp - you're off to France at no uncertain speed wooshing off to the main shipping lanes in the channel... because yes - the Arun is a VERY fast river....

("The river is tidal to Pallingham Quay, 25.5 miles (41.0 km) upstream from the sea at Littlehampton, and flows at 4 to 6 knots (7.4 to 11.1 km/h), making it one of the fastest flowing rivers in the country")

So, 3.5km and catch the fastest point of the tide and you could be done in 40mins - which is roughly how fast the fastest seem to finish in on average... I digress and clearly need to own up and give these guys a big dose of respect.

Personally - it's a big nope from me, I'm not a swimmer, so the main problem of pre-race nerves and actually trying to get photos of everyone before they get into the water is real - because who has time to give to a fool and his camera at times like that ?, and if they are not full of abject fear - which would seem alien to me - because I would be utterly a "bit worried" about how things might pan out. I suppose I could do some swimming training to help reduce this totally rational fear ?

One thing for sure - no matter how experience you are - the "washing machine" as they call it at the start of a mass participation swim race is a thingy to behold, let alone getting your wetsuit cleaned in.

Also last week we had the Machmillan Mighty Hike along the Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland. Which if you didn't know is along that northern coast of Northern Ireland, which is quite a long way north compared to say - Sussex. Some fantastically good weather this year (for a change) and perfect for hiking about in - so we had a cracking day at the hikes, loads of smiles and plenty of funds raised, as well as an "above forecast" number of participants - which means more Macmillan Care to be had and shared - which is a fantastic thing to help and be doing.

This weekend we have the REP Cowdray Park Summer 10k - https://www.cowdray.co.uk/sport/run-the-seasons/ which is on Friday evening - which should be perfect conditions, and on Saturday the Yorkshire Dales Macmillan Mighty Hike https://www.macmillan.org.uk/mighty-hikes/choose-a-hike/yorkshire-dales-hike- with live event photos on the day - to get that proof of achievement out there for those extra donations. We have "cool" but near perfect conditions for proper pace around the course - and it's not a flat one... hopefully that 10% chance of rain will pass just to the far side of norway...

and with that - here's some pictures from last week !

it's a bit of a busy one when they get going

I'm alive !

It's the way James Bond would have done it

That casual every day walk out

Self belief reflection (or nose blowing)

HAT FASHION

Yellow card for taking a dive ref.

Moments earlier - defending the goal miding his own business

It's all about the time

quick nasal straightening after a bit of roughage

The smile of achievement 

The surprise of achievement !

victory !

VICTORY !

checking for right hand not been bitten off

Pre race bobbing

Tango sir ?

Swimmers are a feisty bunch. Crowds were risking a lot there

and meanwhile in Northern Ireland, Giants were about

haway off to the coast and the wind. so much wind.

correct wind wrapping - but *show your barcodes* !

ready for the 26miles of groovy ahead

as far as the eye could see...sea

synchronised finishing

quick zoom along the prom

Prom walking isn't the hardest part of it all - but nice relief

I think we caught him by surprise

As if by magic, presented here is a massive chimney cliff

try scoring a goal past this defensive wall

and this is how memories are made.

marching on

Yaay for big double thumbs

Flying, both of them, hopefully Goose won't get air wash being that close behind

Power team victory

Cheers and medals galore

remember, we kneel down so you don't have to...

is four enough of a defensive wall against our strikers free kick ?

No ! you need at least 7 to defend against us photographers

when you achieve, you believe ! fantastic effort everyone !!

Sorry about the football Puns, Paul who works here in the office also does football photography and has left us for the joys of the Euros. He said he wanted to get away from the TV coverage of the election - bit extreme Paul, but can't blame you...

In the meantime - as a side subject if you've been following this past 12 months - I continue my research into neuroplasticity and neurofeedback, but the main thing is it continues to support everything about the possibility of speeding up any lagging brain processing (slow processing in parts of the brain being literally the definition of a lot of nurodivergent conditions) - this website is probably more than  interesting https://www.centerforbrain.com/

I'll type a thingy about slow auditory processing another time, and how even a mildness of it can cause socialisation difficulties and how speeding up my auditory processing, has overcome 54 years of social struggling, but that essay / TED talk is for another day... https://www.additudemag.com/what-is-auditory-processing-disorder/

Anyway - with that - train well and keep safe,

Until next time

Anthony

Hampshire Hoppit, Mid Sussex Tri, and Lake District Mighty Hike 2024 all done

What a busy weekend that was - three events - one of which has two days to it... no pressure but the CEO of Macmillan was doing her hike too, so we had to do a good job of that one as well... (we did !)

A weekend of rain on the saturday - which the Mighty Hikers mightily enjoyed - on the downside so did the midges at the lake side - so top tip for our team next year - make sure you take some insect repellant with you. And an unbrealla.

Unfortunately for next year we will also have to advise taking a metal detector or putting an apple location disk widget on your car key fob -  because one of our team lost their car keys in the long grass between his car and his photography spot - which I've also done once but I found them (luckily). My heart sunk when I got the news (whilst sat on the top of watership down waiting for the marathon runners...) and then had to co-ordinate a plan via whatsapp with the team on how to solve it... the onlooking rabbits were similarly unimpressed (there's an 80's film reference for you).

So - you can get to all these galleries from our main homepage - https://sussexsportphotography.com/ 

or if you prefer the full macmillan register and find your photos expereience - https://pic2go.co.uk/macmillan

So we have the Lake District Mighty Hikes, the Mid Sussex Triathlon, and the Hampshire Hoppit - all online. Since January we have been running with new tagging software for the barcode processing - we can now process and tag images considerably faster at around 1000 per minute on a good computer, and that together with our new shiny super fast fibre internet connection to the office has meant we're now pulling our average delivery timescales for events forwards by about half a day.

In fact our biggest challenge now is dealing with images where no barcode is visible in the image - so if you know people who say "oh it's ok I'l lsearch through later" - you can blame them for us taking a bit longer and having to manually check those images to see if we can manually read a race number and correct it - or not because there's nothing to see properly.

I would also like to know exactly what the race director said at the Hampshire Hoppit - because even for a marathon and with a zillion people wearing hydration packs - it was significant just how many had put their race numbers somewhere visible - much better than a lot of events we have been at in the past. Really must ask Tim what he said to them ! Thank you all !

Off they go for the start of the new 10k race at the Hoppit - finishers beer tent on the right !

what is better than running through the undergrowth and a double thumbs up

I've a feeling this hand symbol doesn't really mean "fetch batman" but I like to think it does

Strong knee lift and drive

special reflective tape on her legs for the last bit in the dark later

proper downhill flying in

This is focus

scenes

such effective high-fiving that people were veering across the finish area to get some hot hand action

One of those undergrowth bits on the trail

If you look carefully - you can see Usain Bolt just the other side of that bush

Kate bush ran up that hill, these guys were flying

All along the gallops at the start

around the fences not over them

Batman still hadn't caught up with him 15 miles later

exploding tree firework hat

There was a lot of lake filling rainfall on the saturday

optimism abounds at the start

an impromptu Ceilidh was begun at the finish...

taking the ceilidh concept on the entire hike was a challenge but it worked out ok

good numberwang showing when requried

the warmups are getting more fun as things go on

it's all go at the start

he was going to take in a detour, a mighty Hitch Hike

Correct Cbeebies hiking technique

big double thumbs for the large water

yes, we are always at the top of hills - because look - *the views*

Got to love a tutu.

Then we had the Mid Sussex Tri

Incredible presence of mind for a double thumbs up at the swim exit

will soon be available for modelling contracts

Putting the power down on the bike route

leaning into the ride

almost made it to the pub but had to turn around

awesome wave to the camera whilst swimming

medals so heavy the marshal has to help you hold it

good focus into the finish

Julie Briggs smashing through the course in amazing pace

Always excited to see you on the course !

So that's it for this weeks roundup - the weather seems to be getting better, we have ateam off to Northern Ireland for the Giants Causeway Mighty Hike on Saturday, and the small matter of a Raw Energy Pursuits swim down the river Arun - only the 2+ miles ! https://rawenergypursuits.co.uk/river-arun-3-8km-swim/

and no, Paul never found his keys at the lake district. His wife gainly drove over 100 miles with the spare keys for him, and something for which we're very grateful.

until next time - enjoy the warmer weather, stay hydrated and have a lovely weekend whatever you're doing !

Anthony