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| All go for the Easter Bunny at the RBK Spring Half Marathon 2018 |
Apologies for the slightly later blog that usual, but it's been a bankholiday Easter Weekend with things to do - including submitting a report to the police, but more on that later...
Here's the latest gallery list, or event list depending if you're interested in the recent past, or your future races - get yourself entered into these races sharpish if you want to get a place - many are sold out...
So whilst it's been snowing like crazy up north, it's only been raining heavily down south, with the end result that the Weybridge 10k was cancelled on Sunday, but downstream at Hampton Court and Kingston - the riverbanks were high enough to cope. I know for certain that other companies up north who do the same sort of thing as us are struggling with cashflow and putting food on the table because of it. It is a very difficult time of year.
By comparison we're getting to the end of the 5 months of winter that only makes about 20% of our annual turnover and taking big breaths to prepare ourselves for the rest of the year ahead.
At the moment that gives me three weekends between now and November that I'll be at home, and I've decided that's not really good enough for me as a parent. I quit my corporate job 10 years ago to have more time to be with my kid(s), and that principal and priority still remains, so I'm starting the conversation in the office to work out how we can make that work. Otherwise we're in the ironic position of leaving a job on the principal of life-work balance only to create a job that takes that very thing that you wanted - away. so Time for a rethink, take stock, and get some balance, there will be a middle ground somewhere without me having to work 48hr weekends on 5hrs sleep for three days with no rest during the week being back in the office.
So on that thought I'll leave you with the race photos from the Royal Borough of Kingston (RBK) half marathon 2018
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| Off from the start in the High street - around the crowd and off around town, and then a bit along the river. Easy ! |
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| Hulk Angry ? |
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| After a little bit of running, the happy transformation is completed |
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| Cold weather ? never mind, just wear a (fake) fur suit... |
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| a skipping and a hopping the whole way ! |
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| keeping warm after the early loops |
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| Master of all he races ! |
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| Good strong concentration after the top loop of the course at 4 miles |
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| 4 miles done, and in the bag |
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| thanks for that... |
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| the fun of running |
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| full flight into the finish |
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| Hampton court provides a lovely backdrop |
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| top win - 1:08 as preparation for the london marathon |
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| relaxed and happy with his morning's work |
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| Keep Calm and Run ! |
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| Good pushing to the finish by Alice |
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| Cheeky finish |
So to finish the story as to why the blog is a bit late this week - an appeal for any witnesses - if you were running along Barge Walk (that's the bit just to the south of Hampton Court Palace, just before you get to the bridge) and saw any kind of disruption with the photographer who was there and a member of the public - please get in touch. Also if you saw the Marshal on the end of Barge Walk and the Bridge being involved with a member of the public - both somwhere around 10:00am and 10:05am - then please get in touch on info@sussexsportphotography.com - as an incident has been reported to the police and we are asking for further witnesses to corroborate generally what happened. Unfortunately I can't say much more than that, and it's not something we have ever had to ask for before in 15 years - but all help would be appreciated.
GDPR
On a tangential observation to the incident as we were thinking that the images of runners we have at Hampton court could help us to compile a possible list of witnesses (it won't because the photographer wasn't taking photos as the incident unfolded!), we're having the odd discussion about GDPR in the office and what the implications are for races and race organisers, public results lists, race photos and of course - personal privacy - where GDPR dictates that any personal data use requires Explicit (as opposed to complicit - i.e. it's in the race terms and conditions) permission for personal data to be used in order to organise a race, generate results, and even to the point of generating national ranking tables.
I'm not sure that any race entry system or service is currently configured for explicit permission for all the uses that personal data is actually used for - that is - as tick box opt-in on every listed possible data use - including but not limited to - passing a name or even gender to the results/timing company - because of course the results could just list race numbers and times (and there are lawyers out there arguing that your race number is your personal data and so even listing your race number is a breach of the GDPR regulations - but that's technically called "secondary data" and frankly the tenuous discussions the lawyers wrap themselves up in to generate more billing time on that is ludicrous.
How do you feel about having your name listed and all your races and whereabouts being outlined in the power of 10 website ? Did you know you will need to give permission for this ? Do race organisers know that they will need to get this explicit permission in the future to submit names to the power of 10 ? (power of 10 is the national ranking results tables website)
http://www.thepowerof10.info/
The key here is "explicit" permission, and that's going to change a ton of things - someone somewhere is going to come up with a clever "catch all" explicit permission capturing method, or we will all be complicit in watching the GDPR data breaches because we as users of the systems simply get exhausted saying yes or no to every single permission being requested. And then when that happens - "pity the fool" (as Mr T might say) who has to use all those permissions correctly to somehow get their job done and actually organise a race...without breaking GDPR permissions given.
Sit back and watch it all unravel on May 28th...
Until next time, and see you at Paddock Wood, or on the Grand Union Canal Half this weekend
Anthony
