HONC 2014 live, Easter action and onwards

Here's a quick update for the long weekend ahead, during which I hope you will be running, resting, relaxing, foam rollering, and recounting your racing and training, or parkrunning (is that a race, training, or just a cake eating social?)

I didn't mention on tuesday that the HONC MTB ride (Hell of the North Cotswolds) 30th anniversary ride gallery is now online here: http://bit.ly/HONC-2014-Official-Photo-Gallery
Yes whilst many people were watching Mo Farrah learn about marathon running, some 2000 people were out on the Cotswolds near Cheltenham mostly learning about puddles on their mountain bikes - and a bit of hills.

In other news for those of you interested, the possible stress fracture on the head of my right 2nd metatarsal is now diagnosed and with an immobilisation order on it (i.e. wear stiff soled trail cycling shoes without cleats on and don't bend your toes) it's 3 weeks away from the steroid injection to hopefully sort it out. In the meantime I'm getting no exercise which is incredibly depressing. If you're not interested in that news, just skip it.

Race Logo	Race Gallery link
	http://bit.ly/HONC-2014-Official-Photo-Gallery
Folkestone 10 - coming soon - entry	http://bit.ly/folkestone10-gallery-2014
Lewes 10k and fun runs 2014 - entry on the day	http://bit.ly/Lewes-10k-2014-Photo-Gallery

Cycling about on the North Cotswolds tracks and pathways looks a bit like this: Fun if you ask me !

London Marathon 2014

Just a few comments as I didn't get to watch it (probably for the best - my first day off since christmas - and when I say day off, I mean it is usually 7 days a week with an internet business, and anyway who wants to watch work on a day off?) - well done to Suzie Hewer on her new world record and as ever raising money for Alzheimer's in memory of her Mum, there was some awesome running by the chap who came in as third placed Brit - read his blog here on how it all turned out ok http://www.steveway.co.uk/  (average pace 5:11m/mile) and then an interesting bit of analysis (now fortunately anonymised) here on time splits: http://www.neillock.co.uk/training-blog/

One bit of ridiculous information - the winner - Wilson Kipsang -  just to split up the pack at the 20mile mark - put in a 4:29 mile. That's as fast as a very fast thing on turbo fast, and many 1500m club athletes would struggle to keep up with that just the once. Now for the punchline - he put in a 4:30mile immediately afterwards. Ha ha ha - keep up with that you crazy people (no you can't). Anyone who can do that - deserves to win in my book. Here's his 5k split results and feel mortal.

If you want a laugh - spot the fancy dress train he was wearing according to the official race photos

And so to Mo. The general commentary by those in the know (and we don't count Brendan Foster in that apparently) is after all the analysis done - that Mo set off the first quarter too slow, the second quarter too fast, and after that he wasn't going to have anything left to reconnect to the front group - with the most succinct comment made by Paula Radcliffe: "I think Mo has just found out what the marathon is all about".

Lets be honest - he made a fantastic debut - if you look at the results - there was the first two, gap, next two, gap, and then the race of about 6 runners in that Mo was part of - so the third finishing group and he came in 8th overall. Awesome. 

And finally - as a themed picture for the weekend - something I captured at the recent Alice Holt Races - a photo I've called the Passion of Running. Nothing posed, a genuine action shot.

The Passion of Running (c) Sussex Sport Photography.com

Have a happy Easter bank holiday weekend and enjoy your running or training !

until next time

Anthony

The BMI Bolt around the Holt 2014 now live

The BMI Bolt Round the Holt 2014 gallery is now live and online here: http://bit.ly/aat-Bolt-Round-the-Holt-2014-Photo-Gallery

On a day with perfect temperature for running about in the forests of Alice Holt for a Half Marathon, 10k or 5k, or even the 1k fun run with the kids it was a nice day out for about 700 runners.

The ageUK Wrap up and Run 10k held at Harewood house this morning will be online tomorrow Monday the 7th April. Details below.

Race Logo	Race Gallery
The BMI Bolt round the Holt 2014 event website	Now live - http://bit.ly/aat-Bolt-Round-the-Holt-2014-Photo-Gallery
The ageUK Harewood House 10k 2014 event website	Coming soon - http://bit.ly/ageUK-Harewood-Official-Photo-Gallery

All go at the start of the Junior 1k race

Running around a home patch is always good

Half marathons can drive you crazy

Concentrating at the finish

The canicross wolf run. Don't get injured on the course with them coming up behind you !

Sy is seen wearing the latest in running fashion must-haves for the Summer season. Available from a store near you soon...

So today, Sunday the 6th was the Brighton Marathon, Manchester Half Marathon and the Sheffield Half Marathon. Not to mention the Paris Marathon as well...
My thoughts go out to the Sheffield half race director who was let down by their water suppliers, and following the rules cancelled the race due to the Health and Safety due to lack of water.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26910138
Then the Runners decided to just get on with it. The Police tried to stop things, and then decided to just keep the roads closed as per the race plan, after they discovered runners are quite fast, and in the meantime the supporters along the route "did their thing" and started to get water out for the runners who by now were technically just on a massive training run. Almost all 5000 of them...
Was this a victory over Health and Safety ? Did the runners do the right thing ? What else could the Race Director do ? they had apparently waited over half an hour to get things sorted out before cancelling. Difficult decisions all round - it will be interesting to see what lessons can be learnt from it. Follow @sheffieldhalf on twitter, or their website (but that's a little overloaded at the moment) or their facebook. Clearly some confusion at the event start itself due to poor communications and PA - I've a feeling a similar situation would have happened at most events with more than 500 people. As I know a lot of race directors read this blog - I'd be interested to know your thoughts - if you made the decision - how would you actually communicate it and make it stick?

Next week is the London Marathon, seen by some as the pinnacle of the marathon calendar, if only for the scale of the event. Many of you will have been training hard for it through the winter cold, rain and floods, so I wish you all a very good luck and best of final preparations going into the last week before the big day.
Don't forget to come back and check for your "before london" race pictures to make your London Experience photo gallery complete - just scroll down the page to get to the race you're looking for: http://gallery.sussexsportphotography.com/libraryhome.tlx?events=on.

March was an incredibly busy month - we have put over half a million images online from the last 5 weeks - all individually checked, catalogued and organised for easy searching and finding. As a result we have a lot of admin to catch up on here in the office, so will hopefully be able to take a moment or two to get to it ! (You've also probably noticed these blogs getting shorter and shorter every week...)

Congratulations to all of you who completed the Brighton Marathon this morning !, I hear the rain wasn't as bad as the forecast - which can only have been a good thing. Our apologies to all of you who have asked - but no - we don't cover it, not even unofficially.

In other news I think I got one of my best photos ever yesterday at the Bolt. I'm going to save it for a separate post all on it's own later in the month. Hopefully you'll see why when you see it too. It is on the gallery, but you won't find it easily without knowing the right runner number...

Until next time, which I think will be the HONC gallery (The Hell of the North Cotswolds - Endurance MTB ride) next Sunday.

Anthony

The new t-shirt looks good even in a crowd...