A Moyleman For All Seasons

[OutAlongTheRiver]

[Part 3]

The rest of this blog is not about my run, but the rest of the Moyleman day and a few reflections on next steps on half marathons.

Having waved off Paula for the second half, we had pics with fellow runners and then located a fellow first leg runner (who had sailed round in 1:44) and gave him lift back to Lewes.

I then arrived back at Harvey's Yard to find everything in final stage of prep awaiting for our first runners back.  Time Team were in position. Duncan as Race Director in obligatory purple beret. Ash in purple high viz.

I was able to collect my half pint glass and order pizza and grab a beer without any delay.  A few others of those who had run the first half of the relay were also there - but the speediest since they were awaiting equally speedy second leg runners.

Rumour was that our front runner was well ahead of 3hr target - indeed more than a rumour, since marshals at key points had been relaying back his astonishing progress.

And sure enough there was the cry of "Runner!" from end of North Court and there - at just a min or so past 12:50pm - the lithe figure of James Turner sporting his red Lewes AC top with yellow stripe hove into view and maintained a sprint for the line.

Lo - he had recorded an unbelievable time of 2:52:39 - taking a full 7 minutes of the record set in 2015 by Mike Ellicock (also of Lewes AC).

His family were there to celebrate - he smiled, posed for photos, and strolled off to grab a beer - looking as if he'd just trotted off the downs after a morning training run. 

Soon there was the first of the relay teams - and they were close to the relay record. We wrongly thought they had just missed by 10 seconds or so - but check later showed they had in fact broken the record with a time of 3:00:01.

Clearly the conditions were pretty good out there!

Having snapped the first place runners I felt I could try out the physio - since I'd found this helpful before. And despite the pain, the evidence of the following days was this was the right thing to do.

I was just about to head out by car to try to be at Glynde ahead of Paula's expected arrival time there, before she tackled the final climb to Caburn, when the first woman finisher came in so more picture duty and then I was off.

Arriving at the water station at Glynde, seeing cheery faces of friends Joe and Louise who were marshalling, only to be told Paula had passed through 5 mins before.

I high-tailed it back to Lewes and trotted up Chapel Hill to catch her en route, and there at top she was coming through the gate. We jogged down together and at the base she accelerated for the last 400m, leaving me behind with my legs refusing to pick up speed!

She had clocked 2:11 - exactly the same time as I had done on the second leg 2 years before. An impressive run in any conditions - but with the wind over Caburn even more so.

Harveys Yard was now nicely full, so queues for pizza were longer - but definitely worth it for Paula's recovery. She had gone straight for massage, so I even got a couple of pizza for the physio team who had been working 2 hours straight by this time.

Duncan was also in fine form at the finish greeting every finisher and sharing hugs and providing immediate emotional support to some exhausted finishers. Such are the controlled numbers that there's time to greet every runner over the course of 4 hours, which makes for a pretty special finish. 

We were both worn out but happy - and after brief rest, enjoyed meal at the Pelham, with our Spanish friends and fellow Moyleman organisers & volunteers.  In further emotional scenes, Duncan (CC5) after 2 impressive years of being race director, handed over the purple beret to Brian Courage - who will lead us in 2020.

The next day had been planned as well earned day - but back up to work.  That characterised the week which followed - no time even for a brief outing.

But I was able to help put out on social media the photos - with over 1,000 MM pics from our top team of togs - and the results. Responses from runners was as ever massively positive about all aspects - with our marshals coming in for particular praise this year.

Amazing stuff all round!

The prep for Sheffield half now had to start - and this was the challenge:  how best to maintain HM readiness over the month ahead. 

Time for a new thread on that ...