July 2009

[El Gordo]

Socks ... I remember them ...

Thoughtful photographer, setting up on a downslope.
Antbliss (local race snappers) take great pleasure in hiding at the top of long climbs so as to capture the perfect blend of exhaustion, inertia and gut-wrenching agony :o

I've twice had run-ins with Antbliss. Once a few years ago on this forum, when he got shirty about you posting some thumbnails of the Brighton 10K. And then again a few months ago, when I was desperately keen to give him £40 to pay for some good pics from the Finchley 20. He insisted that I had to agree that I wasn't buying the pictures, but only a temporary licence, one of the terms of which was that I had to seek his permission if I wanted to reproduce a picture on a blog (heaven forbid). This agreement had to last into perpetuity. What a load of nonsense. I couldn't reason with him. These were snaps of fat middle-aged people plodding round the streets of Ruislip, not pap snaps of Usain Bolt. Anyway, I had to cancel the order which did neither of us any good.

GM's pics are excellent. Rare to get such a good sense of action.

Great end to the Tour de France, BTW. I missed a few days last week, including what sounded like a harrowing climb up Ventoux. But have really enjoyed what I did see. Another reason not to get bored during the football close season.