A fun packed Saturday running round a 1/3 mile loop in Stanmer Park for an hour - not!! I managed 24 laps with a bit of a hangover.
Still all in a good cause, Cancer research. Most people were doing the odd hour with the brunt of 2-3 hr legs done by 4 people in not particularly nice weather overnight.
As a team we were aiming for 150 miles in 24hrs. Don't yet know how they got on but I think we should have surpassed that.
It would have finished while I was running Henfield Half on the
Sunday
A pleasant morning's run with the rain seemingly abating just for this little race in the Sussex countryside. I drove Clare, Lou and new boy and half-marathon virgin Rick to the start (check
this one of Rick beating the oldest guy in the race to a sprint finish - I beared witness to this hilarious spectacle)
The great start!, a loop around a field also at the end of the race doesn't do the run justice, as you get bad bottlenecks at the beginning. Suffering the tired ignominy of having to try and run/hobble the quarter mile for the finish line exposed to waiting finishers/crowd.
Once out on the course it loops around through a field of head high corn along a single berth muddy track. Just damned difficult to get your rhythm for the first mile.
Eventually reaching a cinder track, or what appears to be an old railway track the race gets going, winding through the bridleways of Sussex.
Reached the Adur riverbank which similarly to the Seaford half on Cuckmere wends on for a couple of miles. Mile 9 caught Mark Halls who had already run 2-3 hrs @ Stanmer the previous evening finishing in the dark, drenched through at 12pm. He had also run 12 miles that morning to get to the race. This guy is training for a 100k race and certainly banging the mileage in - good luck to him. My left calf then decided to flare up, an old injury which proceeded to hamper me for the rest of the race. Still it was nice to jog with Mark and shoot the shit, by now he was fairly fatigued.
Managed to lose me on a climb to the finish. It was a race of 2 thirds good, 1 bad, with all my focus on dragging the hindering limb behind me. Got overtaken by numerous people around the field finish, but still posted around 1hr 50mins - disappointed but mileage in the bank for Beachy Head.
Next stop, calf permitting, a foray back to the Marina in earnest preparation for the Jog shop Jog and beyond. My beloved Downs, snake et al await.
Photos - the face says it all, but now a nice distant memory.
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