Category: Races
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Brighton Half Marathon
On Sunday, the day I turned 67, I ran the Brighton Half Marathon, my seventh time at this event, and my thirtieth half-marathon overall. My lack of training told, I’m sorry to say, and I finished in 3:05:11. My fastest time here, and my second fastest half, was in 2005 in 1:43:14. The splits tell…
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Eridge Park 10 Trail Challenge
A week ago I ran, with three of Lewes’s redoubtable Twitten runners, Duncan Rawson, Rob Read, David Stacey, the Eridge Park 10 Trial Challenge. The mud in the shower has gone, my toes are more or less dirt-free and I can knock the dried filth off my trail shoes, so it may be time to…
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The Horsham 10k: running to the sound of peacocks
The Horsham 10k is, with the Barns Green half, of the two races in the Sussex Grand Prix that I have never run, so I took myself to Horsham Rugby Club on a fine, not too hot, Sunday morning. Lining up for the start, I saw that there were pacers for 50 and 55 minutes,…
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Running the Bewl 15 with the Seaford Sliders
Any run that ends with cake, a brass band, and beer, has to be worth entering. As I limped back up the lane, in the company of another runner who revealed herself to be the Assistant Race Director, I remarked on this. In retrospect, the difficulties diminish in importance. After a run of dry sunny…
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You are now entering Mapp and Lucia country
The first time I ran the Rye Ten Mile, I was deceived by the name into thinking that it took place in Rye itself, and that runners took part dressed as characters from E.F Benson’s Mapp and Lucia stories, or, even better, as characters from Henry James. In fact, the race takes place in Peasmarsh,…
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Ten years ago
Ten years ago yesterday I finished the London Marathon, my second marathon, and the first of the three times I took part in that extraordinary event. My time was nothing to boast about, 4:32:11. I wrote a full account, for the antiquarians among you. As I watched it, in Paula Radcliffe’s last year, I wonder…
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Crowborough 10k
The sun shone as I drove north through Sussex to the start. Crowborough is famous, not only as the home of Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle, but also as the highest inhabited point about sea level in East Sussex. I found the race headquarters in damp thick fog. The race is hilly, two laps, comprising a long descent,…
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My tenth Brighton 10k
When I first ran this race in 2005 the Reebok Brighton 10k. That will be as meaningful to younger runners as telling them is was sponsored by Will’s Whiffs or Pear’s Soap. The chart below shows. in general, decline and fall, though note that I picked up speed a little this year, finishing in two…
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The Firle half marathon: ‘I think your girth is loose’
I last ran this race in 2010, when I finished in 2:20:20, and before that in 2008 when it was a mere 20k, so perhaps it was not too disgraceful to finish today in 2:29:53. The organisers had changed the route so that the big climb out of Alfriston now ascends the same hill that…
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Three races in three days
In Sussex there are two opportunities, at bank holiday weekends, to run three races in three days. The harder challenge occurs in the spring, when the foolhardy may run the East Grinstead and Haywards Heath 10 mile races, and finish off with the Burgess Hill 10k. The three together make a marathon, more or less.…