Seaford Half Marathon

Peter Burfoot reports on this weekend's Seaford Half marathon:

"A small team of three male Waddies tackled the increasingly popular Seaford Half Marathon. This race starts on the Seafront and travels inland the short distance to Bishopstone before leaving the roads and rising steeply up the Downs. It is mainly single file on this stretch and there was a queue for the 1st stile. After a downhill burst there is a long climb to a col on the ridge of the Downs at around 550ft.

Every uphill is followed by a downhill and this starts gently soon after the the summit but gets ever steeper as you descend over a perilous flinty track down into Alfriston. At the steepest point and just before rejoining the tarmac, Club President Roger, camera in hand was supporting with Christine, waiting for their daughter who made her debut at Eastbourne in March.

The pace slows as the course meanders along banks of the Cuckmere partly between nettles on a narrow path, slippery after recent rain. In this section numerous stiles, kissing gates, muddy areas and cowpats have to be negotiated and you pass 1 of only 2 of the mile markers, I saw - at 8 miles.

Roger and Christine again greeted us as we crossed the A259 at the Golden Galleon while the runners prepared for the final hill which is punctuated by the 11 mile marker - an assault on the 282 ft Seaford Head, before taking their lives into their hands on the final helter skelter drop to the Seafront and the race along the Prom to the Finish.

The rain held off for the race but the cloud cover kept this normally hot race quite temperate this year. There were water stations aplenty, strategically placed, and squash and other things were also offered at some of them.

The results were split into male and female and the positions were also allocated on that basis:

Male results

86 1:53:47 Peter Burfoot
121 1:59:07 Albert Kemp
176 2:06:51 David Jones

Don't forget that Wednesday sees the resumption of the SGP series with the flat Worthing 10k, followed on 22nd June by the hilly Heathfield 10k.

Waddies on the road

Congratulations to Mark Waring for completing his second Stockholm Marathon in 3:34:20 and improving on his previous time by over 18 minutes in 24/25 deg C heat on Saturday.

Don't forget the Midsummer Hash!!

Just a reminder that the Peasmarsh Hash takes place on Thursday June 19th at the Royal Oak, in Rye Foreign near Peasmarsh.

The event is a friendly race over a distance of around 4 miles. In addition to the race, there's a free barbecue for particpants - plus live music from one of the Waddies!!

Not to be missed - the race starts at 7 pm.

If you are going to attend, drop WebEd an email martin@nice-work.org.uk

Canterbury and Bexhill

Recent results are now in from two events attended by a clutch of Waddies.

David Jones and Barry Gilbert travelled to Kent for the Canterbury Half Marathon:

Place Time Name

258th 1.58.18 David Jones
402nd 2.14.59 Barry Gilbert

And last Wednesday saw the first in the annual summer series of race along the seafront in Bexhill. Well done to all those who took part.

39th 21.03 Peter Burfoot
41st 21.09 Linda Hayes
62nd 23.25 Albert Kemp
133rd 35.42 Sally Toll

Oooo la la - the Juniors strike Gold!

The following story appeared in last week's Kent and Sussex Courier.

Athletics:

Junior members of East Sussex running club, Wadhurst Runners have cause to celebrate after winning three categories in the Montreuil Ramparts 10k in France.

The beautiful walled town of Montreuil-Sur-Mer was the scene of battle in the annual Montreuil 10k Ramparts race. The junior members battled through heat and torrential rain to win their three respective categories.

Thirteen-year-old Liam Burke, successfully defended his crown for the second year in a row to win the trophy for his age group. Siobhan Burke, competing in her first 10k won the Junior Ladies trophy, while Oscar Smith aged three won the 'Mini's' 600m race.

The 10k course meanders down from the ramparts through this historic French town, and then runs the course of the river before ascending the cobbled streets back up-hill to the finish in the town's square.

The weather ranged from heat at the start to torrential rain at the end; making the last two miles of the course particularly tricky and slippery.

The Wadhurst Juniors travelled as part of a larger running group with Peasmarsh based events company, Nice Work.

Well done Siobhan, Liam and Oscar.

"I was OK until I reached the 99.8 mile checkout!"

And so said Ed McKinney!

Ed was taking part in the Grand Union Canal Race - a gruelling run from Birmingham to London along the canal towpath. The race is run over a distance of some 145 miles and Ed finished the race in a magnificent 12th place in a time of 36 hours 9 minutes (was that a pb Ed?).

Ed's report follows:

"The time's not too impressive when you actually do the sums but I'm just relieved to have reached the finish. It's an awful long way !!!

I was going OK to the checkpoint at 99.8 miles and had just overtaken a few people to get up to 7th position but when I left the checkpoint 15 mins later (at 4am) I just fell apart completely. I started to go down the canal the wrong way before someone stopped me and then I started hallucinating with sheer tiredness. My feet began to hurt so much that every step shot pain up my legs and by 104 miles I couldn't run any further so was left with the prospect of walking a further 40 miles in pouring rain and even that was excruciatingly painful.

At the 120 mile checkpoint I arrived shivering with cold and prepared to drop out but they got me warmed up with some cups of tea and food and lots of clean clothes and forced me out again. A friend from work turned up with perfect timing to walk the next 13 miles with me and try to keep me focussed but it was just interminable.

After covering the first 100 miles in just over 22 hours, those last 45 miles took me over 13 hours and it felt like twice that long.

Not so much a run as 36 hours of torture!"

Well done Ed - but the words 'barking' and 'mad' do spring to mind!