29th May - Bexhill 5K

The first race in the Battle of Bexhill race series took place at Bexhill Seafront last Wednesday evening. The opening race of the series was the 5k and another 5k will take place on 25th July 2009 as part of the SGP series. These are followed in the autumn by a 10k and a half marathon.

The Battle of Bexhill is being waged so far as the 5ks are concerned on a different course to previous years. The race HQ is at Polegrove Park were there seemed to be more parking and generally fewer members of the general public around. The race start and finish were nearby on the seafront. The start and finish off West Parade are quite narrow and whilst this did not seem to cause a problem on Wednesday, it could be more congested at the SGP race.

The course runs in a westward direction and after about 500m veers inland away from the sea along South Cliff (the road which runners of the Hastings Marathon in December may recall brought them running to the sea in Bexhill). The course then drops left down a ramp to the Lower Promenade and runs by the sea in a south westerly direction - absolutely fine as long as the south westerly isn't blowing, but no such luck on Wednesday! after some distance the runners then turn back round a cone and run towards the runners behind them back along the lower promenade in the opposite direction. The course then turns left up a short uphill gradient back to South Cliff which rises uphill in the direction of the sea (as per the Hastings Marathon route). After the crest of the hill the runners turn right back to the Lower Promenade and do the loop again. After the second loop, the course continues along South Cliff to West Parade and sprint finish with a following wind.

On Wednesday, it was cold, cloudy, damp (but no longer raining) and windy, with an uninviting brown surf breaking in rows off the beach. The conditions were far from ideal but the Waddies put in a spirited performance. The results:

Adult 5K
Wed 27 May 2009
18 #37 Michael Pain Wadhurst Runners 19:16.00 MV44/2
33 #34 Peter Burfoot Wadhurst Runners 20:52.00 MSV56/2
43 #26 Linda Hayes Wadhurst Runners 21:42.00 FSV49/1
70 #41 Albert Kemp Wadhurst Runners 23:56.00 MSV62/3
131 #94 Martin Burke Wadhurst Runners 31:39.00 MSV53/8

Special congratulations go to Mike Pain and Lyn Hayes for winning their categories.

Thursday's Track Session

The session this week was well attended and after our warm-up, we did 8 x 400m interspersed with 200m recoveries. There was then a timed 400m lap session and the results were:-

Russell 59.64 secs
Ciaran 65.13 secs
Nick 73.32 secs
Hannah 74.87 secs
Peter 79.52 secs
Helen G 79.86 secs
Fergus 79.86 secs
Matt 83.10 secs
Albert 87.74 secs
Becky 87.97 secs
Fi 91.67 secs
Roger 99.41 secs
Miriam 111.17secs
Sara 129.47 secs

Well done to everybody and thanks to the junior Seabrooks and to Simon for their support. The benefits of the speedwork sessions are already being felt by the regular attenders.