Tag: burgess hill runners

The alarm was set for 7.30 this morning and I woke up ten minutes before it went off and went downstairs to find it was only twenty past six.  But I minded not, as it was a stunningly beautiful morning and the extra hour meant that I got to sit outside in the teahouse with my quadspresso and read the paper.

I duly met Andy & Paula at Jack & Jill and we were joined this morning by Ade and Garth, both of whom are also signed up for the Brighton marathon.  We contemplated a tortuous route across to Wolstenbury and all points West, but settled for a more straightforward out and back so that Ade could easily turn round at any point… this being one of his first runs after a long absence.

It was clearly going to be a hot day, but a brisk southerly kept us at a great temperature for running.  We ran along to Blackcap and the views were stunning… even if my panning suggests major tectonic activity!

It took us 47 minutes to get to Blackcap and we then set about trying to catch Ade, who had turned around early.  This was easier said than done, as he had a good head start and he wasn’t any much slower than us!

En route back we stopped to find out what the radio hams were doing on the Beacon, other than listening to the cricket and then caught up with Kjell and Gill from Burgess Hill Runners, out for a gentle run with their dog.

As we neared the end, Paula scooted into the distance on her bike and Garth also disappeared ahead on his younger legs.  Andy and I did our best to catch him, careering down the hill like madmen.  We reeled him in but he was  fast and was clearly not even trying, as he took the slower route around the windmills.  This left the way open for us to be sitting on the wall by the cars when he sauntered up.  Little things!

The distance was about 15km, or 9.35 miles and it had taken us 1 hour 35 minutes… at a pretty consistent, conversational 5.9mph, as it took us almost exactly the same 47 minutes each way.  So a short run for a Sunday, but it was warming up and I was still pooped, so that was okay.

It was the Burgess Hill Runners 4.5 mile run today and as I passed the 3 mile marker, I glanced at my watch.  One hour, 54 minutes.  Something wasn’t right.  I squeezed past a few more people and then… I inhaled a fly.  There’s nothing more embarrassing in company and for that matter, audibly disgusting, than trying to hawk up a fly when you can no longer breath, so my apologies to those of you around me at the time.

There was probably a tiny ripple of confusion when I deviated from the path at the next junction, and disappeared.  What may not have been obvious from behind was the lack of a running number.  And the fact that I had already run about 12 miles.

Kim dropped me at Jack and Jill again today and I ran heartily along to Blackcap, making it there in 40 minutes.  Hoping that I might bump into Mark again, I ran a little further to the next gate before turning for home.  The climb back to Blackcap is hard work after the easy run down and I left there the second time around the 55 minute mark.

I passed Kim five minutes later, trying to hide from me behind some boy scouts and then, leaving her to continue, dropped down the scarp slope to Westmeston.  The route north from there is a Romanesque straight line with the occasional pretty house, one of which even has a ford and a small footbridge.

There was plenty of mud along the route but it still confuses me why there is always a slurry puddle on the corner where you turn left to go west into the woods.

I was running on low energy reserves by this point and I feel the same as I sit here writing!  But then, as I crossed the entrance to the industrial estate, I converged with the Burgess Hill Runners route.  There is nothing that peps you up more than running with other people and where the next five minutes would normally have been a stagger, I ran easily along.  Even after hawking the fly!

Spat back out onto my own, the true energy situation returned and I battled across the common and back up to the house.

The route was a perfect 21 km / 13.1 mile half marathon and my time of two hours eight minutes, whilst not great at 6.14mph, reflected the fact that this was really a gentle Sunday jog.