January 2010

[Sweder]

'Well, yes ... and here we are again'
Hunter S. Thompson

Greetings and felicitations; welcome to this shiny new year.
A fitting way to kick off a month of beerlessness seemed to be the Jog Shop New Years Day Hangover run. Afforded the generous start time of 11 am the run is billed as a four mile loop along the Undercliff from Brighton Marina to Rottingdean with the return along the cliff-tops. The sun blazed above a frozen Sussexscape still waering a light dusting of last night's snow.

I rocked up at five to eleven, casually strolling along Madeira Drive towards the gathering point at Black Rock. It was here that I noticed the Jog Shop flags fluttering in a stiff-ish breeze, just next to the large yellow flag marked 'start'. Eh? Then noticed a number of familiar faces milling about ... with running numbers pinned to their shirts and jackets. Cue large, heavy penny dropping in Hollywood slo-mo to clatter noisily on the icy pavement.
It's a proper race.

There was nothing for it but to pin on a number and get in line. I'd already been spotted by a horribly fresh-looking Chris 'Austin Powers' Mallinson and a beaming, sun-glass-wrapped Lycra Tony, so no chance of backing out now. The next forty minutes was an unedifying eyeballs-out thrash.

I finished. I banked 8 kilometres. I froze - the wind-chill was well below zero. I sucked a lot of air and I shed a lot of sweat, so I guess all things considered it was a fair enough start to the year. I couldn't escape the feeling I'd been bush-whacked in some way but any attempt at complaint would have been considered ungrateful and not a little churlish. At this point I'd like to make clear had I known this was a race I doubt I'd have run 6.5 kilometres around Lewes last night, albeit at a leisurely pace. It's all I'm saying.

Happy New Year everyone.


Testing core balance timing myself on one leg after the race (Simon trying same on bike).
Thanks to Jase for the photos