The Lewes Marathon

[Sweder]

There's much afoot in the world of The Moyleman Marathon.
It's MM, isn't it? Moyleman being one word. This matters, you see, because the two M's offer a rather useful excuse for a logo, incorporating the two Ms, to reflect the hilly nature of the course. Better brains than mine will be working on this.

Headline news: we have our route.
Rob, Duncan and I met at Chez Sweder this afternoon. Rob and I ran the tricky Firle section this morning, mapping a path to Bo Peep farm, back past Charleston Farmhouse and Firle Place, to Glynde. It turns out my errant drop off the ridge (previous post) was barely 100 yards off course.

We met at mine, over tea and wasabi popcorn, to compare data sheets. We agreed and noted each point along the complete route, Duncan providing GPS data (mileage) between points. He'd dropped off Firle before the Beacon so didn't have that data. I recorded that on my Garmin today.

The grand total adds up to 26.363 miles. Given that we have at least 300 yards to play with (both start and finish lines can be adjusted) we're there. Next steps are:

- create that logo
- fire up a website
- enable registration (limited to 50 runners to keep a lid on costs)
- talk to a potential sponsor (just for medals for now)

We have the following lined up:

- race date: Sunday 23rd February. It's half term week, the 17th is Brighton Half, the following Sunday the Stinger.
Some though given to moving after the Stinger to create back-to-back monster races
- Chief of Marshals will be Tom Roper of this parrish. Delighted about this.
- several offers to marshal, including Camilla
- plenty of interest from local runners
- marshal points and water stations mapped out

We plan to use simple coloured disks, strapped to fencing and gates, to mark the route. Key junctions, splits in the route and the three crossing points (2 roads, 1 railway) will all be marshalled. Water containers will be dropped off early doors at each station, unless we can pursuade volunteers to take them. All stations are reachable by road/ have parking nearby.

Key points:
1. Spital Road (start)
2. Blackcap
3. South Downs Way
4. Bunkershill Plantation
5. Long Hill
6. Housedean Farm (Water, Marshal)
7. A27 bridge
8. Railway Arch 710
9. Loose Bottom
10. Castle Hill Nature Reserve
11. Death Valley
12. Burned Out Farm
13. Swanborough Hill
14. Kingston Ridge
15. Yellow Brick Road
16. Mill Hill
17. Farm Drive
18. C7 crossing (Marshal)
19. Bridge Over The River Ouse
20. Southese Station (Marshal)
21. Youth Hostel (Water)
22. New Bridge
23. Itford Hill
24. Firle Tumulus
25. Firle Bostal (car park) (Water)
26. Firle Beacon
27. Bo Peep Farm
28. Charleston Farmhouse/ Under Downs trail
29. Firle Place
30. A27 Preston House (Marshal)
31. Trevor Arms pub, Glynde
32. Ranscombe Lane
33. Mount Caburn
34. Lewes Golf Club (Water)
35. Chapel Hill
36. Cliffe High Street (finish)

John Harvey Tavern (beer)

The route nods to the Jog Shop 20, covers much of the Firle 20 and kisses the high point of the Seaford Half.
It seems the toughest thing about this event will be to run it.
It's a brute.