Photographer

Another cold and windy day. The sky is dark – ISO set to 800 and it’s almost midday, fingers are freezing and it’s the last day of spring. Thousands of runners whizzing past, breaking their records, smiling to the cameras, waving their friends. Only they know why they’re out in this cold, running in the middle of London, instead of enjoying the Bank Holiday. Oh, and if you’d only listen to them – the weather was great… the crowds were fantastic… can’t feel my legs… will definitely do it again next year… And they do, we recognise the same faces year after year and race after race I’m left puzzled, what is it that they like about this whole…running thing.

In search of the answer we snapped some photos that hopefully help see the world through runners’ eyes

An unmissable event in our race calendar – no train delays or weather forecasts could stop us from going to see the hundreds of runners dressed up as anything from the crazy racer Mario to a washing machine. The race was truly heroic – runnning in the strong wind and and cold, drizzling rain didn’t look like fun but hundreds of wonder women, supermen and other heroes were smiling all the way.

We did our best to identify the runners with obscured numbers as the superheroes but it looks we’re not watching enough cartoons these days so feel free to leave a comment if you find a hero we didn’t know.

We are working hard on our BETA platform and getting ready to invite more photographers to try it out. Sign up on our list if you want to be among the first to hear once the service goes live and we start accepting more photographers to the growing 42run community.

Please note that we are integrating our free and paid-for photo search together but in the meantime our BETA service search is separate so please use the search at the top on the BETA page to find your Heroes Run photos

The Hero List:

• bananaman
• batman
• batwoman
• buzz_lightyear
• captain_america
• catwoman
• chaos
• dangermouse
• dog
• duff
• elvis
• felix
• flash
• flashman
• harry_potter
• hulk
• incredibles
• kill_bill
• lara_croft
• mario
• mr_neutron
• mr_testicles
• ninja_turtle
• ninja
• nun
• prada devil
• robin
• santa
• silversurfer
• washing machine
• spiderman
• spongebob
• super_nancy
• super_sparky
• superchamp
• superjack
• superman
• superwoman
• tweetie
• wolverine
• wonder_woman
• zoro

One and a half years ago we started 42run – a community to help photographers share their photos with the people who want them most, the runners themselves. The response and  thousands of photos we received have been amazing – charities, race organisers and runners have been enjoying the alternative source of running photography and we have been very happy seeing 42run grow almost 100 000 photo strong during over 50 running events around the UK.

The photographer community is at the heart of our service and today we are launching our BETA commercial service – a marketplace for runners and sports photographers allowing photographers to sell their photos directly to the runners. Our first gallery is Virgin London Marathon 2010 – almost 2000 photos are online already and more are being uploaded.

It is a work in progress and is in closed BETA while we are making it ready for the prime time. Sign up for our newsletter if you would like to be part of the new service and be the first to know once we start accepting more photographers.

UPDATE: 42run BETA commercial service is now live!

Our marathon photos are being prepared and will be uploaded on Monday. Thousands of photos to go through but it will be worth it – here’s a sneak peak of what’s to come:

What had to be the warmest day of the week met us with freezing wind and gave another reason for the runners to do their best – to at least warm up a bit after shivering at the start.  The queue at what seemed like the only cafe open in town at this time was long enough to miss the first runners finishing but a warm cupa looked irresistable.

Here’s a photo to those who we didn’t catch this time – I’m pretty sure you are somewhere between the others.

Today we are out covering Reading Half Marathon 2010. When covering the event last year we saw some amazing supporters and expect to see even more of them as well as thousands of runners enjoying this popular race.

The photos will be up by the evening and if you are still browsing our site trying to make sure the photos are free – yes they are! This weekend is Sport Relief weekend – if you like our photos go and donate to Sport Relief on their official website.

Today we covered another sunny spring race in beautiful Wimbledon. It’s wonderful to see the spring all around – runners smiling, waiving, shouting and jumping.. oh and yes, running as well.

42run is growing stronger and stronger with more and more photographers sharing their photos with the runners. Since last weekend 12 photographers have contributed their photos from Milton Keynes Half Marathon, Eastbourne Half Marathon and the latest race added to our list – Bath Half Marathon 2010.

We are absolutely delighted to have them sharing their photos on 42run and helping runners find those precious snaps of themselves. Here are some of the best photos from Bath Half Marathon 2010 added to 42run this week:


Photo by Lee “Pulitzer” Pullen

Photo by Andy Clist

Photo by  Griff007

Photo by Mark Draisey Photography

Photo by JimphotosofBath

Photo by steventoogood53

Photo by j2nd70

Photo by mawhite24

Photo by sunface13

Photo by V1ckyS

Adrian Carey has shared some fantastic shots from the sunny Eastbourne Half Marathon on 42run. Although the weather looked just as good at Milton Keynes where we covered MK Half on Sunday, there was one thing in Eastbourne you can’t beat – the sea. Photos from the race look like holiday snaps (in the very best way) – sun, sea and some people running, if only every Sunday was like this…

First race we covered this spring and the lovely sunshine helped us snap some amazing photos this time. We have about 3000 photos to process from the Milton Keynes Festival of Running and all of them will again be available for free at 42run.com . Follow us on twitter or fan us on facebook for up to the minute updates.