UPDATE: This blog post is from 2009, for 2010 race click here or simply go t0 42run.com and search for your photos.

The day promised to be sunny…I mean the Met office promised…they said I mean…well yes…so it had to be sunny but it wasn’t really. But it was nice. In fact it was a great day and a great race. But it was a long day. Although waking up at 6am on Sunday morning wasn’t very exciting, today we covered one of the best races so far. We were really planning to go back to London right after we finished taking pictures but you know…it’s Brighton, it’s not that easy to drag yourself out of there. And here we are, still sorting through thousands of photos and  rushing to finish uploading them so that all of you desperately looking for  something to brighten up your Monday morning can have that fix.

I guess there’s not much else to say other than

For your Sussex Beacon Half Marathon 2009 photos go to www.42run.com. Enjoy, we hope you find yourself here.

Saucony English National Cross Country Championships at Parliament Hill, London.
Oh what a race! Even though I only managed to get there for Senior Mens’ start at 15:00 I can definitely say that I haven’t seen such supporters in any of the races covered so far. I almost regret I didn’t have a camcorder instead of my camera as the noise was at least half of the experience. All you could hear was:
Come on Phil! Well done Mike! Goood job Tipton! Way to go! Push yourself dad!
Everyone around seemed to know everyone on the track. A guy behind my back was shouting what sounded like last names of the runners. And no, it wasn’t the finish and he certainly didn’t look like one of the organisers. I guess he was just showing off that he knows everyone…or maybe he thought I’ll remember the names when tagging the photos :]
Well I can’t remember any of them obviously but if you want to know them all by heart for the next Cross Country Champs go here and start learning. It’s worth it. You might even get a high five if you guess the name correctly next time.

High five!

UPDATE: This blog post is from 2009, for information about the Love Run London 2010 click here.

Happy Valentines Day!

What better way to ignore all the commercial hype crap can there possibly be than to wake up at 8am on a nice Saturday morning and go to a park to watch people running for charity? No prizes for guessing – none.

And so we went and covered our first race in London this year. The weather was good, the runners looked happy and we had a good laugh looking at finish supporters.

After almost 3000 photos and 6 races we got a picture of a runner with bib 42! We almost thought that the organisers ignore this fine number (or leave it for themselves, I mean who wouldn’t want a number 42 bib?).

Look for your photos here and download them for free straight away.

After a few months without any races covered in London I was happy to find DadsDash 2009 in Hyde Park on 8th February. However the race was postponed until 22nd due to “adverse weather conditions”. And yes, I did read the notice on their website, I mean do you think I wouldn’t check the race details before going to cover a race? Of course I did! I simply went there to check if there are any fools who haven’t and take photos of them.

• Time: 10:50
• Location: Hyde Park, London

If one would think there’s a race in the park it wouldn’t be very difficult to find  a few proofs one is right.

I mean there’s everything:

Runners warming up

Runners ready for the race (even with bibs already!)

Marshals

Supporters at the finish (or maybe a bunch of German tourists)

One could even think it’s not just a run, it’s almost half of the olympic games:

Horse riding

Cycling

Running

Rollerskiing

But one who’d think all that would be a complete fool – everyone knew nothing is going to happen – it was just an ordinary Sunday morning in Hyde park. The run is on 22nd, didn’t you know? I did.

Another runner

After having skipped a race the weekend before because of the terrible rain I head over to Watford for their Half Marathon. Long story short:

• All is looking good until I get to Euston to get the train to Watford. Delays delays..A crowd is gathering in front of the screens and you can clearly see who’s heading the same direction as me – half asleep faces and trainers.
• After a bit of a walk around the motorways to get to the race I’m there at the entrance of the park, trying to decide which start might look better – “Senior Women and Veteran Men” or “Senior Men and Veteran Women”…just hoping there isn’t going to be 4 finish lines..
• The runners’ faces at the start are silently screaming “Why did I choose to kill myself this way?” but they’re trapped, fences on the sides and the crowd at the back the only way out is to run. And they run..for an hour and a bit at least.
• The only thing us at the finish are jealous about is that probably those guys running aren’t as freezing cold as us. The hands are shaking and it starting to snow..what next, hurricane?
• Enough is enough after about 3 hours outside and I head home looking at all the blurry photos I’ve taken. I guess running and snapping at the same time is quite an option for the future races in winter, at least I would feel my legs then.