It was the Brighton Half Marathon today and I crossed the finish line shortly after the winner had come in at 1.06.59.
Sad to report that I was going the other direction and at a much slower pace.
I had started from Woodingdean, bracing myself against a biting, rain-laden wind. My hands were frozen within 30 minutes by which time I was running along the top of the cliffs into the wind.
But actually it wasn’t as bad as I had expected, with the force of the wind bouncing up off the cliff and missing me for the most part.
Despite the inclemency I had expected more people to be out, but I had seen only three by the time I reached the marina. And then I saw where they all were, turning like a giant snake on the Marine Parade below me to head into the wintry wind towards Shoreham.
I ran on, dodging the confused race marshals to reach the Palace Pier at 52 minutes (pretty consistent in this) and then on towards the West Pier. In this section the front runners started to pass me in the opposite direction and I had counted thirty by the time I reached my one hour turning point at the Peace Memorial.
I headed back along towards the Marina with the faster runners sliding past me with increasing regularity until I reached the Palace Pier again where I took a more direct route to the finish. A little further on I came to the Martlet Kayak Club where Cliff and Paula were helping with refreshments for the runners.
Once back on the cliff-top I was treated to occasional blasts of wind from behind which carried me forward like an Elite runner, at least for a few paces. I passed a few more runners along this section, battling against the wind towards me and it seemed to make them more sociable than normal. As I reached Rottingdean I came upon a wet runner with a bedraggled dog and was delighted when I got closer to realise that it was Jane, complete with her bump.
With the wind behind me I was faster up the Falmer Road (than last week, at least) and I ran past the Downs Hotel and right to the top of the village…
… before dropping back down to the 15 mile (and a smidgeon) finish at 2 hours 13 minutes. This is 6.77mph, a shade faster than last time I ran this distance two weeks ago, but somewhat slower than the 11.73mph average that the marathon winner managed!