It was the day of the second Brighton Marathon and a rare thing happened. Despite setting off running at the same time, I managed to get to the 26 mile marker ahead of Cliff, albeit only by a few minutes.
I’m not seeking to mislead you though, so I should ‘fess up that my run started from home and only lasted 108 minutes, after which I breakfasted, showered and caught the train to Brighton with Kim, finally reaching the afore mentioned marker not five minutes ahead of Cliff.
It was a glorious day, but at 9am it was still fresh as I ran off in my shorts and t-short. My route was circuitous to say the least, my aim being to cover ten miles without straying too far, if that makes sense. I took in Wivelsfield, Hundred Acre Lane, Streat church, Spatham Lane & home. Roughly 10.9 miles in 1.48 is about 6mph.
Hurrying through Brighton we bumped into Clive & Nat & stopped to chat for a few minutes. We then wove our way slowly through the crowds to find Penny standing aloft on a concrete ball and then we deafened the people in front of us as Cliff ran by.
A little later we managed to find Cliff again on the other side of the finish line, and then Mark Johnson too, both surprisingly mobile given the rigours of the day… Mark actually danced a jig!
Penny, Kim and I then set off for a gorgeous walk to Rottindean along the cliff top, almost reaching the village limits by the time Cliff picked us up, he having retrieved his car in the meantime.
We then supped beer and ate comprehensively in the White Hart before wending our ways home.
Aside from currently sporting the kind of headache that comes from being dehydrated, sunkissed and hayfevered, it was a most brilliant day!