Brighton Half Marathon was a wild and windy affair, but saw many of us from the club participate and achieve some fantastic times despite the weather! Congratulations to Richard, Damian, James, Graham, Sonia, Claire and Steven.
Frontrunner Graham was running for the Sussex Heart Charity, and kindly offered to write a race report on his experience:
“It was with some trepidation that I made my way down the start line of the Brighton Half Marathon on Sunday 23rd February. The weather was pretty horrendous at the start of the day, and it wasn’t showing much signs of improvement. We would be facing gale force winds throughout the course, and this really was the overwhelming memory of everyone’s day. I was running with the Sussex Heart Charity and we were fortunate enough to have access to Yellowwave Clubhouse which was great for getting ready in the warm and dry.”
“After a few photos we made our way to the start line ready to go at 9:30am, and thankfully the rain had stayed away. I was very impressed with the organisation of this event, and it was great to be part of the 30th Anniversary celebrations. Although we had no proper start line (due to the strong wind deeming it unsafe!), the marshals and volunteers did a great job of getting us ready and having two checkered flags to wave us off and show us the start/finish line. Off we went, and the first 3 miles were a breeze, and a strong one at that, as we were carried in the tailwind out to Roedean school, the turnaround point, from where we all suddenly had a hard slog to face to come back into the headwind, which was really hard work, but the crowd were with us and all the support at this point was just incredible and really helped!”
“At this point we turned inland for some respite and I realised I was making good time so I pushed on and found some speed where I could. It was a new course for me as we carried on further to The Level, which was great as it thinned out the runners and I could take advantage of some space to stretch out my legs. The respite was over soon after and next came the hardest part of the race, already 7 miles down and now 3 or so miles of strong headwind out to Hove Lagoon. At one point I thought I had stopped moving! Luckily two of my friends spectating were standing just in the right place where I needed them and they cheered me on giving me a huge boost. Around the lagoon and suddenly it was like running a completely different race. I hardly felt like I was running at all as that tailwind really just pushed me along the final 3 miles along the seafront and to the finish line. The crowd here had built up and were really cheering loudly which helped spur me on to the end and I finished strongly. So much so that I had hit my “stretch” target of 1:45, with 14 mins off my PB! I was elated.”
“Big thanks must go to all the volunteers and marshals out on the course, and to my fellow BH FrontRunners for the training miles and support I’ve been given – the group runs really do help get me out and going and I fully intend to keep this up now the race is run. It was great to catch up with everyone after the race for a drink (in my case two) at Charles St Tap and to share our windy experiences. Well done to everyone who ran and big thanks to Paul, John and Yusuf for their support too on race day. “