Wednesday 28 December 2011

Christmas party game . .

Here's a game for Christmas . . let's play Spot the Difference . .
there are no prizes . . just a shiny red parkrun t-shirt for me

Friday 23 December 2011

Merry Christmas

A quick note to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy and Peaceful New Year. Keep warm, stay safe, and run strong . .

Saturday 10 December 2011

Turning a corner . .

Last month I wrote that I was approaching a corner in regard to my own running . . and I think it's now fair to say that I'm part way round it now . .

At the end of November I returned to East Park in Hull and on a windy morning somehow got myself round the 5k parkrun in 29.19, my fastest time in any parkrun since September 2009 . .

Dave Gowans always takes excellent photos at East Park but even he couldn't make me look like the runner I am in my imagination that morning . .


Since seeing the photo above I've tried to run taller and stretch my legs out more, rather than shuffle along all scrunched up . . 

And on each of the subsequent two parkruns, I've succeeded in running quicker on that course than ever before. I've not beaten the time I set in Hull, but I was pleased with 31.05 last week and even happier with 30.15 today on what is a slightly more difficult course . .

Many thanks to William Forde for the photo below . . it's hard for me to believe that it was taken only a week after the one above . .


John Harvey is another excellent photographer who comes along to parkruns and takes photos of us all running . . and thanks to him for this photo of me . .


Tomorrow morning it's my turn to take photos and I'm looking forward to being back at the Andy Reading 10k in Oxfordshire, before returning to Abingdon next weekend to see if I can shave any more seconds off my time there . .

Monday 28 November 2011

Dirt Half Challenge meets expectations

Last Saturday saw the second running of the Dirt Half Challenge, a great race that starts and finishes on the southern outskirts of Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire,  takes the runners north along the Grand Union Canal for 5 miles, up into Great Brickhill, across through the woods in Rushmere Park, and down the Greensand Ridge before 3 more flat miles along the canal, and the final climb up around Tiddenfoot Pit back to the finish beside Cedars Upper School.
I had planned to take photos at the Three Locks pub, and then again on the canal at a point quite close to the finish, as I had last year. However in the week before the race, Andy Hulley, the organiser, aked if I would consider instead going up into Rushmere Park and taking photos of the runners coming through the woods. Always eager to please, I said yes, subject to there being enough light. Last year the race had taken place on a dank day which did nothing for my photography and meant that I struggled to get good sharp images. I needn't have worried, as last Saturday was in fact so bright and sunny, that any runner wearing reflective clothing was almost too bright. I did get up into the woods, and found a nice spot in a small glade where the runners would all be coming past, and got all the photos I wanted.

My plan for the day was to take photos of everybody streaming past me at the start of the event, and I wobbled at the top of my step ladder as they did so that I was able to look down at everyone. I'd realised that I might be able to stop by the canal on my way to Rushmere Park and take a few more photos, and in fact about half of the 448 runners had gone by before I had to carry on up Old Linslade Road and get to my next photo opportunity.
It wasn't long before Greg Spellman, who went on to win the race (repeating his success of last year), came by . . and 65 minutes of shouting and shutter pushing later, the tail cyclist Clive Thomas came by. In between them had been runners of all ages and abilities, wearing all manner of colours, and mostly smiling broadly too. By this time they were in the 9th mile, and they were on their way back down to the canal.
Around 380 of the runners had already finished by the time I returned to Race HQ, so there weren't many of them still out there for me to take photos of. It didn't seem long before they were all back in, and Clive had reappeared on his bike, and we could put everything away and go home.
Several runners said how much they were enjoying themselves as they ran by, and others have commented on how much they enjoyed themselves when buying photos from me. I can only agree, and say that from my perspective it seems to be a great race to take part in. As with most of the races I take photos of, it's one I'd love to take part in myself one day.
Meanwhile, I'm already looking forward to taking photos there next year, and I've got almost 12 months to walk the course and find somewhere different to take my photos. This year's set can be found here on my website, with an executive summary here, in Facebook . .

Tuesday 15 November 2011

Coming to a corner . .

I raced on Sunday . . or maybe I should say that I took part in a race. It was extremely hard work, but well worth the effort . .

I've continued to run in different parkruns through the autumn, at East Park in Hull, Concord Park in Sheffield, Braunstone Park in Leicester, Southwick Country Park in Trowbridge and at Rye Meadow in Abingdon . . and I've taken photos a few times at Abingdon too . . here's me running past Southwick's Spirit of parkunner statue at the start of the final lap . . thanks to Andrew Morrison for the photo . .


So Southwick's time came as a surprise. But also a relief. Because at the end of October in 2009 I took over 30 minutes for a 5k for the first time (and that was a very unwelcome shock, believe me). Since then I've struggled with my breathing and have tried to learn to breath whist running again. Finally I understood that I had become obsessed with my breathing, and so had to learn to ignore it, and allow it to take care of itself. And finally it feels as if my hard work is paying off.

I wouldn't say that I've turned a corner, but I've certainly arrived at one. I've begun going to my running club on Wednesday evenings, where there is now a bridging group to help aid the transition from new runner to joining the regular groups. And for someone returning from illness or injury, the bridging group is invaluable. So having not run through either of the past two winters, I'm planning on training right through this one, and we'll see where that gets me.


The race on Sunday was Watford Joggers' Autumn Challenge, where I've taken photos for the past two years, but not having had much take up decided just to come along without my cameras and watch, and cheer on some friends who were taking part. The recent good feeling I've had about my running persuaded me to enter what would be my first event of longer than 5k since I took part in the Guy Fawkes 10 miler in November 2009. I declared that to be my final race and I'm very pleased that it wasn't. I have to report that 5 miles is an awfully long way, that there were 4 runners less fast than I, and that Cassiobury Park and Whippendell Woods are quite beautiful in autumn sunshine. The avenue of trees above was great to run through on the way out of Cassiobury Park, but it was hard work going back the other way.


The previous day I'd been on photo duty at the 28th Abingdon parkrun, and here are a couple of photos taken during the run . .


followed by a little montage showing the fun we had outside Coffee Republic in the Market Place after the run . . 


On Saturday I'll be at the 2nd Dirt Half Marathon Challenge, at Leighton Buzzard . . and you'll find the photos here

Friday 16 September 2011

Lucky Sunday afternoon . .

I had a great stroke of good fortune last Sunday. I'd enjoyed the morning taking photos of the participants in the Dunstable Downs Challenge . . and when I'd almost filled a memory chip swapped it with a fresh one, and placed the used one in my pocket . .


As I do each year, I took photos of the runners up on top of the Downs, snaking along the footpath towards me . .


. . and then went to this field just south of Studham . .


 . . before returning to the hill at the edge of the Downs, where the runners would come back into Dunstable . .

 


This year, instead of hanging around near the bottom of the hill to wait for everyone, I struggled up to the top of the hill for a while and got some different photos from those I'd usually take . .


. . and of course there were lots of other things to keep me occupied whilst waiting for more runners . .




But once this rain started tumbling down I began to struggle to keep my camera dry, and decided it was time to go home. But once there, I couldn't find that memory chip. Emptied everything, including the car, but it was nowhere to be found. So I drove back to the Downs, never really believing I would find the chip but needing to do something and satisfy my curiosity. Amazingly, even as I pulled into the layby, I could see the chip on the road. It was soaking wet, but didn't seem to be damaged. Got it home, and yes, it worked, and the hundreds of photos I'd spent hours taking were safe. Somebody was looking after me that afternoon . .


To have a look at many of the photos that almost didn't see the light of day, please follow this link . .

Wednesday 31 August 2011

Return to the Blogosphere . .

It's been a fairly quiet summer, certainly when compared with the weeks ahead when suddenly it's going to get busy . .

in July I was in Oxfordshire, at the Addenbury 10k and Half Marathon, where the smiley people at the drinks station instinctively knew to pose with the windmill clearly visible behind them, with no direction from me . .



Later in the month I was at the Buckinghamshire village of Mentmore, where Leighton Buzzard Runners held their Club Duathlon . .





and then I popped over to Bedfordshire, to Bedford Park in Bedford, for the Doug Anderson 5k, where I struggled with the Wednesday evening light, but still got some interesting photos . .



August found me back in Oxfordshire, at the 15th Abingdon parkrun, beside the River Thames at Pye Meadow . .



and then closer to home in Buckinghamshire, for the Bearbrook 10k at Weston Turville . .



and they've all been good fun, and I must thank the race organisers for having me along, and the runners for their smiles and waves and kind words as they run past me . .

Now September is upon us (how did that happen?) and it's my busiest month, starting with the Dunstable Downs Challenges - 13.1,20 or 26.2 miles of  beautiful Chiltern countryside . . with hardly a marshal in sight and some navigation required . . so there are often groups of runners from the same club running and racing together . .



although not everyone feels the need to hold hands as they get closer to the finish . .



The following weekend I'll be back in Abingdon, taking photos at the town's 20th parkrun on the Saturday, and next day I'll be in that London, at the inaugural Credit Suisse Beckton Park Challenge, where there'll be a 3k Junior race, and 5k and 10k races for all ages . .

and then it's one of my favourite events on the calendar, the JW Ultra - 30 miles of canal from Stratford-on-Avon to Bournville in Birmingham . .



This cluster of races is completed early in October by the Ridgeway Run, 15k of running over beautiful Hertfordshire countryside - a lovely event organised by my own club, Tring Running Club . .



Do please keep popping back to www.theracephotographer.com to find my photos from these events . .

Thursday 30 June 2011

Trent Park Triffic 10k more than OK . .


Had a great morning in Trent Park last Sunday, taking photos of Trent Park Running Club's Triffic Trail 10k. It was red hot just standing still and pressing a button on a camera, goodness knows how it felt to be racing 10k . .


Trent Country Park was spectacular in the sunshine . . if you don't know it, it's in Enfield in North London . . and before the 10k started I took my step ladder for a walk . .


And although I couldn't actually see the start from where I was waiting, it wasn't long before over 300 runners came streaming across the meadow towards me . .


It didn't seem much longer before the runners were all headed back to the finish . . a bit more spread out after just over 9k of course . . and amazingly, some still had the energy to wave and smile as they ran past . .


  

But most were just focussed on reaching the finish line, and who could blame them in Sunday's heat?


If you'd like to see all my photos from this great 10k, click somewhere here . .

Wednesday 15 June 2011

Running Free

Well I've certainly allowed this blog of mine to lapse, haven't I . . and I need to pick it up and start running with it again . . it's funny how the longer you leave something like this the more difficult it becomes to start again . .

Time now to get going again, as I want to thank the organisers of the recent Richmond Park Marathon for having me along on the day to take photos of the event, because if they hadn't then some of my photos wouldn't have appeared on the cover of, and inside, the latest edition of Running Free magazine . .

Thanks also to Fiona Bugler, the editor, and her team, for choosing to use some of my photos . . and thanks too to the runners for their fantastic reaction to seeing a bloke on a step ladder pointing a camera at them . .

The photos below were taken beside Bishop's Pond, close to Richmond and Bishop's Gates . . one of them is the photo used on the cover of Running Free . . but I thought it might be amusing to show the full sequence of images I took of this particular bunch of runners as they approached and ran past me . . and you can see the rest of my photos from the Marathon here . .