Coastal Run 2009.

Well done to all involved on today's Coastal Run.

Not much to say about this one despite it being another favourite on the race calendar. I've participated in it.....ummm....several....ten?....eleven?.....I lost count of how many times. But, it's another NE race that deserves its popularity and status as Race Of The Year. A nice departure from your usual half-marathon turn along some tarmac somewhere. "I do like to be beside the seaside" too, but it's a bit distracting watching the waves rolling in during the course of a race! (Yes! Long awaited surf has been indulged in this week!)

Conditions often seem on a par with today's. The headwind probably slowed things up generally. I've posted times from around 1hr 33 to a pb of about 1hr 18 for the route, but my time today of around 1hr 27 was a bit down on the run of gradual improvements I've made in previous years which I'm attributing to that wind and the wetter sands than past couple of years. The wind was welcome from my point of view giving a bit of necessary cooling. Heat has been a problem in previous years but not excessive today.

With the course being basically flat my strategy for it has been to study the route, break it into 12ths and aim for 7min 30s on each 12th for an overall time of 1hr 30. Seems to work for me. If I'm ahead of pace early on it gives a good mental boost and the choice to reign things in a bit or try and keep ahead of schedule until later on then, depending on how I feel, start to race a bit. Today I was fairly evenly paced, knew I was going to get in under 1:30 barring any collapses and I reeled a few in during the second half of the course which kept me going through the bits I find tough (road section through Boulmer and last beach stretch to finish) Quite, thankfully, uneventful really!

Hope you all had a good time.

Here's some (not very good) piccies. Apologies to Simon- whose photo got accidentally deleted in processing, Sarah- who I only managed to take from behind (!), and Victoria & Nathalie who I didn't catch because I had to split with my lift back home. I would've missed the whispering swish of Claire's passing were it not for the, "Oi! Adam! Over here!"...or words to that effect. Nick seems to be pulling along a posse of admirers, is this his fan-club?