On Sunday 26th February GRC dipped its toe into the freezing English Channel. Club member Andrew MacAllister took part in the Brighton Half Marathon with his son Joe. Joe lives in Shoreham by Sea but many club members may know him from a few guest appearances at GRC training runs.
The weather was bitterly cold, not helped by a brisk northerly wind that increased throughout the morning, thankfully no rain despite the forecasts of slight snow flurries!
The start and finish line was on the iconic seafront road, Madeira Drive, just east of the Palace Pier, with the route for the 10,000 entrants taking in many of Brighton’s visitor highlights such as Brighton Marina, Preston Park, Brighton Pavilion, the i360 tower, West Pier and Hove Lagoon.
Andrew’s plan was to start at a steady pace and continue that throughout. However, maybe influenced by his now traditional race prep bottle of red wine the night before, he had a start line epiphany and somehow thought it would be a great idea to go for the “crash and burn” technique. Exhibiting a great pace to about mile 9, then hanging on for dear life until the finish line.
The end result for Andrew was a fine time of 1:46:48.
One unusual sight was charity runner, Royal Marine Sam Hammond, AKA Man v Fridge or ‘Fridget Jones’, who ran the race carrying a 26kg fridge on his back, to claim a Guinness World Record of 2:04:13.