THE SUSSEX MARATHON FESTIVAL

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Comments

  • Dan79Dan79 ✭✭
    Well said Alan.
  • Hi guys and all that entered the Sussex marathon.

    I was the original designer of the marathon course and was confident that all would be fine. A lot of effort was put into designing the race through great country side in and around Battle, Nethefield, Penshurst, Boodle Street etc so it was very disappointing, to me especially how it all end up.

    The authorities etc finally signed the course ( after many changes) only last Tuesday, up to then it was touch and go if it would go ahead, but we now have a marathon in and around Battle.

    Anyway its all sorted and its a marathon so please all turn up enjoy the day. y

    You all have a great medal and t-shirt to collect on the day along with the free SIS gels which will be in your goodie bag.

    Take care. Lee Holdaway
  • Hog-mouseHog-mouse ✭✭✭

    The Loop

    I just uploaded the map to Map my Run - you may want to dl the gpx file and use a different mapping tool to get more accurate elevation data. Map is pants and does not show how hilly powdwer mill lane is. I actually like the run from Catsfield to Battle and I'm not tired of it yet. image

  • QBQB ✭✭✭

    Alan, Lee - thanks for taking the time to try and explain, I'm sure that will go down well.

    For my part, I'll repeat my only posting about the course: I do understand the disappointment as a marathon is an expensive day out and the runners, and as you've now added the organisors too, were looking forward to an interesting route. But again as I said before, I'm still looking forward to it and will see how it goes on the day. I'll certainly try and enjoy it - always do, though sometimes I don't look like I am!

    Personally I certainly don't mind the earlier start as am having to stay down there anyway as was always going to be too far to drive that morning, so much prefer to get up and get on with it

  • Running5kRunning5k ✭✭✭

    Just driven around the route, have done Hastings Half and would say that the hardest part of Hastings equates to the easiest part of this revised route.

    This definitely isn't the same event that I originally entered but having booked hotel rooms will be there going around very slowly at the back .

    Notice the signs going up warn of runners in the road from 8.00 am to 4.00 pm. 

    I hope the organisers do not mind  if i take the full 7 and a half hours to complete the course, maybe longer.

  • kevan wilkinson 2 wrote (see)

    Just driven around the route, have done Hastings Half and would say that the hardest part of Hastings equates to the easiest part of this revised route.

    This definitely isn't the same event that I originally entered but having booked hotel rooms will be there going around very slowly at the back .

    Notice the signs going up warn of runners in the road from 8.00 am to 4.00 pm. 

    I hope the organisers do not mind  if i take the full 7 and a half hours to complete the course, maybe longer.

    Oh well at least Brighton should seem easy by comparison image
  • QBQB ✭✭✭
    Anyone have any details on the childrens' races they were planning to hold? I promise that I'm not trading down after all these reports of how tough the course is going to be! (I'd be too scared of being lapped by the half pints) Just my children are usually keen to do these runs but I can't find any details on the site but am sure that they were mentioned originally.
  • Oh well, will go with the flow and get round as they say! 

    Looking forward to the challenge! image

  • Does anybody know any thjing about parking for the race? I have had a look on the website and instructions but couldn't see anything 

  • Plenty of parking at the school and in local areas.
  • robotrobot ✭✭✭
    although i entered this race i hadn't taken much notice of it until yesterday which is when i decided i was taking part after some injury issues and a different marathon opportunity coming up earlier this month. im looking forward to it even with the hills and don't know that part of the world very well so the details of the course don't really bother me. it will all be new roads and scenery. i couldn't find a hotel in the area with any vacancies so i had no choice but to book 3 nights (the minimum) at the st leonards haven caravan site. i wont scare myself by reading any reviews at tripadvisor.

    anyone else staying there?

    anyone know how many runners in this one?
  • Hog-mouseHog-mouse ✭✭✭

    500 runners.

    As it begins with three loops then an out and back with the smallish number of runners you won't ever feel really lonely and it will be better for spectators as you get to see all the runners several times depending on where you watch.

  • robotrobot ✭✭✭
    just looking at the map i make that 1 loop and 2 out and back
  • Dan79Dan79 ✭✭

    Yeah I made it one 6 mile(ish) loop and then 2 out and backs each of 10 miles.

    I don't know where you got 3 loops from.

  • At least half of it is downhillimage
  • hi runner image .... Im having trouble with the transport image my train will arrive very late.... as a result   if you want take my place  and pay the fee i can send you my number asp...

    Thank

    redcat

  • thanks The Lingster. I like your positive attitude! I really wish that I hadn't picked up a cough this week. Gonna be even slower up those hill now but I'll keep reminding myself what goes up must come down.
  • Was looking forward to this race and had been training hard. As it gets closer it just looks more and more disappointing. Hope we all have a good time but don't think it'll be on my list of runs to do again. Was hoping for a sub 3:10 but that looks less likely too
  • mavamava ✭✭✭

    probably a bit late for this but I now can't do this race so my place is going spare. 

     Not sure if the organisers would allow someone to take my place but if they do and you can sort it out you are welcome to my place. 

    Message me via the site and I'll give you my name.

    Very disappointed but I'm injured and I've got Brighton and London to do so trying to be sensible.

  • I would like to thank all the competitors, marshalls, supporters and everyone else that helped to put on a really good day. i know there was i lot of negative talk about the course when it was released but it helped to make a really friendly atomosphere. It was a challenging hard course but i did manage a pb so result. Agian thankyou i hope to see you all next year image

    ps buzz light year i will beat you next year hopefully image
  • I'd like to that some of the marshalls who helped out. This was an awful race which in many aspects was very poorly organised. This totally wasn't what i signed up for. Even with a top ten place this was just so bad can't recommend it to anyone
  • I thought the race went well - OK the course was just too hilly and the 2 x 10m laps were soul-destroying but otherwise everything went well.

    Marshalls did very well and offered good support. Hope this one develops further for 2012.
  • agree with not bad 4 a fat lad 

  • robotrobot ✭✭✭
    some very good things about today - great local support, friendly marshals and nice bunch of competitors. would have to categorise this as an extreme sort of race due to massive hilly nature (not really an inch of flat around). and having the mega hill (for the second time) right at the end was a serious challenge. maybe this could make the sussex marathon famous in the future. can't say i have ever seen such a high percentage of entrants opt for parts walking as i did today.

    i do have a gripe though and not about the course. the web-site listed various filling stations for carb drinks which in reality were cups of coca-cola. had i been less naive i would have set off with a bottle of something isotonic on board rather than running around burping up amercia's finest fizzy pop.
  • Well, that was pretty savage if not brutal!

    TBH, I thought that the organisation was pretty good. However, some of the feediing station were a little disorganised. I think that there was isotonic high5 drink available at most of the stations (in the middle between the cola and water) but more often than not nothing was said what was what when you got there!

    Nice technical t-shirt, biggest and heaviest medal I have ever seen. NIce design too.

    IMHO the only let down was the course. If they can get that sorted out and the event could be a classic.

    Noticed that there was a huge amount of unclaimed bags/timing chips. I would guess that only around 50% of entrants turned up.

    If only the 10 mile out and back was like the 6 mile loop!

  • QBQB ✭✭✭

    I agree with you Sean G. Good medal and t-shirt but shame the course could not have all been like the 6m loop, but as they explained before that was not the fault of the organisors.

    I thought that the organisation and support was good which was a real help on a tough road marathon. Just didn't feel that save running on the traffic side of the cones along that busy road back to the start / finish.

  • That was probably one of the toughest road marathons I've ever done though, perversely, I thoroughly enjoyed it!  The out and back was a bit of a beast but I just kept the thought of that stretch back into Battle in my mind and just told myself to HTFU and get on with it - seemed to work!!

    After hearing about the course change I thought my target was going to be more sub-6 and not sub-5 so am chuffed to have managed to just sneak under the 5.  Though in order to do that I had to near enough full on sprint the last mile and a half!  Been many years since I've had such a fast 26th mile!!

    For anyone within earshot of my swearing at myself in the last 100 metres or so I apologise!!  Was so determined to get under the 5 that I was calling myself all sorts of things to pick the pace up just a bit more.  Nearly didn't make that last turn I was going so fast image

    I didn't have any issues with the water stations (apart from the one at the start/finish of the out and back being out of water when I came back through first time  - had been re-stocked next time though and obviously there was water at the turn-round point so wasn't without for long). Only other niggle was the slight confusion over parking but that's nothing much.

    Plus points - medal and t-shirt (cracking!), free grub and drink at the finish (big thumbs up) and a really very  friendly race - both runners and marshals.

    And it was a nice surprise to see Nicko on the course and get a hug image

  • It was tough yes, very tough but the organisation was excellent and actually the out and back loop meant that you got a lot of encouragement from each other. The t-shirt and medal were great. If you run in the middle of Sussex for 26 miles you are going to have to run up and down hills, its just a fact. The original route was no less hilly than the eventual one!

    It would appear that some people want a marathon to be run on a flat track of feathers with the finest peeled grapes delivered on silver platters by fair hand maidens every 500 yards. It is supposed to be a challenge......

  • Couldn't agree more with most comments about the race. I thought that the marshalls were great (with the exception of the individual riding on a bike shouting "tame those hills" at 24 miles when they had tamed me some time ago) and the course was poor.

    I have no problem with a tough course and hills but the 20 miles we experienced went beyond the pale. It was obvious there had been issues regarding the course but perhaps these should have been sorted out when the proposal of a "Sussex Marathon" were first discussed.

    I intentionally went with the Sussex over the Taunton marathon because I have a mental block about loops of a course(which Taunton has), but hey Sussex threw in a loop and combined it with hills that would have challenged Hillary and Tensing.

    Never mind, an experience nonetheless and the Brighton and London marathons will seem a walk in the park after this...

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