I was asked to pace this local event and was very pleased to be able to do so!
This was the 10th anniversary of the race, not only the Half distance but also a 10km and kids races.
The race itself is a 3 lap affair as follows: 2 x 8km and 1 x 5km, now I am not a huge fan of lapped courses and this is exactly what you would expect from a seafront/promenade based running event.
The start of the race is in the imposing shadow of the De La Warr pavilion, a fantastic art-deco 1930s building which sits right on the beachfront, this is great because if the weather is a bit grim there is some excellent shelter inside and underneath the balconies. Thankfully, the day was fairly calm ( at the start at least!)
The race started on time at 12.30, after a reading recording by Kevin Costner?! I wasn't 100% sure what this was and couldn't really hear it....
This was followed by the national anthem sung by a previous X factor winner just before 'The Last Post' and 2 minute silence.
The race begins by heading in a westerly direction up the seafront towards Cooden beach, a slight climb off the promenade and onto a section of road (fully coned off) and a drop on to the lower promenade roughly 2.5km to the turnpoint, back along the full stretch of the lower and upper promenade to the the second eastern turnpoint at 6.5km, this returns you to the start area to complete the first 8km lap.
Repeat and repeat for a final 5km lap to the finish!
Support was good around the start area, with a well-stocked water (bottle) station and discarded bottles were quickly collected by the marshalls. A few jelly babies would have nice at the water stations (but I do have a sweet tooth!)
There was 'Yazzo' milk at the finish, which was very welcome, followed by a great medal for your achievements and a decent tent with cakes and biscuits etc.
I did enjoy the event, especially meeting up with some of the #visorclub family! This definitely made it worth while!
Weather is as you would expect, pretty cold in the sun and a good smattering of raina, but it is November!
Well done to all that completed the event, I would recommend this as a good half marathon for a first one, the marshall support and safety element is clearly there and its not overly crowded.
Well done to all the finishers!