Ashley and I walked down the road to Hove Lawns today to cheer on the many brave souls taking part in the Brighton Marathon. According to the enthusiastic announcer there were around 13,000 runners attempting to finish the course, and judging by the foot traffic heading back towards the Palace Pier, a fair amount of them were successful.
It was another one of those schizophrenic Brighton spring days when the weather is pleasantly warm in the sunshine but nipple-hardeningly cold should you stray into the shade, which I can only imagine made the marathon even more challenging for the runners.
Having run a couple of half marathons in her time, Ashley explained the technicalities of marathoning (marathonism?) to me as we cheered on the participants. We saw a couple of people well into their fifties and sixties taking part, which only served to make me feel like something of a failure in life. If I’m even able to run up the stairs at that age I’ll be genuinely surprised.
One aspect that seemed to confused Ashley somewhat was the number of people running for a charity or other organisation. I guess in America most marathonists do it for the sake of competition, whereas in the UK most take part to raise money for their favourite cause. This, of course, means many hilarious costumes.
Angry Bird Marathoners
A slow-moving Rhino
Our personal favourite, a terrifying Tiger
Good show to all those who took part, and we’re sure a ridiculous amount was raised for charity.
