Wednesday 24 June 2015

Last call for entries this weekend June 28th 2015

A rare second blog post in a week...


The Surrey Sportive
Just a quick last call for entries for The Surrey Sportive this Sunday. We don't do many race entry calls - but we do get plenty of feedback from you saying that readers of this do like it when we list the events that we are going to be at, so please excuse the non-race-gallery email !

Discount code
As your eternal race motivators and cheerleaders we have got you a special discount code SSP10 if you enter online this week - which will get you 10% off the standard entry fee of £22 for the longer distance. (although to be honest it's such good value for a fully managed sportive ride - at least that £2 saved will cover a coffee enroute)

Just click here to enter nowhttp://bit.ly/Surrey-Sportive-2015-entry 

Entries are open on the day, but last year the number of people turning up at the last minute caught everyone out, so get the entry in now as you know the weather is going to be fantastic ! (in the morning at least), so get yourself sorted out now...

Starting from the Surrey Sports Park in Guildford (just off the A3) at 8-9am, the routes are either a 61k or 104k (37 miles or 64 miles) around the Surrey and Hampshire countryside.

Free Photo Downloads 
And, if you remember to smile, our photographer is going to be at the 12km mark and Wood Street Village - with free downloads here for you to remember the day with ! The free downloads usually retail as a screen resolution collection for £19.99 - so that's almost the entire entry cost returned just as photographs - how good is that !

Other bits and bobs you might want to know about can all be found on the ride website here and here's a few of the handy things that the ride includes - on top of the feed stations at Tilford and Headley ! Can you guess what the symbols mean ?

Athlete insuredFirst AidIndoor ToiletsMechanic On Site Catering Route Marking

So register here now before the last minute rush on the day and make for a nice relaxed sunday registration and ride (plus it costs more to enter on the day) - http://bit.ly/Surrey-Sportive-2015-entry 


Other races going on:
If cycling isn't your thing then onto the start of July we have the Saturday 4th
Brutal 10 Frith Hill


and then on the Sunday 5th
Chichester Tri
Bewl 15
and 7Oaks Aquathlon

The RPAC Summer 10k on wednesday the July 8th



and then after that a couple of half marathons on the 12th July
The Surrey Badger Half Marathon at Dorking with Events to Live, including live Pic2Go images (so you'll get £19.99 worth of photos courtesy of the sponsor - Run to Live - during the race itself)
and then also the
High Wycombe Half marathon and 10k

So that lot should keep you busy ! If there is a good pick up on the discount codes we can promote we will start to make more of an effort to get them more regularly from race organisers that can offer them and process them (not all online entry systems are born equal!)

Have a good end to the week and enjoy the fine weather !

Have a good ride !

Until next time
Anthony



Tuesday 23 June 2015

Back 2 The Trenches - The Big Push 2015 - now live, and IOM Parish Walk via Pic2Go


Fun and dips at the big water slide

The fully searchable Gallery and Pictures from the Big Push are now live and online !

The IoM Parish Walk and Pic2Go
We also had the first use of the Pic2Go technology at the Isle of Man Parish walk - a very big event on the island with over 1500 entries taking part in various distances. Throughout the registration and walk itself a team of 7 local photographers used the Pic2Go technology combined with the Manx Telecom 4G service to take photos and send them direct to the participants live during the event from all around the Island's longest 85 mile course !

The event takes place over two days, through the night of the 20th and 21st of June - with this years winner completing the 85 miles in 14h:40m:08 - a new course record - I think some of the south-downs way ultra runners need to get themselves over to the IoM for a new challenge !!

Was the pic2go a success ? absolutely ! - after three days there have been over 1.1Million photo page views on Facebook, with the Manx Telecom race sponsor and event logo's on them - making them a great advert for their 4G services on the island, as well as a fantastic keep-sake for the competitors on the day. The good news is the sponsors have now booked Pic2Go for their next large event on the island - the Tough Mann


Race Gallery Link
B2TT The Big Push
The fully catalogued and searchable gallery is now live here:
http://bit.ly/B2TT-Race2-Gallery-2015

The Manx Telecom IoM Parish Walk

Individual Photos of the Parish walk were available live during the event, direct to personal facebook accounts via Pic2Go and are still available here:
http://bit.ly/Pic2Go-Parish-Walk-photos-2015

If you would like to buy the high resolution photos and prints and raise money for the race charities - they are available here http://bit.ly/IOMPW-photosales-2015

Perfect conditions for a bit of muddy obstacle racing around the hills of Redhill and Nutfield Priory, with the 6,12 or 18k laps to chose from there were plenty of challenges for everyone from lake crossings, cargo nets, splash slides and log crawls...  probably more fun for Fathers day than a trip to Thorpe Park ?

Searching for your photos
If you had a race number >10,000 - and you were wearing a number like 5025, then we may only have tagged you with the number we could see i.e. 5025 - so please have a search on that too...

Jen was all ready for the challenge

Jen, just checking that she took the right route. when she left the house.
"All going well, I think?"


Into the water, mind your nose, good thinking

Levitation achieved

yep - Probably should have held their nose

A man and his go-pro. Spot the problem.

If you rush about you don't get so much time on the obstacles

Maximum value achieved

Tries to remember why. Why ? WHY!!

allez oop - a helping hand. Sort of. Care for a quick Tango ?

If you can crack the "everything going to plan" look on the water exit, you're doing well

see - everything going to plan !

When everything doesn't go to plan...

You can do your best Predator Film impressions in the water

zehr gut

Log love

Man Down !

Don't fall asleep down there now...

quick crawl under the wire

Warm yourself up over the fire

Smoking
 All in all a very successful day at the Priory Events site, hopefully some of you uses the discount code, apparently if you completed this one you have an email with a priority discount code for the next race on September the 20th.

Next weekend is back to busy with the:
Leeds Castle Triathlon in Kent, The
F3 Marlow River Sprint Tri, and the
Capital to Coast bike ride - from the heart of london at the Eye, all the way to the Coast at Hove lawns - with a choice of distances - and not as crazy busy as last weekends London2Brighton

after that and onto the start of July we have the saturday 4th
Brutal 10 Frith Hill
and then on the sunday 5th
Chichester Tri
Bewl 15
and 7Oaks Aquathlon

The RPAC Summer 10k on wednesday the July 8th

and then after that a couple of half marathons on the 12th July
The Surrey Badger Half Marathon at Dorking with Events to Live, including live Pic2Go images (so you'll get £19.99 worth of photos courtesy of the sponsor - Run to Live - during the race itself)
and then also the
High Wycombe Half marathon and 10k

So until next time, get your entries in to these great races and we will see you there !!

Anthony





Monday 15 June 2015

REP Arun Swim, Mid Sussex Tri, ETL Polesden Lacey, and Summer Breeze 2015 now live



Swims, Runs and Triathlons all this weekend, with a mixture of weather but not nearly as bad as it threatened to be !

The Raw Energy Pursuits swim along 3.8km of the River Arun went off smoothly with perfect weather and safe flowing water. The Summer Breeze Running festival took place with the Half marathon and 10k run almost entirely in the woods around Wimbledon common - we left early as the enduro overnight 12hr race got going. Sunday was an early start for the Mid Sussex Triathlon, and the Events to Live Polesden Lacey 10k - the only race to suffer a mild drizzle all weekend.

Across the wider racing calender where we have seen reports from the weekend of people doing their stuff - there was the South Downs Way 100 mile race (Winchester to Eastbourne on foot anyone?), a 615km ride around and over Wales in one go (only 60 finished) and the UK Ironman Tri, Windsor and Blenheim Triathlons to compete for everyone who wasn't at the Mid Sussex Tri - a far more personal and enjoyable event !

Here are the gallery links - and at the bottom of this blog there's a discount code for a race next week.... so don't forget to look at that !!!

Race  Gallery Link

REP Arun Swim
FREE DOWNLOADS
http://bit.ly/REP-Arun-Swim-2015-Photo-Gallery

Summer Breeze
http://bit.ly/Summer-Breeze-Gallery-2015

Mid Sussex Tri
FREE DOWNLOADS
http://bit.ly/Mid-Sussex-Tri-Gallery-2015

ETL Polesden Lacey
http://bit.ly/ETL-Polesden-Gallery-2015

FREE DOWNLOADS
Yes - two of the events this weekend - the REP Arun Swim and the Mid Sussex Tri both have free download galleries for their races, included in the race price. All are at screen resolution - perfect for facebook (other social media experiences are available) and email - and if you want a higher resolution to make your own prints, or make a product, or you want to buy a high resolution print, then you can do that too.
In the free download world the next level up is using Pic2Go. This allows events to post your individual photos directly to your Facebook page live during the event, which means your friends and family online can also get involved whilst the event is going on !
Hopefully we will be bringing the full Pic2Go experience to some major races soon.


Raw Energy Pursuits Arun River Swim 2015
Pre-tri preparation from the Mid Sussex Tri Club - they went for a swim together

Ever heard one of those "it's this big" stories

Jim's is this big

dynamic bunny-ear lunges as a warm up

The three armed hands, bunny ears, thumb nose shot of the year

no pre race nerves

The start line Washing machine in full "on" turbo mode

The Marshals make last minute adjustments and checking for any topping up required at the finish line

1st place, overall, again. Beating everyone. How good is that !!

Ready for the rest of the field

delicately done

For the win

excellent support crew


It was fun all along the Polesden Lacey 10k - just a few hills up to Ranmore common
Over at the mid sussex tri on sunday morning - the indoors swim
Turn to camera for the pic !

All OK so far

Still headlight o'clock

Brings a whole new meaning to back seat passenger

All ok here

Enjoying it far too much

Top effort into the finish

Top victory wave

Always good to see club members at the finish
Over at the Summer Breeze, it was an errr,,, Breeze.
All go for the summer breeze

If we put bullets in our cameras, this is what all our pictures would look like

Running around the pond and Wimbledon common what could be better ?

Always fun when the camera catches those unseen moments of BIG hair

Some sort of new Wagnerian soap opera going on here

Top finishing

"If only they had pic2go on this event we'd have our pictures on here already"

The crowd resorted to smartphones when they heard that the event didn't have pic2go technology

Yes, He's the Daddy !

Pushing it smoothly to the finish

So that's the brief round up, as mentioned last week - these are the races you really ought to be at for the rest of the month - well organised and exactly what you like to be doing with your time:

Sunday the 21st June
Back to the Trenches - The Big Push : And a discount code !! : BACKTTTPHOTOS
http://bit.ly/B2TTSSP

Saturday the 27th June
Leeds Sprint Tri and Junior Aquathlon:  http://bit.ly/Leeds-Castle-Tri

Sunday the 28th June
Leeds Standard Tri :http://bit.ly/Leeds-Castle-Tri
Marlow River Sprint Tri :http://bit.ly/f3-events
Capital to Coast Cycle Ride :http://bit.ly/C2C-ride-info

I'll put links to these next time, but don't forget we also have a Brutal Frith Hill, Chichester Tri, Bewl 15, RPAC10k, Badger Half, High Wycombe Half, Phoenix 10k, F3 Half Tri, Oxfam Trailwalker, REP Worthing Tri, Purple Patch DTUF Half all coming up in July....  so get in early before the end of term catches you all out.

So until next time, enjoy a bit of summer,
Anthony