It was late summer 2018 when a conversation with Andy & Yvonne Fewster resulted in Andy inviting Kim and I to take part in his last ever road race, Brighton 10k which takes place in a festival of running including the Brighton Marathon. In a fit of enthusiasm all four of us signed up for the 10k and hotels were booked for an extended weekend on the south coast.

We travelled on the Saturday morning and after a hectic drive to Burstwick to put the pooches in kennels we were off! After nearly three hundred miles we booked in and hurried off to race HQ handily set up on the beach about a hundred metres from the hotel.

We met up with some of Andy? s acquaintances and set out for some pre-race carb and alcohol loading.

Race day arrived with a strangely early nine o? clock start almost an hour before the marathon runners were due to depart. A thirty minute walk to the start in Brighton? s Preston Park awash with portaloos and starting pens.

The weather was cool but dry with a breeze from the east, we dropped some kit off at the baggage drop and we were off!
The course heads into the town for a small loop by one mile and then back out through The Level and the one and only climb, a short but pretty steep incline before heading back down to the seafront.

It was a turn to the west along the sea front past the Brighton Eye and the Peace Angel for a mile and then all the way back pus a bit more to finish on the front.

I had no real ambitions before the start, indeed I wondered with the intermittent training over the last few months, whether a sub 60 minute finish was possible. So I was quite relieved to see that I was under the hour on the race clock with a 56:35 chip time. It? ll do me at the moment especially as I was the first (and only) of the red massive home.

The only glitch of the weekend turned out to be baggage collection! Every finisher collecting baggage was penned waiting for the baggage trucks to arrive! Some kindly folk had, overnight, rearranged all the directional signs for the baggage trucks! Some blamed local teenagers, I took issue with this typecasting and suggested it may actually be the antsy blue rinse brigade!

Andy finished in under 48 minutes with our partners, Kim and Yvonne under 75 and 80 minutes respectively. Not bad for two irregular runners, indeed, this was Yvonne? s first outing over the distance.
To put the time into perspective though, there were 25 finishers under thirty minutes with the winner, Nick Goolab setting a new course record of 28:22!

A quick trip back to the lodgings for a shower and a change into some warmer clothing and back out for some well deserved alcohol, food and to watch the marathon finish line.

Had a couple of days to look around Brighton, quite a nice place, if a little short of TLC.
Was it good value? Probably not if it were just for the race, but putting it together with some great company we had a great weekend.

Would I do it again? Was it really Andy Fewster? s last road race? Well we? ve all signed up to do it again next year!