Brighton Half- rambles

Hey peeps

I am sure everyone had a lovely weekend. We had a relaxing time on the Saturday- wandering around the lanes (laines?) in Brighton. We found a lovely coffee and tea shop (hooray, it had a tea menu) called naked.

In the end I went for peppermint tea, and some carrot cake which was made on the premises that morning- delish. But the choice of teas meant it was hard to choose. It was all loose-leaf tea, and when it had brewed in the jug for a bit, you slotted the jug on top of the cup, and it filtered down into the cup. Very clever. They also did gluten free cakes, and sold their tea, so I bought a pack of the peppermint as it was the nicest peppermint tea I have ever had. It was such a nice place too- upstairs it was filled with comfy chairs, sofas etc, and had all the papers out to read, so we spent a while relaxing there.

We also found Infinity Foods (I realised after that the health food shop in Welwyn stocks some of the Infinity Food products like special flours) so I bought a few things from there, and of course from Montezuma’s.

Lots of tea (loose leaf chai and chocolate chai, plus apple and ginger), almond milk (as it was on offer), pesto (as it is so hard to find even vegetarian pesto usually so I went crazy and got the vegan version), peanut butter truffles, dark chocolate with marzipan and cherries, and some of their pudding bars. I also bought some Carley’s Sunflower seed butter but it didn’t make the photo for some reason.

Although I am OK, moving around for a long time makes me get sore and tired, so we had a stop in Starbucks too, and a rest in the hotel in the afternoon. Poor Andy was carrying all my shopping bags as well.

Anyway, the next morning we were up bright and early. I wrapped up warm as although it was lovely and sunny, it was also cold. I was originally thinking I would wander around the shops, but then realised that it was a Sunday morning and nothing would be open- plus I was tired from all the wandering on Saturday.

I love layers! And thermal tops. And hats, gloves and scarves. And taking this photo was very hard because of the flash! This was take 3!

The race started at 9am which I much prefer to later starts. Plus we stayed in the town centre, so we got to walk to the start line- what a treat- no panicking about car parks or finding the right bus etc. Andy left me to find a space while he went to find where to start- I was worried (ridiculously) that I would somehow end up in the starter pen with all the runners. Duh!

I found a good place to watch (leaning on the fence) and did see Andy go past, but I was not quick enough with the camera- I think he is totally hidden by high-viz guy!

The runners took about 15 mins to go past- there was an awful lot of them. They kept announcing that late starters would not be allowed, but there were still a lot of stragglers.

I had a little wander by the beach- it all looked very pretty. That is the pier in the distance.

The wheel was going around very fast!

Now, my plan was to go to the naked tea shop, get some tea and have a read for a bit. I was prepared:

(That is my Kindle with it’s new Paperchase cover- it does fit in my bag if I pack it all carefully because my new purse (well, new from Christmas) is also quite big).

But, when I found it (and if you know anything about my sense of direction that should be impressive)I realised it didn’t open til 10.30am. So in the end I went to get a drink from Starbucks, and took it back to the hotel for a bit. Andy was hoping to finish in under 2 hours so I wanted to head down there a bit before and do some cheering.

It was fun- there were some soldiers carrying heavy packs (not sure of the proper term), people dressed up as taps and toilets for Water Aid- I love seeing the fancy dress costumes and was giving them all a cheer.

Andy finished in just under 2 hours, so he was pleased as he has not done as much training as he would have liked. We then headed back to the hotel for him to have a quick shower before we had to check out- another luxury- normally we have to sit in our sweaty clothes for the journey home.

From what I saw, the half marathon was well organised. It started pretty much bang on time, and for a spectator there were places to cross the route and so on. The medal is rather nice (I may have a bit of medal envy right now), although the goody bag was not so good (literally a £5 off Sweatshop voucher/ 10% off online and a few pages of Men’s Running mag). Andy did get a banana when he finished and that is always my fave post race food item. The route seemed lovely and scenic (no offence to Portsmouth but The Great South Run just does not compare on the running-by-the-water scenery), and fairly flat after the first bit. We have been to Brighton a few times and really like it there anyway, so perhaps next year we will both manage to run it?

Oh, and guess what turned up on the doormat today- yup- the race pack for the Silverstone Half. Grrr. Yet another one I cannot do. Their website is terrible, I cannot work out if I can transfer the number or anything (I expect not) so not sure what to do with it really. Any takers?