Revived after a year's lapse, and over a new route, today the Seaford 10K took place, from a new base at Newlands School, Seaford's last remaining private school. Once the town was full of private schools; a search of the Dictionary of National Biography for Seaford as a keyword finds many entries where the subject went to school in the town; it also, I might add finds many where the subject died in one of our many nursing homes. The nursing homes seem to be surviving better than the schools. Newlands is the last of the latter but their survival is precarious.
The new route has the steepest hill I have ever come across in a run. I walked it and asked the marshal at the top if the leaders had run or walked it; he confirmed that even they had walked. Seaford is not a beautiful town and the urban parts of the route took us through its least beautiful districts, but this was compensated for by the country stretches. After a tedious section along paths screened by hedges, we burst out onto grassland, up to High and Over, running parallel to the Alfriston Road on its eastern side, to High and Over and then down to the Cuckmere. After running beside the river, we faced the ascent back to High and Over, steeper than anything on the Beachy Head marathon or the Jog Shop 20, then back on the same route to the finish.
The race was late starting, and I'm not sure that Newlands School's open day was quite the best place for a 10K. I saw a runner heading for the finish impeded by a grand lady in a large hat, perhapa the head mistress, who took it into her head to walk across the track in front of the runners. But I'm glad to see the event revived. My time was a personal worst again, but given the hill and that I was under an hour, I was not too disappointed.
Time: 00:59:25
Distance: 6.10 (a bit short I think?)
Pace: 9.44 (best 5.52)
That hill in full:
