I have a run with the Striders to write up from last week. In very windy and wet conditions, the leadership of the group I joined fell to two women, who took us up Seaford Head the hard way, that is to say by the steepest possible route.
Time: 1:08:52
Distance: 6.44
Pace: 10:42
I didn't manage a weekend run, but found a new form of exercise: I spent Saturday and Sunday as part of the beach party at the UK Laser Association's autumn qualifier, which Newhaven and Seaford Sailing Club were hosting. A beach party has two tasks to perform:
1. To carry 140 boats off their launching trolleys, carry them into the surf and past the first waves, encourage the helm to jump into the boat at the right moment and push them off
2. When they return at the end of racing, to run into the surf, catch the boat, pick it up, carry it out of the water and place it on its trolley.
We did this twice, on Saturday in heavy seas, and on Sunday in easier conditions. Apart from early retirees, the boats arrive all together. It is rather like a game of rugby, except that one is standing in a rough sea on shifting shingle rather than on dry land, and instead of having to stop a human with a ball in his hand, one has to stop a heavy boat propelled by wind and waves with a human sitting in top of it.
One's team consist, theoretically of three. In fact we needed more: first of all, some of the team may not be in the correct position to catch the boat, and it's hard to move quickly up to your waist or neck in a heavy surf; secondly, some of the team are bound to be knocked down by waves; thirdly, as time passes muscles tire and we need more of us to lift the boats, made heavier by water in the cockpit.
Most of the boats come in correctly, bow first, but some end up coming in sideways and there is a risk of becoming trapped between boat and beach. I have rarely been so tired.
