Monday 27th December:
With the number of entries achieving the upper limit, it was time to have a bit of a re-think. Standing at the bottom of the first hill after the TPT might not be the best idea in the world. Three hundred and fifty entries, minus those who may be injured, drunk or have forgotten that they entered, wouldn't be producing that many gaps between runners.
After snapping the leaders, there would be a stream of already sweaty bodies bunched together. The resulting images wouldn't be up to much.
So, where to go?
Recce time.
At the time of typing up this part of the blog, I've decided to position myself either on the road at Well Hill Top, or on the track known as Holly Hill Lane. HHL will probably be the number one choice as it should be traffic free and a chance to put out one of the Mozziephotography signs ... possibly.
The winning time is around 50 minutes or so. I need to calculate how long to stay there before making my way to point 2 on the course, just before Briery Busk Farm. If all goes well, I might catch the leaders again but I'm quite happy to concentrate on the middle pack runners for a change. I'll need to make a decision, whether to stay there until everyone has gone through or move on to point 3. This will be somewhere on the track down from Pond Common. Lionel and Carol will be at the top of there and may be moving down the track at some point.
These choices are dependent on me getting around by bike or car and what the weather decides to throw at us. The forecast is for heavy rain, not the ideal conditions I was hoping for. Direction of the rain will have a bearing on where exactly I'll be standing. Using an umbrella isn't easy, so I'll need the rain at my back.
Tuesday 28th December:
Went to my favourite barbers for a haircut, they always do a good job and today was no exception. I decided to look at possible parking places for tomorrow, so a quick detour to Green Moor from Stocksbridge.
There's absolutely nowhere that is in reasonable nick. The usual parking spots are churned up and deep puddles abound. I'd love to go on my bike, but the weather sounds foul.
I'll need to drop off the collection tin early doors whatever happens.
Car there, back home and then bike around?
Car there then run to each place?
Bike and the wait around and get wet waiting for the runners?
Bl**dy weather!
Later that day: Out for an afternoon stroll in the gloomy light, still feeling indecisive about tomorrow and where to stand. Rain looks as though it might clear in time for the race.
Might being the operative word.
I could possibly park at Green Moor and then nip down to Trunce Farm. It's fairly open on the right -hand side and with plenty of mud around, there will be a chance of some interesting shots. If it's raining, I don't have a wide angle lens that has a decent lens hood, possible water droplets on the glass would be a problem.
If I use the 85mm lens then the number of wide shots would be limited.
Go for close-up stuff then?
The runners will be closely bunched at that stage, so I'd need to choose a second spot carefully and it needs to have a parking place as well. My head is spinning like a spinny thing!
If quite a few people have donated, then I need to stick around for every single one of them, no matter how long I'm out for.
Felt there was a need for an image at this point. Way too much writing.
Wednesday morning: Another dream about teaching. What the flip! Nine years since I retired and I'm still having dreams about the job, is there any cure out there that someone can recommend?
Everything ready and the forecasted rain made for a miserable start to the day's proceedings. Fingers crossed that it would ease off a little by the time the race was on its way and the runners would begin to tread a muddy path around the course. Doubt that any record would be set today.
Drove down to the Wagon and Horses to leave the tin next to the number collection point. I wasn't pinning too much hope on filling the container with dosh, just a feeling I had. Quite a few early arrivals despite the foul weather. Hoped to raise around £50 for the Mountain Rescue Search Dogs England Charity to make it worthwhile.
Coffee sipped and time to recce a few places before making a final decision on where to stand. Stopped off at Pond Common Farm to see what the situation was like there.
Nah, rain straight into the lens, a complete waste of time. And the runners would take the path at the side of the wall, not much cop composition wise. Time to move on.
Green Moor, parking spot found and a chance to finish off that coffee. The rain continued to pour as the warm, liquid stimulant, made its way towards my dulled brain.
What the flip I'm I doing here? Running it would be far easier, take less time and no editing afterwards. Willow's image came into my thoughts and I could hear her "woofing" me on.
"You're doing it for Scout and Willow, as well as all those other amazing search dogs."
Scout on a mission in the snow.
Time passed slowly and each drop of rain reinforced the negativity of the situation.
"Okay Willow, I can hear you."
Just after 10 o'clock the rain began to ease, a chance to suss out Trunce Farm. Gear in hand, I made my way down the road. A marshal sheltered in the phone box, now used as a library. That's a good way of passing the time I thought.
Mud in abundance.
No more literary waffle.
I'll get straight to the point.
Yep.
This looks a good a place as any. No time to change my mind and move anywhere else.
I put the 35mm lens on and hoped that it would cope with the poor light conditions. With such a muddy course, you need a memory of how foul it was. Even though the resulting images might not be up to much, they would certainly be a reminder of the day's proceedings.
Camera settings: Shutter speed 1/500th sec aperture f4 ISO 3200
Luckily, the morning light was on the left. At least the ISO wasn't way off the scale like the last race I shot at. Out of the 424 images I took at Trunce Farm, only a handful fulfilled the criteria I'd set myself. It's impossible to position the runners where you want them to be and I've only shot here once before. Experience of shooting at a specific point along a course does make a big difference to the outcome.
Love this shot of Richard (above). Good movement in the leader and the curve of the wall leading from the bottom right of the image and into the distance. A lead in line that takes your eye to the runners at the back of the photograph.
The 350 entries didn't all make it to the start line. Just 251 runners on the day, this was a blessing in a way ... a bit less work on the editing front.
With the leader having gone through quite a few minutes ago, I decided that it was time to make my way back to the car and rush down to Hunshelf Road. Hopefully I'd be able to park somewhere near the bridleway.
Running by a few of the people I'd just snapped, I reached the stile.
"Can I push in please?"
Happy to regain their breath, I was allowed to clamber over the wooden erection. Three steps after and SPLAT! I haven't fallen down since god knows when. My camera was held aloft while I made contact with the mud.
"Bum!"
Ah well, onwards and upwards. Time to make my way to the next snapping point.
Managed to find a potholed verge with deep puddles to park the car. Such fun!
I knew that I wouldn't be popular standing at the top of this bridleway, but it did offer me the opportunity to capture a few more runners than on one of the narrow paths. The downside to this spot are the wooden poles on the right of the track. Ideally, you are wanting the runner/s to make their way up the track in the middle section. A head on shot works much better. You can see that the sections at the edge are much less uneven and that's why people avoid the central section, much to my annoyance.
I'd positioned one of my Mozziephotography signs part way up, hopefully giving people the chance to pose a bit more. Unfortunately, many of them had their heads down to shelter from the strong wind. Having my back to the weather was one benefit of sitting at the top of the climb.
Jill Davies of Totley making it look so easy, as well as taking the centre ground.
A Mozziephotography composition dream!
Ben Allen of Danum Harriers questioning David Langford's ability to climb the hill so easily.
Click on an image to see the full size.
Time to move on?
Drove towards Pond Farm and thankfully there was nowhere to park. The idea, was to capture those runners who were bringing up the rear of the field. Headed on down to the Waggon and Horses to capture the joy of the finish line instead.
"Where's the finish line gone?"
A vague memory came back to me ... finish line and start on the TPT?
Last thing I needed was a sprint up the track and another 100m or so on the trail. Ah well, start jogging Mozzie.
Wonder how many of the people I'd already snapped on the bridleway were still making their way to the finish? I'll soon find out.
Sara Lewis of Meltham AC, the first runner I managed to snap on the TPT.
With no idea how many runners were still to finish, little did I know that I'd be out there for another forty-five minutes. Ah well, at least the weather was much better than out on the course. Bit of a sweat on with the run up to the finish line and it was much warmer on the sheltered trail, time to dispose of the coat.
Cara Hanson of Steel City Striders just about taking the middle ground and making my life much easier.
Lesley Parker of PFR, looking oh so strong, heading towards the finish line.
It would have been much easier to have taken a few start line images and then waited for the runners to return to the finish. Way easier for me in terms of effort and far less hassle of racing from one spot to another. Although the Trunce Farm images aren't much cop, it was worth suffering the cold and damp conditions to remind me of the day. And the runners of course.
The last two runners came in around the 2 hour mark with Alan Knox of Woodhead Mountain Rescue ensuring everyone was safe. Time to retreat and make my way home.
Back to the pub and pick up the donations tin. Not much in there, but quite a few of the Kingstone Runners dug deep and mad an OAP very happy. I'm crap at names but I'm really grateful to all those people (Bryan) in the car park who parted with their money AND a bottle of beer. That'll go down well when I get round to drinking it.
Jacqueline and John Howsham had been saving change in a container. A staggering £31.48 was found therein. Took it down to Tescos and put it in the machine. I made up the difference that was taken out in commission. Magic!
The total donated has now moved on from £590 to £728. We are nearly at the £1000 mark. It's only a couple of months ago since I started this fund. Brilliant.
You can find all the details on my Home page.
Back home for the editing process which takes an absolute age. If only my computer could speed up a bit more. It took around 4 hours to upload the images from my SD card. Ah well.
Might give the New Year's Day parkrun a miss. I've seen enough images to last me a lifetime.
See you soon.
Hope that the images are okay and I've managed to capture you at least once.