Hastings Half Marathon

It's a uniquely disquieting yet comforting feeling being one of a mass of 5,000 closely packed, nervous, excited, regretful, terrified, and sometimes blasé individuals preparing to run for 13.1 miles up and down the hilly roads that make up Hastings.

The Hastings Half Marathon is one of my favourite races, and one I have completed many times before. This year I relished the seemingly never ending slog up Queensway to the ridge, then down into the Old Town and back along the seafront to St. Leondards.

This photo, I hope, reveals the gamut of emotions coursing through the runners just moments before the firing of the gun... but why is fellow Wadhurst Runner Peter facing the wrong way?