South Downs Marathon (and relay) - 2008

This site contains the photos taken at Pen Hill, which was about 1.5 miles from the Harting Down Checkpoint. This was the 3rd leg of the relay race, perhaps the most toughest leg. It looked like initially it was going to be ideal running weather, cool and cloudy but as the day progressed the sun came out and it got a little warm making it more of an effort. I was surprised not to see many Meon Valley plodders taking part - perhaps the thought of fine weather deterred them.

This is not an event I normally photograph, but as a friend was running I took the opportunity to come along and test a new camera. As always with a new camera I made a few mistakes by not setting it up correctly - still know better for next time.  For the technically minded I left the camera on a fixed high ISO for most of the shots,  which means in certain shots the images have a little overexposed look. Should have also considered using a polarising filter to tone down the sky a bit.

I've gone for a different style of photography to that adopted by the professional photographs. They tend to take the full body shots of the runner's, my style is to get up close to capture the pain on your faces so my shots are usually of the upper body. Because I don't usually capture your full race number their is no find your image by race number as too many of you would be in the unidentified pile, so I'm afraid you will have to wade through all the thumbnails to find a photo of interest. Note that by clicking on the numbers on the top of the thumbnail pages you will be taken directly to that page, so you can use that to start your search later in the album.

I split the photos into two groups, as their where around 700 images in total.

Click on this link to see the first block of photos First Block

Click on this link to see the second block of photos Second Block

If you would like a FREE full size digital copy of the image, e-mail the image number to alandunkdenmead@aol.com , or use the request image link at the bottom of each photo. I will try respond to all request's within 24hrs. If I don't respond within 24hrs please allow a few more days before requesting the image again just in case I'm away.  If I have still not responded, please try using a different e-mail account as your e-mail/my e-mail response could have been zapped by a spam filter some where in the e-mail chain.

All images can be freely used for personal use, running club websites and running club newsletter's etc. The copy write notice is only their  to deter anyone from trying to sell my images commercially.

Alan Dunk, Denmead, 19th June 2008