Meon Valley Plod - 2012

It was a major change to the course this year, with the event returning back to Clanfield. Numbers where a little down this year due to the event clashing with the Bramley 20, a Hampshire road league event which would have drawn several regulars away.  This is the event I most enjoy covering has I'm always struck by the cheerfulness and comradeship amongst the runners, although the odd few regulars have the look of "never again".

It was distinctly on the cool side this year, thankful the biting wind we had earlier in the week had abated. It places there was still the remains of the snow that fell Thursday night making going rather challenging it places. This was most noticeable for the ascent of Butser Hill, where the path lies in a bit of a dip and the snow accumulate there. As it is out of the sun it had not melted and had turned to ice. As the day progressed it was started to thaw, so you had a thin film of water developing on the ice making it a tad slippery.

Some of the photos may look a little over exposed as the misty conditions coupled with the snow on the ground tends to confuse the evaluative metering on the camera. I would normal correct for this on a photo by photo bases in the post processing stage (one of the advantages of shooting in raw mode you can compensate by 1 Ev either side with no loss of quality), but for quickness I have processed the images with the default settings.

As usual, I was at 2 locations on the course,

The first point was Small Down, this is the second climb

Click on this link to see the photos Location 1 - Small Down

The second point was half way up Butser hill, at the top  of the climb from Rake Bottom

Click on this link to see the photos Location 2 - Top Rake Bottom

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 and respond to all request's within 48hrs.

All images are placed in the public domain, so are free to use for any purpose (ie club websites & newsletters, facebook, etc).

Alan Dunk, Denmead, 12 February 2012