Henley Beach Bash 2010

Distance 4km [total: minimalist 44km: Barefoot 277.5km]

A beautiful evening for a run along the beach, 25C and a gentle breeze from the south west, there was only one problem and that was it was high tide and there was not much beach around.
The race was on the Friday at 6.30pm, the registration & refreshments table was set up in Henley Square and people slowly started to turn up from around 6pm.
I think in the end there were over 100 people that turned out to run the 4km from jetty to jetty and back.

I noted that, considering it was advertised as a 'beach' bash 95% of the people wore their running shoes.
I am sure it is harder to run in soft well trodden sand while wearing running shoes than it is to run in bare feet.
I also noted that at two points along the course that the tide had come in right up to the rock walls and was about thigh deep, that would lead to a lot of wet soggy running shoes.
As this was my first run in a paid for race in over 10 years I thought I'd start at the back. I was more interested to see if I could keep up my pose form rather than attempt to race off.
The race started promptly at 6.30pm and there was a burst as people jostled for position and to get on the thin area of semi firm sand where the waves were washing over the soft sand.
I ran in the soft sand for about 1km before moving over as the race stretched out.
On the outbound leg I was able to just about run through the knee deep water but by the time I got back to the same spot 10 minutes later it was nearly waist deep and the waves quite strong.
It was a good run, I don't know my exact finishing time as I left before the winners were announced but it was somewhere around 23.5 minutes. I think the soft sand and water obstacles would have lead to slower times than the previous year where I read that the tide was right out.
I think I managed to retain a semblance of correct form and it was a very enjoyable way to spend the early part of Friday evening.

Neil