Alex Walton describes his experiences as a newspaper photographer.
Nearly 1400 runners, a gruelling 19ish miles through rain drenched Devon countryside and the thought of sloshing through a glorious bog followed by a near vertical 100yd field climb. This is 'The Grizzly' cross country run from Seaton to Beer and Branscombe and back again!
By the time I found a parking space on a side road in Seaton it was around 8:50am (on a SUNDAY!!) It was written in our work diary that the run would begin at 9:30 so I thought I'd get there a bit early and grab some group pics. I approached the esplanade from the side road, turned the corner expecting to find crowds lined jostling for a view of the start line. What I found was a guy in a control box performing sound checks on the tannoy and a couple of seasoned spectators who looked like they had marked out there viewing area the previous morning. Not a runner in sight! Rather odd I thought to myself, and then I checked the big welcoming boards which informed me that I was over an hour and a half early!! Well I passed my time with cleaning lenses, checking equipment and praying that the clouds wouldn't open on me! I saw some activity near 'fisherman's gap' (western end of the esplanade). A pick up truck was backing up on to the pedestrian walkway with some sort of statue on the back. When I got closer I realised what it was, a life-size grizzly bear! (must get some team shots with this in it!)
I didn't have to wait too long for runners to start joining me on the seafront. Then it seemed in a space of several minutes runners from all over the land had congregated on Seaton Seafront. In fact there were runners from as far away as Canada and the previous Grizzly winner from Germany who turned up. I got busy. This was going to be a real challenge for me. My editors were after a 2 page pic spread for each of our three main titles. I had to learn and recognise each town's running colours and pick them out from the main pack (bit like a needle in a haystack spread out over the galaxy!). As soon as that gun went and the 1400 strong tough cookies had leapt in to action, I got my opening shots and then jumped over the esplanade sea wall and on to the pebble beach. I found my prey in my cross hairs and shot away and then went back on to the main road again as the pack doubled back on itself.
When I had fired off enough pics on the long lens at Seaton I jumped in to my car and shot off to Branscombe. It took about 10 mins to get to the road closure which I got through by flashing the old Press Pass. I reached my destination at the top of a hill where the marshal was stationed. Terry had told me to expect to walk through a field and on to where the next marshal was positioned (at a ridge on top of a near vertical drop). From here I should go down the hill and meet the next marshal in a woody area which hid the world's worst bog! However, I chickened out and stayed on top of the ridge with the second marshal. My excuse was that there had been so much rain recently that I'd just be sliding down all the way and it would take to long to get back as I wanted to get back to Seaton for the finish. Truth was it was just a bit scary staring down that hill which had a rope to get back up with!
When I had finished at Branscombe I tried to make my way back on to the main road, however, I found that I was cut off by the runners at the top and bottom of the road where they went from one field to another! There was nothing to do apart from sit tight and wait for the herd to pass! When I eventually made it back to Seaton the skies had turned black and I really felt for those runners who had been through so much only to be battered with hailstones! The final stretch to the finish line must have been a killer, like the beginning of the race, the runners had to cross about a half mile of pebbled beach. There must have been a few blisters to pop! The Grizzly runners had a rapturous crows applauding them at the end and were treated to a hose down by the local fire brigade.
Pics: http://www.midweekherald.co.uk/sidmouthherald/flatfiles/features/2008/grizzly/grizzly.aspx