Conditions on the day were very good, cool, mostly sunny, a moderate breeze. Almost ideal conditions for running and the forecast showers failed to arrive.
We had a record number of finishers with 653 people completing the course compared to the previous record of 627 from 2005.
The number of dropouts was higher than usual. The Pier to Pier race has a very small number of people entering in advance but failing to turn up on the day, typically 8-10%. This year the rate was about 16%.
Analysis of the drop outs (yes, I do that sort of thing!) gives an indication of the reason. In previous years the Pier to Pier entry form hasn't been available until the end of March with first entries arriving in early April, about 7 weeks in advance of the race.
This year entry forms were available in January and we received entries immediately.
There is a definite correlation between the number of people failing to turn up and how far in advance they enter the race.
I suppose that's not really surprising but it caught us out as we had to order extra Beach Towels at the last minute when estimated entries were approaching the 800 mark and we only had 720 beach towels!
It turned out that only 653 finished so we now have over a hundred beach towels spare along with 100 chocolate bars and 200 packets of crisps. I accidentally bought 900 bags instead of 800 and I got some odd looks in Sainsbury's when I emptied the shelves into 2 large trolleys.
Just a note for other's in a similar situation.. most supermarkets will take special orders for large quantities of stuff if you go long enough in advance. It's 3 days for Sainsbury's.
I'm not aware of any serious problems or complaints from the day although a mistype early in the results meant the F45-54 prizes announced on the day were wrong. The mistake was spotted before the end of the race but the prizes had already been announced. This has now been corrected and all the real prize winners should have received their prize on the day or in the post.
Full results are available here:
And here are a few links to Pictures of the event:
BBC
CannyFolk.com
Miscelaneous
That's about it for this year except to say thanks for supporting the event and we hope to see you all again next year for the 10th running of the Pier to Pier when we hope to have a more special prize for all finishers.
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