Monday, February 26, 2007

Some Call It The 'Shoulder Season' ...

... and others just call it late winter. The Werbenmanjensens hopped a train Saturday for the beach resort town of Eastbourne, where ...



... you can visit a historic Victorian-era pier ...



... you can visit a museum dedicated to shopping, should you tire of shopping ...



... and you can do that, that thing the sign says, whatever it is.

We went down there because I had entered a half-marathon running race. My original intention had been to take the train down Sunday morning, but we decided to get out of the city for a weekend, just to see something else in Britain.

Because it's a beach resort, it's obviously not the time to be there, but it's always nice to see the ocean (or the English Channel, in this case). Because the fall-winter months are always dry seasons for the merchants in a beach town, they do like to organize events that would otherwise inconvenience beach-goers during the peak season and also, coincidentally, bring in some visitors during the off-season. Given that the race was sponsored by the Eastbourne Hospitality Association, it's clear that they wanted to pry our London pounds from our pockets for the benefit of Eastbourne merchants, restauranteurs and innkeepers. It worked, I guess.

How'd I do? Well, the race went over the promontory that features the highest chalk cliffs in Britain, I'd say my result ...



... is satisfactory.

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5 Comments:

Blogger Middle Kid said...

Oh! So that's why no blogging on the Oscars! That's a pretty good time, I'd say (especailly since I did a half in slightly under an hour slower than that).

3:47 PM  
Blogger Smitty Werbenmanjensen said...

We were pushing 1 a.m. and the Oscars hadn't begun, so we called it a night. We did watch the Red Carpet special, but I leave all that to Mrs. W.

3:52 PM  
Blogger oldest kid said...

So, I take it you're the guy in the striped shirt. Very impressive! Mr. OK and I are in training for the biggest marathon of the year--the Marathon du Medoc. We did 5 miles on Saturday (in 61 minutes--which is really good for me) and then went to a wine tasting in the evening.

2:13 AM  
Blogger Smitty Werbenmanjensen said...

The stripey shirt are the "hoops" of my club, the Highgate Harriers. It's a traditional vest that dates back to the club's founding in the 1870s. By registering as a member of a British Athletics club, I got 2 pounds off the entry fee.

8:47 AM  
Blogger Smitty Werbenmanjensen said...

I forgot to look west!

1:15 PM  

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