Heroes Run 2011

Sunday morning on Brighton Beach was bright and sunny with a bit of a breeze in the air - perfect weather for a run. Which was good as Heroes Run was taking place - I've blogged about it 4 years in a row now and it is always entertaining.

It is to raise money for Passingiton www.passingiton.org.uk, a local charity that supports targeted education projects in Africa. You can text (don't know how long this runs for) "PASS11 £5" to 70070 to donate.

There are 2 runs - 10KM and 5KM Adult (to the Lagoon from the West Pier and back again - twice for 10k) and the Mini Heroes 500M Dash.

So up first was the Mini Heroes - with a tiny Superman being the mini-est.





And next up was the main event - the 5k & 10k. Justice Force 5 who have recorded the official HEROES RUN soundtrack


And they're off!



And a few individual highlights:

This Silver Surfer had a full face mask on - must have been boiling

Frank Miller's The Spirit. Again - a hot outfit to be running 5k in


Thor vs Jesus! Its a battle of the Gods with Thor just edging out in front.


This robot had to be the best outfit of the day. Madness to be running 5k in this. Though understandably he was towards the back of the pack.


This is the Running Man outfit


Cutting it short gotta go grab lunch. Some great costumes, raising money for a great cause. Here's to next year!

Edit: Some more photos around the we here, here (love the spidey high 5), here.

Heroes Run (even when it's cold out)

Today was the return of HEROES RUN fun run along Brighton Beach to raise money for the charity Passing It On to fund its Africa projects. This is the the 3rd year running I've been able to make it to take some photos for the blog, 2009 here and 2008 here

Once again this year they attempted to break the World record for the most superheroes in one place. Last year they set the record at 554 but it was beaten in August 2009 by Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth in New Hampshire, USA with a new record of 1016. I believe they were successful, but don't know the final count.

The idea is simple; people dress up as a hero and run (or Jog) along Brighton seafront down to the Lagoon and back in either a 10k or 5k run.

This year was more cloudy, cold and windy & rainy than previous years, but the numbers of people taking part looked to be up once again.

After the record breaking count, the day started as usual with the Children's race.



But before long everyone was all set to go at the starting line...









There lots of people there to give support, including Spiderdog (who does whatever a Spiderdog does).



This chap, was the fastest runner by quite a margin



Here are my favourite costumes, picked out for being a little different to the hundreds of Batmen (& women), Supermen (& girls), Wonderwomen (& men).


Ming the Merciless


Nightcrawler from the X-Men

Hitgirl (fromKiskass) & Rorschach (from Watchmen)

Comedian from Watchmen
Hong Kong Phoey

Above is Lion-O from Thundercats (a popular theme this year).

Of course along with the standard Superhero Costumes were some more eccentric outfits:




The above chap seems to think he's the real life superhero of Epsom. (The article i've linked to doesn't mention that his outfit wouldn't be counted in the official Guiness record attempt though).



Supergrovers & pooch.


I kid you not, the above chap calls himself "Mr Testicles".


Gandhi, who was pretty super, and heroic. And star of 1994's "Hulk vs Gandhi" published by Marvel. Planned as a 4 issue series, it only lasted one panel.


Was going to say "No comment" on the above. I notice now, that it could be an extreme version of the new Batwoman costume.

Extreme Team award:

This team were carrying along 2 stretchers, with weights attached. Extra points for the great Captain Britain costume.






Celeb Spotting:

One of Brighton's biggest celebrities, Norman Cooke took part in the full 10km run. Sadly I took a somewhat out of focus duff photo. Norm is the second on the left wearing the "Fatboy" balloon shorts, part of a combo of Asterix styled costumes.



So that's it for another year.Look forward to the next one.

Official site: http://www.heroesrun.org.uk
FacebookGroup: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=61234810428e
Official Photo Gallery
And naturally lots on Flickr too

And this story/ my photos have been featured on Bleeding Cool.

Heroes Run - Brighton Beach

“Heroes Run” is a charity fun run along Brighton Beach with loads of people dressed in superhero costumes. I was there last year (blogged here) and it was very entertaining.



It is organised by local charity Passing It On who raise money to build schools and support education in some of the poorest areas of Africa, and this year they are raising money for 2 projects: The Tenderfoot school in Kenya and The Dreamlands school in Ghana.

I wasn't sure if I'd be able to make it - as my wife’s due date for giving birth was a week ago so I am currently on red alert. As it was, there didn't look to be an immediate danger of the baby arriving, so we decided to head down to the beach. At that point the heavens opened and torrential rain started coming down - it looked like weather for Aquaman. Fortunately just as we stepped out of the front door the clouds parted and there was a beautiful blue sky for a good few hours, wo we were able to walk/ waddle to the beach without getting wet. I even got a touch of sunburn on my forehead. But I feel sorry for all those runners who had got there early for the record breaking count and were in the rain with nothing but a layer of body paint to protect them.





This year the big difference was that they were trying to win the Guinness World record for most superheroes in one place. The World Record for “The most people dressed as Superheroes” of 103 was set by Bournemouth University in 2008 and there were some tough rules:

1. Each person must be dressed as a recognised superhero.
2. A recognised superhero is one that has been used in a published book, comic, television programme or film.
3. Each persons costume must be instantly recognisable as the superhero they are portraying.
4. All participants must be gathered in one location for a minimum of 10 minutes.

We didn't see the record breaking line up - if indeed there was one, but the record seems to have been firmly crushed. There were (I think) 1,400-ish runners, so even if some of the more dubious entries were disqualified, there was still a big margin for victory.

Today was the 5th year or the run, with the 500M kids dash, and a 5KM and 10KM for the grown ups. The kids dash was over before I knew it. There were a lot of mini spidermans an the like being wheeled around afterwards a long with a collection of Super-Dogs. As I was walking along I heard one mum say to her son "Stop tugging on my cape!", not the kind of thing you hear in a normal everyday situation.










The adults' 5KM and 10KM started at the same time - from the old pier to Hove Lagoon and back = 5kn. After a little wait, they were off. One professional photographer (well he had a florescent vest at any rate) was standing right in the middle of the course and was practically run over as the flood of Superheroes sped past.






It was funny to see the trends in what people had dressed as. This year there were about a billion Wolverines, Batmen and Hulks, but the breakout star was Dr Manhattan, of which there were about 4. None went with the full balls out look, but were very brave nonetheless.





2 Dr Manhattans have an impromptue picnic after the race:


There were also a few people who were clearly in the know with what was happening in the world of comics, with a Red Hulk, and the new Batwoman:




There was also a "celeb" entry, Brighton local Peter, from Big Brother who was running around with a video camera on a pole.





And to finish off, a few of my favourite photos:

















All in all, it was a lot of fun, hope to check it again next year. Maybe in between now and then I can get some practice in before I have a run myself.



Update: Photos from this blog are featured on Lying In The Gutters.

Other links:
News coverage at the Argus newspaper
Media Attention's photos
A couple of flickr photo sets 1 2
Sussex Sports Photography