8-9 April 2017
Husbando planned to run the Brighton Marathon on this weekend, so when we got up on Saturday morning, we packed an overnight bag and headed straight to Victoria station! Turns out it only takes an hour to get to Brighton... We emerged into the bright sunshine of Brighton. In fact, it was one of the warmest weekends in a long time (marathon day was 21+ degrees!) and gorgeously sunny!
We headed straight to the hotel to drop off our bags, then to the beach (or "beach", depending on who you're talking to...). Some people don't believe that Brighton has a 'real' beach! We walked along the beach to Brighton Pier.
It was actually quite strange to be back in Brighton again after so long... It's been 9 years since I was last there (on my gap year), but some things were exactly the same (like the food places we used to frequent, and the tattoo parlour I got my ears pierced in!), but obviously some things were very different. Very strange.
We ate a delicious lunch on the Pier itself, reasonably priced and exceedingly yummy! Generally though, we have realised that London is expensive. Everything in Brighton was cheaper... After lunch, we went further down the beach to the Event Village for the marathon to pick up the race pack for the following day. Then we wandered the Lanes a little (I had put visiting Choccywoccydoodah on my must-do list, and it was AMAZING to see in person!), but then we headed back to the hotel to rest up for the next day.
We tried to go for italian for dinner, but realised after the third fully booked restaurant that maybe we should have booked, given the 10,000 runners who were also in Brighton that weekend... (Also apparently a lot of hen's parties - we saw 4 that evening!) We ended up at Jamie's, where we could have nibbles and a drink in the bar while we waited for a free table. Luckily it didn't take long.
On Sunday morning, I slept in... Oops! I ended up with 20 minutes to get ready, but I managed it - just. We headed up to the race start with all the things (including sunscreen...). It was already very warm, which was mildly concerning. I watched the start and the lap of the park, then headed back into the Lanes. I wet back to Choccywoccydoodah to look again at their amazing creations - and I had seen a green chocolate dinosaur that I wanted to take home with me. However, they had sold out in less than 12 hours... Which made me very sad, and instead I got a chocolate coin (a huge one!). I also visited the Duck House, a cute shop that only sells rubber ducks!
I tried to catch my runner at mile 18, but I was too slow and missed him. Silly me. So instead I had picnic sushi in a park, then began the very very very busy walk to the finish line. It was madness, and with spectators on both sides of the track, very busy especially at crossing points. Somehow though, I missed my runner finishing (so sad about that, it was such a big achievement!), but I met him at the predetermined spot. It only took me about 10 minutes just to cross the road though, madness. And after all that, he forgot to put any sunscreen on, so Husbando is lobster-esque at the moment! We rested a bit, then began the long trek back up the hill to the hotel.
It was such a crazy busy weekend, but really enjoyable. We have plans to go back for the day, only on a day without 10,000 extra people there!
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