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'The Beast', a brand new, very out of the ordinary cross country race which should be here for years to come. Now although it is the last thing I would ever sign up to take part in myself, having been up close and personal taking the photos I can see why so many would find this a great race. If getting dirty and wet while having a real work out is your thing then you would love the Beast. For more details on this race and to keep posted of future similar events check out http://www.purepersonaltraining.co.uk/index.php?page=pure_corporate. The Beast is just the first of many to come.
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I woke up that morning at first thinking, great its not sunny so we will have good, even light and I'll be able to get some good people shots. I'll just miss out on the brilliant blue sky that can make the surrounding landscape really stand out. Then when we arrived it started to rain and
the sky seemed quite dark, so I started to worry about slow shutter speeds and rain spots on my lense. But by the time the race began, the rain stopped, the clouds cleared and the sun came out, unfortunately just in time for the first water obstacle, placing the sun at precisely the wrong position, completely throwing off the camera's light meter and forcing me to act very fast to make the necessary adjustments in order to still be able to capture my images accurately. Luckily the race includes several obstacles, many of which in very different positions to the sun allowing me to capture a variety of artistic shots worthy of publication and this blog.
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When I agreed to photograph this event it never occured to me that I might actually need to be nearly as fit as the runners. I was told that I could position myself some where in the middle as there are several obstacles all quite close to each other. And to a runner, which the organiser of this event was, I'm sure they were all quite close. To me though, they were miles apart, and one of them up a steep hill. On more than one occasion I felt out of breath and wishing I had done some training myself.
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Well I'm off now to get in some training. With less than a year left until next years race I must get started as soon as possible.
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