A tale of two runs

Saltdean under cliff walkway

After failing to get out and run yesterday morning as planned I opted for a Sunday morning run despite being at a friends house on the South Coast. One of our friends was running the Brighton Half Marathon this morning and we were going down to cheer him on in this, his first race. 
So in my wisdom I decided I would run from their home in Seaford, along the coast via Newhaven, Peacehaven and then at Saltdean I would drop down onto the under cliff walkway to take me the remainder of the way into Brighton to see him racing. By my calculations this was about 14 miles and I would add some on getting to the 7 mile marker to see him running. 
I was running well and at about 5.5 miles into the run and on my way up the hill out of Newhaven  I got a sense of a car slowing, I turned in time to see my friend and her little boys waving ferociously at me from their car whilst beeping the horn, this gave me a lovely boost and I kept going well at a good pace. Onwards and upwards I went along the undulating coast road, I passed the carvery and took a moment to think about how nice a roast dinner would be about then, at which point the rather portly man - I assume the manager - came over from within and unlocked the door, his substantial belly put me right off and I continued on my way.
Meanwhile at this point my friend must have been at the start line, getting ready to set off. Hopefully he had remembered all the race day wisdom with which I had battered him with that morning and the night before!
Going down the steps to the cliff front walk my knee had a little niggle but seemed to righten itself again before long. As I ran along the path the waves were crashing over the sea wall and the cliffs were highlighted by a beautiful blue sky - a really fantastic day for a run.
Another couple of miles on I had passed the Marina and was beginning to struggle, I was unsure if I would make it to see my friend, then as I started along the seafront past the marina, as I turned, my knee just gave up and I was forced to walk for a while. 
I made it to some steps up to the race route and saw the pacer for a 1:45 time just pass me by, this was around the time I thought my friend would come in at so I tried to step it up and run down the slope on the pavement alongside the runners, turning the corner near the pier I heard a shout from above, my friends were there on a wall, I had just missed our friend by a couple of minutes (the minutes I was forced to walk, doh!).
We made our way then towards the finish line, grabbed a cuppa and a bacon sarnie before positioning ourselves to cheer him in. I layered up as I was beginning to get cold and we shouted out to the runners as they came towards the finish. I saw Brian O and Steve J from PWR who both looked comfortable and fast and gave them a big cheer.
Before long we saw our friend, looking tired but still running strong, we all screamed and cheered him on and he waved enthusiastically back at us before the final dash for the finish line. His time 1:42:22 - amazing! He celebrated with a cheeseburger and chips!

postsrcipt - so it turns out the course was long at 13.42 miles.... adjusted time for my buddy was 1:39:55 POW!