Another Place (and another PB!)

Can he see anything out there?

Well here we are - just before Christmas on a cold foggy chilly beach looking out onto the Irish Sea. There are one hundred identical metal statues standing on Crosby beach south of Southport just like this one. These are Anthony Gormley's 'Iron Men' all facing westwards into the sunset, except this is a misty Saturday morning at 10 am and they can't see very far. What brought us up here wasn't just the statues but the fact that it's the venue for the Crosby Parkrun. After our beach run (well some of it was on the beach) we decided to pose for some pics. And a very friendly Parkrun it was too - we repaired to the Crosby Leisure Centre after the event for an inexpensive ham and cheese toastie and were offered cakes galore by the cheerful Parkrun organising team. As we sat drinking our cups of tea the laptop was whirring around on the next table as the results were inputted - TRING!! here's our results on my phone. Wow a PB for Vicky - first Parkrun under 30 mins - her 75th Parkrun and she's come in in 29:39 despite going down a rabbit hole on the grassy run in!

Strong man!

So....back to the statues, Anthony Gormley is a bit more famous for his Angel of the North, familiar to those stuck in motorway traffic near Gateshead in the north east of England.  As I've already mentioned there are 100 'Iron Men' placed out on the beach here at regular intervals - you can see, if you blow up this photo,  the the next Iron Man in the mist just above my right hand. That's the hand that's pushing this man down into the quicksand. Only kidding! I thought that this chappie had been buried by shifting sands but it seems that when the statues were installed they were positioned at different heights. We will have to go back to watch the tide come in - or even watch the tide go out and see the figures emerging from the waves. (I should point out that Crosby Parkrun is rerouted when the tide's in for obvious reasons.) By the way 'Another Place' refers to the name of the exhibit, i.e. the hundred iron men; when Gormley's sculpture was installed at Crosby there were complaints about the offensive nature of the statues (i.e. naked men, gosh!) As we ran past some of them were clothed in hi viz marshal's vests and Santa hats, but these were all removed by the time we returned for our Baywatch style photoshoot! The picture beneath is rather atmospheric don't you think? However I can't take credit for this one - must have been taken by a real photographer.

I can see North Wales I think!