The Endurancelife Coastal Trail Series (CTS) just gets more and more amazing! I was lucky enough to run and finish the Marathon course along the west coast of Cornwall today, from St Just, along the coastal path about 13 miles north towards St Ives (where Pirates of the Caribbean is about to start filming) before heading inland through the village of Zennor and across the farmlands back to St Just. Every step threatened to twist an ankle on the rocky terrain, with punishing assents of up to 700ft followed by fast tricky descents to cross rivers, bogs, ancient abandoned tin mines all while avoiding cows, bulls and not getting blown off the cliff into the Atlantic!
The course is tough, single file for much of the first half and tough to overtake without causing injury, but that probably helped me keep pace. I finished faster than both The Gower and Portland in 5hr 24m 49sec, a provisional 47th out of 120 in the marathon. It might not sound like a great finish, but theres no comparison to a road course, in a race where finishing is the goal of most who enter and in a field of massively impressive runners i'm feeling happy and strong, looking forward to testing my endurance in a road race later in the year.
I ran much better without the camelbak, and thanks again to my amazing wife and parents, they kept me fully motivated throughout the course with water, food and cowbells! much to the satisfaction of many of my fellow runners too.
The elevation chart clearly shows this was my toughest course so far, but the path itself was just as challenging, with hardly a single step landing on flat ground the entire way.
I continue to be amazed and inspired by the people i meet; first time marathoners, experienced fell/cross country runners who have tackled the Himalayas, arctic circle and beyond; a cancer survivor running his 130th marathon; and the camaraderie of runners willing to give up their race to help someone injured, i came across just such a pair helping a seriously dehydrated runner limp to the 11mile checkpoint, which was fortunately only a couple of miles away, an air ambulance fly by not long after, hopefully he got out ok. These races are extremely well planned out and managed, the entire day runs like clockwork from my point of view and i can't thank Endurancelife enough for everything they do to create these amazing races, i absolutely recommend any of their events, marathons and longer, or half or 10ks, theres something for everyone.
London marathon is tomorrow, I have to say i wish i was running it, its an entirely different kind of challenge, much more celebratory than the Coastal Series, but i'll always have the satisfaction of knowing what i've achieved today, and as always, i'm massively proud and looking forward to the next ... Exmoor on May 22nd!
[26.2m coastal - 5:24:49 - 12:23/m]
[First major assent up from ruins of a tin mine below]
[The rugged coast of the miles already run behind]
[Some flat ground finally before heading uphill again]
[Typical terrain and another river crossing]
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