The challenge of the Endurancelife Coastal Trail Series is hard to describe; at its simplest its a marathon around the coast of the UK somewhere, but that doesn't tell the whole story. First of all, you usually discover at mile 26 that the course is a couple miles longer! and technically then an ultra. Secondly the terrain is intense, every single footfall requires complete concentration to prevent a twisted ankle or literally falling off a cliff, not to mention being knee deep in muddy bogs with soaking wet feet, and i haven't even got to the climbing or elevation change yet! seriously, who puts a mountain at the beginning and end of a marathon+!? However, these are precisely the reasons that i love this series and continue to enter them, this was my 5th in a little over a year. The scenery is stunning, and there is simply no other way to see these places in this amount of time. I've always met the most interesting and inspiring people; a guy from Thailand flew in especially for this race, as did two brothers from France in their first ever marathon (they set a great pace, but fell back with some minor injuries) plus a girl in her 20's who stormed past me carrying a 30-40lb backpack and a smile, with kind words of encouragement, and there are always first timers at the pre-race briefing who become the butt of lighthearted jokes about early injury, but always seem to make it through. The challenge is massive, and there is no hiding in the crowds, a 100 or so people strung out across 26+ miles is very different to a big city race with tens of thousands.
As for my own race, i was worried, i hadn't trained and id had back problems in the previous months, i had no idea how i'd cope, but i've succeed before when i thought i couldn't, and i know how to tap into that confidence which lets me succeed. I have a loving wife at the finish line who i call during the race and who always says the right thing, and never tells me to stop! my early pace was really steady, and fast considering the first few miles included the mountain ascent, which we would later face again. Once into the the middle part of the race i paced myself well, the toughest parts being the short road sections which we occasionally took inland to bypass some impassible feature or cove. There always seems to be a boggy wetland section around mile 20, just to make sure you're properly soaking wet, today was no exception, that's where i met our friend from Thailand who was also making his way through knee deep. Pushing through to the 'finish' with the mountain in the distance, i started to realise the course was probably longer than 26.2 ... i arrived at the base of the mountain well before the safety cut off of 1530 after which they would divert runners around. The guy at the bottom told me "just a mile to go" i had about 20 minutes to get to the finish and come in under 5hrs, doable! accept that mile to go was actually two; one up the mountain, and one down! ... literally climbing on hands and knees with burning thighs from already running a marathon distance, i crossed the line in 5hs 24mins and as always delighted to have finished, i came in 61st of 103 runners.
If you've red my other Coastal Trail Series blogs, or ever heard of 'Endurancelife', and you're a runner, sign up for any of their events, they're the most professionally organised i've ever run, and always really fun people to be around!
[Caught by surprise by one of the cameramen]
[A look back at the coastline i've just run]
[Beautiful and dangerous sections through the first half]
[Approaching the top of the mountain to complete mile 27 and begin the descent to the finish]
