With the Fling looming, and the cold realisation that I simply don’t put in enough miles, I entered Saturday’s Endurancelife Coastal Trail Series Northumberland Marathon event to force me to run a bit more. It seemed perfect: mostly offroad along nice coastal trails and beaches, through pretty and undulating terrain. Ideal! There are four events on the day: Ultra (35.5miles), Marathon (27.4miles(?!)), Half Marathon (13.1 miles, I assume) and 10k (10k?). All events finish at Bamburgh Castle, and start at the various distances along the coast. The exception being the ultra, which starts at the same spot as the Marathon next to Alnwick Castle, but involves an additional and cruel 10mile loop after Bamburgh to get in the miles. I chose the marathon over the ultra for many reasons, some including valid overtraining concerns, but mainly because I’m a bit of a Jessie and the ultra looked hard.
In addition to being a nice wee course, an extra benefit is that it’s a little out of the way so it’s unlikely that I’ll know anyone, and I quite like doing races where I don’t know anyone. I can pootle along without getting needlessly competitive with people I just happen to know. Excellent! It’ll just be me and some random geordies going for a jog along the beach in nice weather. Perfect! Well, it would have been perfect, if I didn’t spot two dozen HBT wandering up to the start line as part of a Stag Do. So, lots of familiar faces! From the looks of things the podium, the team prizes and the field in general would be brownwashed with HBT’s finest, and good on them too! I must admit that I was a little envious, as they had set the scene for a cracking weekend of running and drinking.
The Ultra had already started by the time we got on the bus to the start of the marathon. The marathon started from the same spot, at Alnwick Castle, an hour after the Ultra. The half started 1hr 15mins after the marathon further along the coast, and the 10k an hour after that. The schedule meant that as the marathon folk started to spread out, we would catch the tail-end of the ultra, and then the tail-end of the half marathoners, and finally the tail of the 10k folk. We kicked-off on the other side of the river from Alnwick Castle, and we followed thin trods through the estate alongside the river Aln. The first 7 miles are on nice paths to the coast, with occasional tarmac here and there. Really enjoyable running. Once at the coast, the terrain is very much like the Fife coastal path, for those of you that have ran that. i.e. Nice wee ramblers paths that carry you northwards, through golf courses, parks, cliffs, villages, beaches, ports, sand dunes, WW2 fortifications, and castles. The event team done a great job of route marking, making a tricky route very easy to follow.
For the first while in the race I decided to start talking to other runners to ensure that I wouldn’t start too fast, and started talking to a lovely couple from the lakes. It transpired that they were Helm Hill Runners, so I shoved the claymore-thieving ratbags into a ditch and decided to run on my own. The first 18miles or so was lovely, with gentle trods almost all the way. The views were also excellent, apparently, but I was too busy watching my feet to look up and enjoy the scenery. That’s no surprise, as I do have very attractive feet. From there we caught some of the ultra guys, which was nice as it was just me and another fella jogging along on our own for the previous 10miles or so. Then at mile 20 things got tougher – legs were tiring. Around 5 of the final 7.5miles were along beaches, which made the course a little less interesting and even though the sand was firm it still sapped a little more energy from your already tired legs. The half marathoners and 10k runners were stretching out along the coast in front me, and it was just a job of grinding it out. I’d pretty much ground to a halt, and shuffled the final few miles looking for an ice cream van. Ahead, Bamburgh Castle finally came into view, and the final slog over some sand dunes, up to the gates and through to finish inside the castle itself.
My job done, at 3hr 41mins I’d managed to scrape 10th position. Time-wise I was way, way behind the HBT fast lads led by Don Naylor (3:05) who won the race and beat the course record by 10mins, I think the first three fellas were HBT too. Jenny Rice obviously recovered from being shoved into a ditch and won the ladies race. Ok, I didn’t really shove them into a ditch, they were too nice for that kind of childishness. Maybe next time. Anyway, well done to them all!
This is all good, but the result of the day has to be given to Carnethy’s Ollie Harrison who romped round the Ultra and scooped 13th place. Kudos to him, as the final stretch of the ultra cut inland after Bamburgh Castle, torturing the runners with a glimpse of the finish line before being sent out for another 10 miles. Ouch!
All in all, I was glad I made the journey. A little overpriced (£50 for the marathon), and they could do with *not* having generic finishers’ medals (10k, half, marathon and ultra all got the same medal), but I’d say it’s the best marathon I’ve done and will happily do it again. Fans of coastal paths will not be disappointed.
Results and photos here:
http://www.endurancelife.com/all-results.asp
Jim Hardie