Friday evening I caught the train to South Devon, Totnes, with a group of Serpentine runners for the Devon Coastal Marathon. After getting to Totnes and the second hire car not being there, a few of us waited for another of the party who was coming on the next train. We then caught a cab, stopping for groceries en route, and still managed to get to our rented cottage way before the hire car group. Country roads without names, no GPS...they had to resort to getting a drunk guy to draw them a map. But, they got to the cottage eventually and we all got to bed at a reasonable hour in prep for the morning run.
My alarm went off at 6am. I awoke, looked at it and thought, "I've not got work today...shit the f**k up!" At 7am laughter from the kitchen woke me up with just 30-min to get ready before we'd to leave for registration. So, a quick coffee and two digestive biscuits...the kinda breakfast you need before a trail marathon!
Race organisation was top notch. From reg., throughout the course and at the finish, it really was well organised. Anyway, we headed out at 9am with a chopper buzzing overhead for the first 10 or 15 minutes. They were filming for Sky TV extreme sports show and apparently trail running's an extreme sport now (no-one's mentioned this to the fell running crowd!).
The first 15 miles of the course were the best – along the coastal trail and a mix of rock, mud, streams and beaches. After there, we wound our way back through the countryside. Still beautiful, as we ran through hamlets, farms and along singletrack, but it didn’t have the same wow factor as running past the lighthouse and cliffs. Maybe it was something to do with my cramping legs though? At around 15 miles we hit the tarmac for about a mile. I cramped within a few hundred metres. I furkin hate the roads! So, the remainder of the run was cramp management. I had to slow down enough so that I could rehydrate on the move.
Around this point I ‘ran’ with a young squadie called Jacko. It was his first marathon of any description and he was suffering after having overcooked it in the first half. I stayed with him, tab’ing (tactical advance to battle – although, I wasn’t sure where the battle was, I wanted to get there!), for a couple of miles. After losing him on a couple of downhills, I decided to crack on as he was really tying up.
My twitching legs continued to threaten to cramp for the rest of the run, and did a few times. Once, just a mile from the finish, I cramped right outside a pub. I had to stand there and stretch for several minutes with people enjoying lunches looking at my wondering “wtf?”
But, 6hr 24min and 1sec after setting off, I crossed the line, grinning and feeling pretty good. When the cramps set in I decided to not get too worried about it. I figured that it was good prep for ultra – learn to manage pain and discomfort. I did that for about 3hrs, so a good days practice, I’d say!
There are three more races in the Devon Coastal Trail Series; Pembrokeshire, Cornwall and Exmoor. I’d recommend them. Scenery’s great, other runners very friendly (trail races are nothing like road races from this point of view) and the organisation is great. For now though...I’m going to see if I can mobilise my legs enough to take Olly for an easy 5 miler.
