The Atlantic Coast Challenge - 3 marathons, 3 days, 2 feet

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Hello, I have been meaning to write a report for the Atlantic Coast Challenge for a few weeks now.  The Atlantic Coast Challenge is a three day event, organised by VOTWO and covers a marathon each day following the coastal path in Cornwall from Padstow to Lands End.  I was looking forward to this event and this year I had already completed two road marathons and the 50K 5-4-3-2-1 in Salisbury, so I felt confident that I would complete the three days.

I ran all three days with my running partner, who I trained with.  I am not sure I would have enjoyed running solo, but everyone was very friendly and we meet lots of other people over the three days and by the end we were a team of three.

Although advertised as three marathons, we covered more miles than expected, on day one we clocked over 29 miles (but we did get lost), day two was a more expected 26.6 miles and the last day was over 28 miles (with out getting lost).  Most of the run was on trails, some trails were very rocky and there were sections that were more of a scramble than a run, even the front-runners admitted to walking.  Other sections were sand dunes, which was impossible to follow a path and once through these sections I had to tip all the sand out of my shoes creating more mini sand dunes.  Other sections were long stretches of beach that seemed to go on forever, and it was tempting to sea-swim some of these bits as it was very warm.  There were a few unavoidable roads, the least favourite part was running through Newquay on the first day, this was the only time that we got lost and added on a few extra miles.

The weather was un-seasonably hot (reaching 26*C) but each day there were three checkpoints on route and I was very surprised to see so much food and drink on offer, from cups of tea to technical sports drinks and jelly babies to sandwiches with all sorts of fillings.  Having never eaten solid food on runs I was a bit unsure about all the food options, but I could not turn down free food and soon discovered an appreication for mini cheddars and honey-roasted peanuts.  At every checkpoint I was hunting down these savory treats to quench my hunger. Some of the checkpoints were not near a road and the marshalls had to carry all the water and food, up to a half a mile, up the rocks and onto the path, even at these stops we were very well catered for and had amazing views.  As well as the checkpoints the gerneral public were very generous and after commenting on a families picnic looking tasty I was offered all sorts of treats.

The wole event was really well organised with mini buses shuttling us to the start and taking us back to race HQ each evening, where a huge plate of dinner was been prepared for us, and where we had booked a holiday lodge for the weekend.

This is an excellent event if you like endurance type of events and we were warned that each day would get harder and by the last day the fastest runner finished in just over five hours.  I found it very challenging and by the third day I had amazingly swollen ankles and struggled to just walk to the mini bus in the morning.  I am not sure how I ran the last 28 miles, I think the thought of mini cheddars at each checkpoint and the promise of a cornish pasty at the end kept me going, as well as all the support given by the marshals, runners and general public.  I had no idea about what times to expect to complete each marathon and I was a little disappointed by the 7:20 on the first day but by the end of the last day having clocked 24:29:49 overall I was very pleased that we had finished and times no longer mattered.  I would definitely do this event again or one of the other similar events also organised by VOTWO (Jurassic Coast or Pembrokeshire Coast) but I would make sure that I could take at least 3 weeks off running afterwards as this was how long it has taken for my ankles to deflate.  My next marathon is London, which in comparison to the Atlantic Coast, will be very flat and fast - I can't wait!

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Author: Ruth Thom - 24 October 2011 21:42