Portland Coastal Trail Marathon 23/01/10 (CTS Stage 3/7)

 

 

After a 7-week break, it was back to the coastal paths of the UK for stage 3 of the coastal trail series. Portland is famous for 2 things, being the site of the 2012 sailing base and being used as target practice by the RAF in WW2. The sailing complex was the start point for the race and was very impressive, the latter point of fame made for some dodgy scenery but overall quite a pleasant run out. The elevation was the least brutal of the series with only 4 major climbs, this was made up for by “shingle ridge” – 2 miles of pure running agony and being a 2 lap course, met twice.

 

The race went smoothly enough, I set a steady pace on lap 1, planning to pick up a bit on lap 2, but shingle ridge took it out of me and the course had been churned up by then, so underfoot conditions became much more difficult.

 

The above photo was taken at 23 miles, just before a steep descent and “the return to shingle ridge”, luckily for me the runner behind me was Marine Doug, who confessed to being “resident in the pain locker” and we were able to work together to get over the ridge and onto the last mile, a beautiful, flat, grassy mile back to the sailing club.

 

4h54 is my best time of the series so far but there are far tougher challenges to come……….

 

Mike Berry

 

Mike was 60th with a time of 4:54:17