Sunday 16 September was the date for the inaugural Purbeck marathon, destined to be a very tough and hilly route using both the coastal and inland footpaths.
Debs and I were the only BJs running and we arrived nice and early in Swanage to register and collect our numbers. It wasn't cold but certainly didn't want to leave our nice warm clothes at the baggage point along the seafront, instead choosing to walk up to the start above the harbour and have our bags taken back down to the finish point. There wasn't a huge amount of runners but they certainly came from far afield and many were hardened ultra marathon runners. Barry Light was there, completing this as one of his 60 marathons in 60 weeks in his 60th year...and after having run a marathon in Weymouth the day before...he's as mad as me! There were also some army guys complete with huge backpacks.
Right from the 'off' we were into the hilly stuff, working our way out to Durlston Point before picking up the coastal path proper for several miles to the Worth Matravers valley before heading north (and uphill) to the village. Along to Kingston (uphill) before running along the top ridge and valley above Kimmeridge and Worlston where we dropped down to the deserted village of Tyneham and the mid race check point (just to ensure no-one had fallen off the cliffs!). Once in the valley there was then a very long and steep drag out of it up to the 2nd ridge before running through fields towards Corfe. Several miles out there was, bizarrely, a lone bag-piper playing on top of one of the hills on our left :o)
After dropping down into the gully infront of the iconic Corfe Castle, we then run underneath the ruined battlements before winding our way through the busy village and then over the railway line. Unfortunately, we'd just missed taking a short cut via the steam train which would have enabled us to miss out the next long, slow drag up onto Nine Barrow Down which, however many times I walk or run it, never gets any easier. I used the various gates to steal a look behind to see if there were any other women in sight! All the way round the course I'd been told I was '2nd lady', 2nd lady', '1st lady', '2nd lady', '1st lady'...so whilst I assumed I was in the first 2, I really didn't know what position and was nervously conscious that someone could leg it past me at any time. I've come 2nd in a race a couple of times, most recently with the Salisbury 54321 but I'd never won one so definitely didn't want to miss the opportunity of doing so if I was actually in the lead. Once over the top of the Down, it was then a very painful sharp downhill on a chalky, boulder-strewn path towards Upwell. At the bottom of the hill the marshal was taking photos of me, adamant that I was in the lead!
Once on the outskirts of Upwell it was then only a couple of miles back down to the seafront and the finish line in Swanage, to find out I was indeed 2nd!
Excellent goodie bag with a medel, a bright lime green techie t-shirt, ice-cream voucher, bottle of local studland ale and some fruit. Debs came through in 3rd place around 5 minutes after me, huge grin on her face as usual.
We waited around for the presentation as we'd already checked out the silverware and worked out we'd both get a trophy and....an envelope! However, how disappointed we both were when I was called up in 3rd place rather than 2nd, which meant Debs didn't get a 'podium' finish, instead winning the V40 age group. How could they get the results so wrong? The 2nd placed runner didn't even hang around to collect their prize. So I asked them to double check and to our joy, they agreed they'd got them wrong : the 2nd place 'lady' was actually a bloke so having handed back our initial winnings, I then received 2nd and Debs was 3rd. The envelopes contained vouchers for a local running shop : £15 for me and £10 for Debs. I later found out that the winner was a member of the Olympic Team GB sailing crew.....I certainly don't mind being beaten by an Olympian!!
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