OK, so I'm a little late to update my latest little adventures but the wait will be worth it!
Thursday 20 September saw me set off once again to tackle the next VoTWO Challenge Event, this time along the Atlantic side of the South West Coast Path from a point just west of Padstow, all the way to Lands End, hopefully a distance a bit closer to the total 78.6 than the earlier Anglesey Coast Challenge! This time the event HQ was based in a holiday park near St Ives although I went one roundabout to far and struggled a little bit to find the darn thing! But find it I did and wasn't long before I'd met up with a few recognised faces from the last couple of events : I was becoming quite a bit of a celebrity with people coming up to ask what 'number' I was up to!
Accommodation was in little self-contained chalets complete with TV! It was actually a tad on the chilly side so on went the heating! Unlike the Angelsey, food was all arranged by VoTWO so I indulged in a 3 course meal with a few of the others who were had already arrived but crept back for an early night in front of the TV.
Saturday dawned dry and sunny for a pleasant change and after a hearty breakfast, registered and received all the maps covering the 3 days....there were 4 for each day this time so it would require a bit of juggling to ensure that the current map was in my map case. Good to see that Michele Grainger was back for this challenge (if you remember, I'd met up with her on the Jurassic challenge back in March) as was Max from Anglesey! After kit check and safety briefing we piled into the mini-buses and set off in a long convoy (unlike Anglesey there were almost 200 mad adventurers!) to the start at Mackerel Cove where again, after the necessary 'loo' stop at the start (which was comical as all the blokes stood in a single line on the top of the ridge seemingly looking out to sea, whereas all the girlies were heading off towards all the dips and hollows as there was a distinct lack of bushes!), it was a very relaxed start with a simple 'dib' out and off...
Within the first mile we were plugging across sand which would become a very familiar feature over the next 3 days. I would spend most of today's run with Michele : it's really good having company as you keep each other going through the bad bits (of which there are quite a few!).
Check point 1 was at Mawgan Porth before we ran along the undulating clifftop above the very long Watergate Bay before hitting the outskirts of Newquay and CP2. Now it got busy, weaving down the narrow streets of Newquay trying to avoid tourists, dog leads and surfer dudes. We had to reach a huge turreted hotel high up on Towan Head before dropping back down to the National Surfing Centre at Fistral Beach where the surf was packed with people catching the waves. At the end of the next headland there was an amazing view back across towards Towan Head.
After hitting the road through Pentire (I so nearly tripped up along here as I was trying to read the map whilst running on the road and talking to the others and hit a sleeping policeman!), it was then a drop back down to cross a small footbridge in the middle of a tidal estuary : luckily for us the tide was out otherwise it would have been quite a wading job as the bridge certainly wasn't very high above the tidal channel! At this point Michele started to head off to the right towards a little gully leading up into the fields but our attention was immediately drawn to 4 or 5 blokes running across the top of the fields yelling at us 'that's not the way, keep going straight ahead'. Michele was convinced she was right as she had taken that route the previous year but the blokes were very insistent. Eventually we pulled Michele away from her route and continued straight on, which seemed to go on for ever before we eventually turned the corner and ended up running across the fields where we had seen the blokes earlier...Michele's route would definitely have been the wrong way but there were plenty of people who were taking that route which was a tad annoying...."Carole, remember, this is a challenge event not a race!!" Just afterwards we hit CP3 where I stocked up on marmite sandwiches, jelly beans and coke.
Just after this we hit sand dunes and there were loads of little paths you could take through them : I picked the wrong one and ended up heading towards the beach so had to back-track and catch the others up again (who had all stuck together like sheep and taken the correct route!). The undulations started to get a little bit more unkind from here on in but I was feeling pretty good and kicked on (probably regret that later). At Holywell Beach we hit amazingly high (and very soft) sand dunes and whilst it was nigh-on impossible to run up them, I loved the downhill bit, even providing vocal sound effects "wheeeeeeee" in the process! After a pull up and around Penhale Point, Perran Sands came into view....and stretched way, way, way into the distance and yes, there were little specs representing runners and walkers stretching into that distance too! So, there was no getting away from it. I dropped down the steep (painful by this point) concrete slope onto the sands and started the slog for home. I caught and passed a number of people and committed myself not to drop to a walk, however slowly I was travelling. Over a mile long that beach was! At last the end came into sight but not before the event photographer made an appearance so I put on my bestest show for the camera before eventually reached tarmac again. But then, cruel, cruel organisers had slipped a last steep hill in before the finish line : this I did walk up, at least for most of the way, before seeing Max standing near the top spurring me on. There was also the added concern that there was someone behind me, running up the hill that I had passed earlier on the beach and I was determined he wasn't going to pass me back! Dibbed in and finished! Phew! Bit on the tired and achy side but the feeling of finishing is really, really good.
Michele didn't finish long after me and after a lovely cup of their famous soup, we piled back into the meat wagons to take us back 'home'. Once there, I decided to go for a swim (not in the sea....way too cold!) in the pool, which predictably was way down at the other end of the park...still, the walk would do me good. By the time I got there, it was only 15 mins to closing so it really was only time for a few short 'laps' and then a walk back to the chalet before another 3 course meal and bed! And we get to do it all over again tomorrow!
When the results were posted, I'd finished in 22nd place overall and 4th female in a time of 4.47.35
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