I arrived early - about 8:30 - after an easy drive down, and met up with John, Sue, Ian and Andy at Hughsie's cafe. It was still about 3 degrees outside and it was hard to believe that we would be running in singlets by 10:30. But by 10am it really was warming up, and the atmosphere at the seafront was fantastic - smiles everywhere.
There was the usual fun and games before the off - the super-droll race director ('Put your hands up if you're not listening'), and the town crier who was in particularly good form this year.
And then we began... the massive crunch of 2000-odd pairs of feet on the shingle beach, a ;loop around the roads back to the start line and then off towards Beer.
The weather was just fabulous; balmy, bright and cool with just the tiniest wind. The views were tremendous. At the first challenging hill coming out of Beer several runners were pulling off the extra layers that they were now regretting. On Branscombe beach the drummers were whacking out a tremendous rhythm and I almost lost it wading up the stream, which had some deep pools.
The grassy hills, the farmyard tracks and the woods all become a blur very quickly, but the scenery was very familiar. Dozens of ups, downs, small slips, arms out for balance, hands on thighs to heave up precipitous tracks, good-humoured marshals... all good fun. The bog was particularly good quality this year after a good soaking after recent weeks, and they must have become spectacularly churned over the following hour or so. The rush past the Fountainhead was exhilarating, and the hill heading back to the beach was pungent with wild garlic.
The long, lonely, grinding beach run wasn't. For the first time in my 7 Grizzly years, the tide was out and we all ran on the hard sand of the foreshore. I was hugely relieved at the time, but in retrospect I'm very slightly sad to have missed out. Up the infamous stairway, and then the spectacular view of Seaton bay, and the faint sound of the PA system at the finish line.
The finish was terrific. I felt strong, and gradually upped the pace until I was just about sprinting to the line. Everything about the race was glorious - it was up there among my very best running experiences and I'm still smiling at the thought. Here are the results; I finished in 2:41, but that doesn't mean much... I was 27th, a full 9 places better than I've done before, my previous best position being 36th in 2008. Here are my split times.
Let's compare the photos from 2013 and 2016:
I can't wait till next year.
