Northumberland Coastal Marathon

Sunday, August 24, 2014

26.4 miles

Melanie Hudson

This is the first time I have the Northumberland Coastal marathon and it is now high up on my list of most scenic routes. The route is an out and back from Alnmouth to the river bridge just south of Beadnell. It mainly follows the Northumberland Coastal Run route, but with the vast majority of the road sections on trail instead. It passes the spectacular ruins of Dunstanburgh castle, the lovely seaside village of Craster and goes along some beautiful beaches.

There were only fifty five runners at the start line which is surprising since it is such a beautiful marathon. Amongst these 55, were Striders DaveR, JulietP and DavidB. The weather was a little cool and overcast at the start with a breeze which made for perfect running conditions. It did warm up a bit later as the sun came up but it never got too hot.

I ran the first half with Dave and it felt as if it was going well. The course was runnable which made it a challenge for us as we are used to courses with lots of hills that we walk up, we are not used to running constantly. At the halfway point Dave decided to slow a little and I went on ahead.

At mile 15 my knee started to hurt quite a bit and I slowed down but thankfully it eased off as I hit the firm flat sand. Up until mile 20 I was feeling pretty strong and enjoying the scenery. However I began to feel unwell with a slight headache and feeling sickly. It is not like me to feel sickly in a marathon and I thought it would just pass.

At mile 22 I caught up with Juliet and David and I ran the next 2.5 miles with them, however by now I was feeling pretty sick, my head was hurting quite a bit and I was generally feeling very tired. It was great to have Juliet and David’s company which kept me plodding on, rather than resorting to walking. Although my poor navigation skills did not help them. At one point I tried to send us all down someone’s back garden because I remembered at one point on the way out turning past some lobster pots, maybe not the best way to remember a route when in Northumberland and lobster pots are a common thing. Then we came to a confusing section in a caravan park, I thought I had remembered the way as Dave had showed me on the way out. However we ended up on the beach way too early and ended up having to clamber over lots of rocks to get back to where we needed to be. I guess it was a good distraction from feeling ill but I did end up adding nearly a quarter of a mile to our distance, sorry.

About a mile and a half from the end I told Juliet and David to go on ahead as I felt as if I might be sick and I needed to run/walk to the finish. They kept looking to back to make sure I was okay, so I had little rest walks but the thought that I would be seen walking in the last mile spurred me to run more than I would have done otherwise. Thank you Juliet and David for helping me get through those last four miles. I was very relieved when I crossed the finish line. It was only then I realised that I was feeling so unwell due to a migraine. I took some tablets then cheered Dave in at the end.

Dave and I had some food and I began to feel a lot better. We then joined Juliet and David in the pub for a quick drink before heading home.

It wasn’t until the next day that Juliet and David realised that they had both come first in their age categories. Well done you two!

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