After Portland’s near perfect conditions, the 4th Endurance Life Coastal Trail series race, set to snake its way along the stunning South Devon coast line, was looking to be more of a challenge in more ways than one. The chilly onshore wind was enough to have the competitors huddling in the oversized garden party gazebo but not enough to dry the quagmire that awaited for most of the run - whatever distance had been chosen. The going was truly mental, the hills many and steep and the mud relentless, sticky and very very slippery.
With no Doug at this race, the Amphibs were giving the marathon runners a gift, but the club was represented in the half by both Niall and Michael. Niall couldn’t put the hammer down as much as he’d have liked due to an injury not yet fully recovered and despite warnings from Niall about the severity of the course - before you factor in the conditions - Michael was unpleasantly surprised at how genuinely horrific the going was. Despite not being 100%, Niall cruised in 9th overall and 2nd male vet with a stupefying time of 1:56:30 - on that terrain!! Taking this as one of his stages towards the Neolithic Marathon, Michael was never in it for a time and withdrew from the race sometime after the second timing point.
The 10k, as before was actually about 12.5 (you forgive them a one off but if all the ‘10ks’ are this long, why not call them 12.5K runs??) and the club was again well represented over this distance. Kerry, Sue, Sarah, Annie, Dan, Adrian and Mike all lined up at midday to see how much damage they could do to their rivals and themselves over the next hour or so.
Instead of the normal, sensible mass start that has served so many races so well for centuries, Endurance life adopted a wheel re-invention approach to the start of the 10k by requiring everyone to poke their silly timing chips into a dibber thing before the start of the race, to record their own start times. This was apparently to avoid bottle necks on the single track sections that began just a few hundred meters into the race. Of course, going off hard would have achieved the same thing, but there you go.
Go off hard is exactly what the Phibs did though and with a hovering helicopter shooting footage of the start and after nearly two years of not being able to train properly or race at all, Dan went off like a gazzel that had been caged for months, poked with a stick, fed cola bottles, skittles, and full fat coke and then let loose. Cruising away down to the beach and then onto the climb up the headland, Dan was making it clear that training or not, if anyone wanted first place, they were going to have to live with the pace he was setting.
Mike was full of ill placed confidence and decided to hit the start hard and ignore the pain and warning messages being sent around his body, knowing that it would start to feel right after a couple of K. It didn’t. For some, a week of DIY, beer, playstation and no training whatsoever, culminating in a pre race night out on the lash is perfect race prep - not it would seem for Mike though. Aido came cruising alongside on the beach as though he was just jogging back to his car and enquired after the bloke currently sat in second - ‘is he any good?’, ‘fourth at Portland and top five in all as far as I know, but you can have him’ with that Aido was off and after a few minutes of running alongside said punter, he realised he could indeed have him - and did.
With Dan having smashed up the first hill to get a killer shot from the helicopter and pulled a kick flip off the edge for maximum style points, Aido was now in close second and for a brief glorious moment, Mike entertained the idea of Amphibs 1, 2 and 3. He was starting to real in his third place nemesis and was aware that 3 white amphibs tops in the first 4 runners looked pretty sick… but 3 out of 3 would look even better. This turned out to be a pretty crazy notion as after about 5 k the wheels on the over rested machine began to fall off.
As was expected Kerry was on top of her game and as the race face went on, the competition knew they were there for the free t-shirt. Strong from the start and showing no signs of fading, Kerry led the ladies race from start to finish without it ever looking like anyone else was in with a sniff of a chance. Kerry caught Mike at the top of the last climb and gave him the option of finding something to go with her, or getting the hell out of the way.
Sarah was hoping to retain 3rd female spot but after a remarkably similar race prep to Mike and a discovery that she’s not fond of 12.5k of up hill mud, she only managed 6th female which is still an awesome result for someone who thinks they can’t run very well and when asked about running in such a beautiful location, commented on the fact that she wasn’t aware of the scenery, she just stared at mud for an hour. The course obviously suited Sue better this time around who nipped in front of Sarah to get 5th female and 1st female vet - the challenge is on for Pembrokeshire!
Annie showed that she continues to go from strength to strength whilst enjoying the course and as she put it - the hills may have been steep and muddy, but the views were spectacular (perhaps a sign she can go harder) and the downhills were fun. Target for next race - make the top 15 lady finishers, make that top ten!
On the last climb of the race, Aido was feeling strong enough to test Dan’s Achilles and pushed it on, showing that maybe he is a mere mortal, Dan had to let him go and the lead changed to Aido, but it was still amphibs 1 and 2 and it was still master class running from both.
Not sure whether to be thankful or not for the motivation to dig in, Mike matched Kerry’s finish and the two powered onto a half decent final few hundred meters after the final downhill, now so muddy, it was more like snowboarding.
Another great day for the phibs over both half and 10 and with two golds and one silver in the 10, this series is rapidly becoming all about us. Aido first in his first competitive run at this distance on this terrain, Dan second off the back of just swimming (swine) and Kerry first female by a country bus ride. As Dan said - All in all it was sooooo sweet to be back smashing it up with my mates, results regardless. No one does high fives and relaxed starting like we do, sweet to be an amphib when u r on the start line oh yeah.
Nuff said. Bring on Pembroke
More great reflections on what was a great, all-rounder winning day. Nice work mate - bring on the Welsh wilderness indeed… KLM