Race review: #15 Beachy Head Marathon 2016

Saturday 29th October 2016. Eastbourne, East Sussex. 

I had heard good things about the Beachy Head marathon and decided to throw caution to the wind and enter it. I understand it has been around for a long time and I believe it used to be called the Seven Sisters marathon. This was a slightly unusual marathon in that race day was on a Saturday, pretty much most races are on a Sunday, the only other major one I’ve done on a different day of the week is Milton Keynes which is always on the May day bank holiday Monday.

Although Eastbourne isn’t a million miles away from where I live in north-east Hampshire, I had decided to take the stay over in a hotel. I managed to make a last minute booking for a nice Victorian seafront hotel right opposite the pier, and at  £60 for two nights accommodation I decided it was easier than the usual silly o’clock wake up and a two hour drive.

I had decided to pick my race number up number the night before, as I didn’t fancy braving the crowd on the Saturday morning. This was no problem – number pick up was in a gazebo on Helen Gardens outside St. Bede’s Preparatory school (which serves as race HQ and hosts the runners).  Number pick up was quick and easy. I was wished good luck by the gent manning the number pick up, he gave me a wry smile - which I interpreted as “you’ll need it” LOL.

Victorian Eastbourne Pier - magnificent. View from my room.

I found my hotel and parked up in the multi-storey car park nearby, then went out in search of my usual pre-race dinner of fish and chips.

Race day dawned and I had bought my own breakfast – how sad is that – marmalade sandwiches and granola with milk (which I had kept with cool with an ice pack). I made my way from the hotel, walking along the seafront towards St. Bede’s school. This was a really nice walk, the sun was just coming up. There was a slight chill in the air, not much of a breeze and a smattering of clouds – perfect running weather.  The race start was already really busy by the time I arrived, with lots of people picking their numbers up. I made my way to the hall where the dinner ladies were busy making cups of tea and coffee for the runners (there was also some squash and water).

 

Baggage drop in the sports hall

After a quick coffee, I found the baggage drop and decided that it was time to lose the jumper.  Baggage drop was in the sports hall which involved going down multiple flights of steps and lots of turns. I wondered how much this was going to hurt when I returned several hours later! You had to attach a tag to your bag with your race number, then ‘bag up’ your bag in a see through plastic one and leave it by the appropriate letter to match your surname.  The queue for the loo wasn’t too bad at this point, although within minutes the queues had built up to horrendous levels.  Also the baggage queue had massively built up, and I even saw one chap “bandit stow” his bag under a tarp near some bins as he couldn’t be arsed to queue.

By now the organisers were making announcements on the their PA for runners to come and make their way to start. The start area was (amusingly?) split up into “runners” (so less than 5 hour finish time), “joggers” and “walkers”. Well I know my place so I stood right at the back of the “joggers” section.

This is right outside the school, and as you face you start you see what looks like the mother of all hills facing you. I later found out that this is actually the start of the South Downs Way, which runs from Eastbourne all the way to Winchester. I liked it that the race immediately started with a massive slog.

What the hell have I let myself in for?

Standing in the crowd at the start, this did feel pretty intimidating. I bumped into Jayne and Julie, both of whom I knew from “run for fun” on Facebook, and we had a great chat and exchanged some light hearted banter as well as all nervously eyeing up that hill. This helped take my mind off the nerves a little. I also saw Liz who used to be in my running club, she had come down from “up north” just to run this race.

Before I knew it the start klaxon went off and the crowd surged ahead. The first hill was deceptive as it was steep, by the time I got to the brow of the first part of the hill, I could see it went on for a significant distance. I had strategically decided in advance to walk all the uphill sections of this race, and then gentle jog the flat bits and downhill. Looking at the course profile I knew that there were some real bastard hills to come and this one was a mere pussy of a hill. For those first few miles it felt like the entire field of the race had overtaken me. Everyone was bursting with energy and raring to go. The hill did flatten off for a while, as we went past a golf course and then it was back to more uphill slog. This was along well mad trails with a hard mud surface so wasn’t difficult to run on.

Did someone say the course was gently undulating?

As we finally reached the top of the hill there was a lone pipe playing the bagpipes – amusingly lots of people had stopped to take group pictures and selfies with the piper. I later found out that this race always has the lone piper. The only problem I had with this hill was the Nordic Walkers, some of whom had started early - bandit early start - it was really hard to get past them with the giant walking poles ready to hit your nether regions!

 

Photo op with the lone piper

After 4 miles of the South Downs Way and then a veer off to a trail, we hit check point 1 at the pretty village of Jevington. The checkpoint had loads of water, squash and lots of chopped up mars bars! Of course I needed no excuse to get more than my moneys worth of free chocolate, so I loaded up before resuming the course.  Leaving Jevington, we carried on the flat muddy trail for a while before hitting Wentover Hill. By now the trail had turned into chalk with lots of rock, and we had started to go downhill. This was really tricky to get any sort of speed up, as my feet kept wanting to give way. I did see one poor lady take a tumble, some fellow runners who were next to her helped her back to her feet, but her legs had a nasty cut.  Running along here was really misty, this was a shame as there was a beautiful valley right next to us, but couldn’t see much.

 

Can't see a bloody thing

After coming down from the Hill we headed towards the second checkpoint just outside of the village of Alfriston. I had stayed here many years ago before I got married and I recognised the bakers. Another excuse to stuff my face “Homer Simpson Style” of mars bars, jaffa cakes and jelly babies, and exchanging banter with the marshals about the lack of G&T’s. We crossed the busy main road (which was extremely well marshalled). This lead to a really, really steep hill which everyone was walking, And as they say in that Right Said Fred song, it went on for miles, and miles… 

This hill.. you gotta be kidding, right?

Stunning views, fantastic running

By now the mist had lifted giving some absolutely stunning views of the wonderful East Sussex countryside. 

We went past the famous Litlington white horse which was a pleasant surprise. By now the surface was getting easy to run on again, a mix of gravel trails and compacted grass/mud so quite springy.

Litlington white horse

This really took my mind off how much my legs had started to hurt and how knackered I starting to feel, even though I wasn’t half the way round yet!  I got chatting to a couple of fellow runners, Jo and Jules from Maidstone.  Much banter was exchanged and lots of running related stories, this really took my mind off the agony of that hill!  There was a nice downhill section which was a nice hard muddy surface and thankfully easy running, this lead us into checkpoint 3, in the village of West Firle.

Jo and Jules, banter central...

Hot tea and cake

What an awesome checkpoint,  as well as the usual Mars Bars and jelly babies, there were hot cross buns, sausage rolls and hot tomato soup. A local folk band had set up next to the station and kept us all entertained.  The sun was out and it was nicely warm but not boiling. Does a race get any better than this? Looking across the road at the local pub, I saw a fellow runner (bib number still on his vest) come out of the pub with a pint of beer in his hand. Never seen a runner stop for a pint mid race before! This is what I loved about this race, it was low key and very friendly. 

Won't someone think of the PB! 

Horse play

I spent far too long at this aid station as the atmosphere was so nice and the goodies were just so tasty. I reluctantly had to leave and we took a left turn behind the aid station before running up a hill in a grassy field. My way was blocked by a horse in the field who had taken to standing across it. Forcing all the runners to jump over a fence and walk in the middle of the field. This was near to a sign which read “keep to the paths”.  I thought this was very funny.  

The lovely South Downs Way

The hills continued their relentless punishment and my legs continued their moaning however the beautiful scenery more than made up for it.  I passed the half way point, chatting on and off to Jo and Jules. We went past yet another golf course (seems a popular sport round here). At the 18 mile point I encountered “Jacob’s ladder”. The first of two sets of steep bastard steps, several hundred of them. These were just long enough that you couldn’t bound up them and were so steep I was forced to pull myself up my the handrail.  

F F S

When I clapped eyes on the second set I did say some rather rude swear words out loud which got a laugh from my fellow runners.  At the top of the second set I bumped into Liz who I’d met at the start, she was knackered and just wanted to get to the finish.  By now my legs were also trashed but I still had quite a bit of energy, my tactic of walking the hills had paid off and by now I was starting to gradually overtake people.  I said farewell to Jo and Jules here who had stopped for a bit of breather, and on I went.

 

Bumping into Liz, at Cuckmere Haven

Heading down one of the Seven Bitches

Crossing the road at West Dean by the entrance to the Seven Sisters park, there was the most amazing sight of Cuckmere Haven, with the river meandering towards the sea. In front of me, faced the first of the seven sisters. I had 20 miles in the legs by now. I knew from the route map that the final six miles was the hardest part of the race by a long way. I started to speed walk my way up the first “sister” and by now was overtaking like crazy including people who had slowed to a really slow jog. Sorry to all those who I cheesed off by walking faster than you were jogging!  I learnt from a fellow runner that the Seven Sisters are usually called the “Seven Bitches” by the Beachy Head marathon runners and I can see why!

 

Legs be like OWWWWWWW

At the top of the first “bitch” I turned round and the view was just amazing. I was able to do a gentle jog downhill which helped overtake a few more people. The view of the rest of the “bitches” in front of me was stunning, with the sea on my right beginning to set the light was fantastic. It was surprisingly busy and lots of tourists taking photos. Including one man who got a severe telling off from a warden for walking on a thin layer of chalk.

Looking back towards Cuckmere

On I slogged, bitch after bitch, this was such hard work. My legs were beyond tired and everything was hurting, I dare not stop for fear of seizing up. The mars bars had given me lots of energy but the hills had screwed my legs.  It was a case of just digging in and getting the job done. Finally I saw the Birling Gap and the Seven Bitches had been conquered and put back in their place. In front of me now was Beachy Head (although I never did catch a glimpse of the famous Belle Tout lighthouse). 

Beachy Head

Agony going downhill

I hit the final checkpoint, took on board some much needed water and raided the Mars Bars for the final time. There was less than 3 miles to go now, the race was in the bag I just need to keep going. Even though all I wanted to do was stop and sit down with a huge cup of tea. Although the next two miles were a gentle incline, my legs went on strike and refused to run so I sped walk. Finally I got to mile 25, and I caught a glimpse of Eastbourne in the distance. I was nearly there! Finally - at last - we began our decent towards the finish and the much look forward to downhill section. The legs began to co-operate again and I ran this last mile, in fact it was my fastest mile of the entire race. I went back down the same hill we had run up all those hours ago at the start, this was made so hard by the steepness and the need to traverse steps – this is actually really hard when your legs are barely co-operating LOL. Finally I reached the bottom and the finish line was right in front of me.

Flying feet finish

Somehow the change  of surface to nice tarmac allow me a sprint finish into the end. At last! I crossed the timing mat and I was finished!  My finish medal was hung around my neck. The medal was very nice if a bit on the small side. I bumped into Jo who'd I ran much of the race with, we had a quick hug and exchanged further banter. Well done Jo and Jules and thanks for helping me round!

I headed back to the hall where I grabbed my free finishers meal, the lovely dinner ladies had put on jacket potatoes, baked beans and fruit salad for us, this was perfect. Liz came in shortly after and joined me and we spent ages chatting about the race, which was lovely. Finally, I limped down the stairs in agony, collected my bag and it was all over! I had finished in what I thought was a reasonable-ish 6 hours 19 minutes. Not earth shatteringly fast but not too massively slow, even though it was a personal worse for me by a long way! I later found out that the first man got home in just over 3 hours - how on earth this was possible, I've no idea. 

Looking back at Beachy Head

I had a short walk along the seafront back to the hotel, this was really nice and flat and good to get some of the toxins out of the legs. The sun was beginning to set now and I got a fabulous view of Beachy Head back along the coast. As I had another night in the hotel I went to the cinema to see Doctor Strange and also had a "dirty kebab" - my favourite of chicken shish kebab and chips, well why not, I'd bloody well earnt it today.

One last thing to say in my report - the great thing about this race is that the cut-off is super-generous, you've 9 hours to get to the finish line (as Nordic walkers are catered for). This really takes the pressure off and allows you to really enjoy the course. No time outs at checkpoints or anything silly like that, so you can take your time.

I'll definitely be back, this was a fantastic race and I can see why it is one of the top marathons in the UK.