South Downs Marathon Race Report

What a beautiful and brutal marathon that was.  Despite the South Downs Marathon being the toughest of the year so far, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  The scenery was probably even more spectacular than the Windermere Marathon, largely due to the fact that so much of the marathon course was run along the top of the South Downs with great views of the surrounding countryside.  Of course, this was what made it tough, because to reach the view points meant running up hill.

The race started from the grounds of Slindon College, which is about 7 miles east of Chichester and 50 miles from my parental home in Winchester.  The college itself is a rather well appointed private school that specialises in the education of boys with dyslexia.  The grounds of the college made for a pleasant setting to whittle away the time whilst waiting for the race to start.  Rather unusually the race was set off in four waves.  The first wave consisted of the relay runners, made up of teams of four, who set off at 9am.  Solo runners who predicted it would take them longer than 5 hours to complete the marathon started at 9.20am, followed by runners who though it would take them between 4 and 5 hours at 9.40am.  Anyone who expected to complete the race in 4 hours or under, which included me, set off at 10am.

The start of wave 3 at Slindon College

I was at the college in plenty of time to watch all of the waves of runners depart.  The 20 minute duration between each wave of runners seemed to last forever, and there was very little to do except queue for the loos.  Which was my only gripe, the portaloo provision seemed minimal for the number of runners, and we weren’t allowed to use the loos in the school itself.  I would have been frantic if I’d been in one of the first two waves to start.  By the time it was my time to set off, the vast majority of runners and supporters had already gone on their way, and the grounds were suddenly very quiet for the last 20 minute period before my race was due to start, which was the only time that there wasn’t a massive queue for the toilets.



Waiting for my start time

As I mentioned in a previous post, the marathon is divided into four sections with a checkpoint at the end of each section.  The marathon was chip timed and used a disposable timing chip that I’ve never seen before.  A timing mat was present at all three checkpoints, as well as the start and finish, which gave the organisers reliable information about who was still left out on each part of the course.

When my race started at 10am, the runners stayed together as quite a tight pack for the first couple of miles, which were reasonably undulating, but with definitely more up than down.  From roughly the 2 mile point the incline got steeper and continued to go upwards for the next 2 miles.  This part of the route went through shady woodland with foxgloves growing wild in clusters of sunlight amongst the trees.  It was quite pretty and helped take my mind off the incline.  Towards the top of the first climb I started to pass more and more runners who had decided to walk up the hill.  I was on the verge of walking myself when I suddenly turned a corner and found myself running on the flat.  Shortly after this I was out of the trees and on top of the world.  It then became quite apparent that the climb had decimated the pack of runners.  I could see a pair of runners a short distance ahead of me but no one else.  I then looked over my shoulder and there were just a small number of runners emerging from the trees behind me.  I caught up with the pair ahead of me and decided to stay on their heels for a while and use them as my pace makers.  I didn’t let them know this, though.


Running on top of the Downs

The next couple of miles were fairly level running with good views of the surrounding South Downs and its villages.  I started to overtake runners who had left in the earlier waves from the five mile mark.  Six and a half miles in we reached the first steep descent down to the first checkpoint.  I let gravity take over and I flew down the hill passing plenty of runners who were using way too much energy and over exerting their quadriceps by breaking their descent.  I was grateful that it wasn’t raining; otherwise the white chalk path would have been treacherous. 

Starting the climb after the first checkpoint

At the bottom of the descent we crossed the busy A285, went through the first checkpoint and then started the climb back up to the next section of the Downs.  At first all of the runners attempted to run up the second big hill.  But it wasn’t long before more and more runners succumbed to the hill and decided to walk instead.  To start with runners adopted a system similar to the escalators on the London Underground.  People running would stick to the right and walkers would stay to the left.  But nearer the top of the climb the vast majority gave up all hope of running and competitors were walking on both sides of the path.  At this point anyone with enough determination left had to run through the thick grass to overtake the walkers.  From half way up I found myself half walking and half running to reach the top of the hill.  But once again, at the top of the climb we were rewarded with good views and level running, at least until it was time for the next steep descent to the second checkpoint and road crossing on the A286.



Halfway up the 2nd big climb - walkers left, runners right

The third section of the marathon was the toughest of the lot.  It was the most undulating, with short, steep climbs being quickly followed by steep descents.  Hardly any of the next six miles would be flat.  Throughout the previous section I had constantly been overtaking runners who had set off in the previous two waves.  But the third section of the marathon seemed to reduce everyone to the same speed.  I managed to run down some of the earlier slopes, but by the end of the third section of the course even running down had become painful and I didn’t trust myself to just let go and give in to gravity.  There were plenty of runners around me who were cut and covered in dust from falling over, and I didn’t want to end up with more grazes on top of the ones that I already had from my fall earlier in the week.  I don’t think I saw anyone run up any of the hills on the third section of the route.  Anyone making a valiant attempt from the bottom of a climb soon gave up and walked with the rest of us.  Still, we still had the views to take our minds off the pain.

One of the climbs on the third section of the course

On the approach to the third and final checkpoint a runner who had completed this marathon on a few previous occasions reassured me that the final section wasn’t as tough and that the last two miles were all down hill.  Thankfully, he was correct.  I had almost resigned myself to walking the last six miles.  At the start of the final section my feet felt mashed from being pushed to the front of my shoes on the descents and from all the running over hard chalk paths.  My legs also felt knackered from the effort of running up and down way more hills than I’m used to.  But somehow I managed to dig deep and carry on running, even though I only averaged a little slower than a 9 minute mile pace over the last six miles. 

I crossed the finish line in a time of 3 hours and 41 minutes and felt the usual wave of relief and elation wash over me.  However, this marathon felt like a much harder thought battle than most, and as such the sense of accomplishment was also higher than any of the previous five run so far this year.  With the agony also came the shear pleasure of running in a beautiful part of the English countryside.  The landscapes and vistas encountered seemed quintessentially English.  I almost felt as if I was on a location finding mission for an episode of Country File.  It certainly had been a rewarding marathon and I dare say that I will be back at some point.

Six down and six to go

Soon after crossing the line I met up with Ruth.  I then headed straight to a burger van for a well earned quarter pounder with extra bacon.  There’s nothing like rewarding yourself with junk food after burning off in excess of 3000 calories.  That’s what my Garmin tells me was my energy expenditure on the run.  It also tells me that I made a total ascent of 840m, which is 2724 feet, or similar to running up and over one of the major peaks in the Lake District National Park.

Amazingly, I feel in pretty good shape today (aside from two massive blisters on my little toes).  This helps back up my theory that the tougher the marathon the less sore you are afterwards.  I believe that flat marathons might be easier to complete, but in doing so you exercise your muscles in exactly the same way for the 3 to 5 hours that you run, leading to muscle fatigue.  On hilly courses the amount of work that is undertaken by the hamstrings and quadriceps is constantly changing.  So, whilst it might be physically harder, your leg muscles aren’t always working at the same rate or in the same way and, as a result, the repercussions the next day aren’t as severe.

Anyway, the completion of the South Downs Marathon means I am now half way through the target I set back in December last year.  In reviewing the list of marathons I drew up at that time, this is the first time that I have deviated from my original plan.  I had intended on running Cheltenham Marathon this month, but I think I made the right choice in switching to the South Downs.  It also had the advantage of enabling me to combine running a marathon with visiting family and friends.  Who says men can’t multi task?