Day 3 began the same as the others with a race briefing at the HQ and a chance to scope out the competition before being bussed to the start at Lulworth Cove. A quick chance to stretch our legs before the start and then we were off down the road and up the first extremely steep hill.
From the beginning I had been dreading this days running because I had recently run a large section of it and knew that it was very steep – even the most energetic would not be running some of the hills. So the routine was very much climb to the top of one steep hill take a deep breath and run, as best as you could, down the hill. In some places there were steps for you to walk up/down but the spacing and height of these was always random so they were of dubious benefit. This carried on for about half of the days course. The expectation was that the sea would always be on the right and near by so when I noticed that the sea was quite some distance away I mentioned this to my companions and we had to carry out a course correction – why do I always make these wrong turnings! This course correction added at least a mile to the overall distance and worst still it involved running into and out of another valley.
Shortly after this wrong turn was the first checkpoint at Gaultar Gap. From here the route continued to be hilly but with a lot of steps. While the steps were made for a clearly defined route they were there because it was steep so there really wasn’t a rest. I can’t say that I was really taking in the scenery at this point. On the 3rd day I was tired and the only thing that was on my mind was getting to the end. A push up another steep set of stairs brought us to checkpoint 3 at the coast guard station near Worth Matravers. This was perfect timing for me to refill with energy drink.
Now things became a bit easier. The track was narrow and often sloped away to the coast. At one point we had to head inland, although it looked like an adventurous person could take a short cut we had already been advised against this. It seems a tragedy to head inland when you know that the shorter route is along the coast. Check point 4 was at Swanage and the run through the town was a change to, what was otherwise, beautiful scenery.
Heading out of Swanage there was one more hill and then the trail was pretty level until just before Studland where it dropped down to the shoreline. Now the end of the trail was at Studland Bay but it was still a good 2 miles or so along the sand. Keeping close to the sea the sand was firm and the sound of the waves was pleasant but the 2 miles seemed a lot further. Almost at the end and if it was for 2 other runners that I’d just overtaken I’d have carried on along the shoreline and missed the flags showing the way to the finish. This bit was cruel because we now had to move cross the loose sand and into the car park for the finish line.
Overall I enjoyed this run. It was my first multi-day event and I did enjoy it, but the whole event was marred by my hamstring injury. It would also be a shame not to mention the weather. If it had rained or been windy throughout the run it could have been really miserable but unseasonably hot weather was also quite a challenge.