44. The One Where It Was The First Day

2 October 2015

So the big day is finally here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I woke up really early – predictably – but – less predictably – after a fairly good night's sleep .  It was just as well really as I had to be at registration by no later than 06:15 to get my number, be issued with my daily maps and emergency numbers, then have my kit checked, and then finally have breakfast before the race briefing and the hour-long drive up to the start.  I managed to get through registration and kit check with no issues, and then hit breakfast with Penny and Francis.  I have the best number ever.  Just sayin.  No-one's forgetting that in a hurry!

The breakfast was AMAZING!  A full cooked English jobby with bacon, sausage, fried eggs, beans and hash browns, together with porridge, cereals, fruit etc.  Since I didn't think it was the best idea to try a massive fried breakfast for the first time ever before running I stuck to a couple of hash browns and a lot of porridge.  It was the most stunning day so I could rock my best look of long compression tights and short shorts.  Oh yeah baby.

We had a really thorough briefing after breakfast, when we went through the daily maps and Andy instilled the fear of God in me by saying that Newquay was really hard to navigate.  Since I was pretty sure I'd be last overall, I was super worried about this because I wouldn't have anyone to follow and I know perfectly well how much I've lost the ancient art of map reading since Google introduced the blue dot.  However, I figured I'd deal with that one later!

After briefing, we all piled into the minivans to head up to the start.  There were two groups today – basically, fast and slow.  The slower group (which obviously included me!) started off a good couple of hours before the speedies, because it's a whole hour's drive up to Padstow so it was going to take the minivans that long to get back and pick up the fast guys. 

On the bus, I got chatting to the girl next to me, Elaine, who had also – HURRAH – come down by herself.  For the first part of the journey we got chatting, mostly about triathlon as she'd done Bolton Ironman.  She'd done lots of other endurance events but no multi-day ultras, so she was a bit more in the same boat as me.  The journey up to the start at Stinking Cove was loooooooooong and windy, and since I get quite carsick I fell silent after a bit and started listening to the people behind me.  To my massive relief, one of them (Laura) mentioned that she was planning on doing it in about seven hours, which is exactly what I'd thought I'd do, and she also mentioned that she was local and could navigate Newquay!  Woop woop!

I mentioned to Elaine that I was really relieved by Laura's planned time, and she mentioned that she was also planning on running in about the same time as me and so we decided we'd run together for as long as we could.  After a quick wee stop at the start (there are no loos, but a lot of bushes!) we dibbed in at the start and then set off. 

The start was really a gentle break-in … a nice undulating path down to a beach, which we crossed nice and slowly in order to save our matches for the rest of the day.  For the first six kllometres it was pretty similar terrain and Elaine and I were pretty much at a similar level.  We were having the best time, chatting away and really enjoying our strategy of running the flats and the downhills and power walking up the hills.  We'd been told by practically EVERYONE that this was the best strategy to take, which matched up perfectly with both my training strategy and also all the advice I'd had before the run, so I was happy to stick with it.  We also had the amusement value of passing through Booby's Bay.  Snigger. 

At six kilometres the course went inland slightly, but we managed to deal with that bit of navigation – and by "we", I mean Elaine, because I am totally incapable of that – and from then on it was pretty much the same sort of terrain til we crossed Tranance Beach up to CheckPoint 1 at about 12.5km.  We had to dib in at the checkpoint, but in compensation we got to EAT.  Jaffa cakes, crisps, nuts, MINI CHEDDARS.  Turns out that jaffa cakes and mini-cheddars actually taste quite good in the same mouthful …

After heading out from CheckPoint 1, we followed the path round for another eight kilometres or so, which basically consisted of more undulating hills and more sand, until we got to about kilometre 20.  One thing we saw from across the bay was Elaine's place in Newquay!  This was exciting because if the worst came to the worst we only had to get that far tee hee.

However, before we got there, we had to get ourselves to CheckPoint 2.  To get there, we had to leave the path and head up round the road.  We'd been told that the navigation was a bit odd at that point, but we had lovely Laura with us and she confidently headed up the road.  

However, the guy behind us (who proved to be Bernie) had downloaded the route to his Garmin and he was convinced we were going the wrong way.  After a bit of argument about it, we worked out that Bernie was right and we retraced our steps to Lusty Glaze (Cornwall has the best names) and CheckPoint 2.  CheckPoint 2 had even better food than CheckPoint 1 – including my new all time favorite (for now) – marmite sandwiches!  They were amazing; I'm definitely remembering those for training in future.  We also had crisps, jelly babies, coke, soda, hot drinks and water.  

On leaving, we hooked up with Bernie and Laura for the next little while and ran down into Newquay.  This was definitely the most challenging navigation for the day, but luckily we had Elaine with us, so she was able to get us through town.  

After a quick 200m detour to get a pic of Elaine's house, it was back onto the path.  For the next little while it was all very pleasant, watching the view on the one side and plodding up and down the hills.  Directly after Newquay is the cutest little white stone house that reminds me so much of Greece, my all-time favorite country:

Cornwall is absolutely STUNNING – it is massively underrated!  Every five minutes one or the other of us would point to the right and go ""WOW" as we saw yet another stunning view.  We were feeling really good at this point and we weren't putting ourselves under massive amount of pressure to get a good time – we knew we'd be happy with anything under seven hours, especially given that we had two more days to go. 

After running around Fistral Beach, we finally found some loos so had a quick pit stop, then headed up over the road to the Gannel.  This was definitely the most technical section of Day 1, with lots of rocks to slide down, but we managed it okay, then headed over the bridge across the Gannel and up over the last hill before CheckPoint 3.  The Gannel was a totally different type of view to the rest of Day 1 - a channel that is super wide across a deep, narrow beach set back from the harbor.  It would've been impassable without us getting extremely wet feet and legs, but luckily there was a bridge across it.  

Once we'd wandered over, we found ourselves in deep sand again on the other side, but not for very long.  Once we'd trudged over it, it was straight up another hill.  It wasn't a particularly bad hill all in all, and on the other side was CheckPoint 3!

Sadly there were no marmite sandwiches there, but there were cheese and pickle and tuna mayo, had that been your thing.  There were still loads of crisps and jaffa cakes for me though!  After filling up our water packs one more time, we headed over the last couple of cliffs before hitting the sand-dunes at about kilometre 33.  I can't say that sand-dunes are amazing.  In fact, I'd say they're pretty damn crap to run on!  We had pretty much lost our mojo by that point, so although we were enjoying it we were shattered and content to walk through the sinking sandy hills for a couple of kilometres, knowing that we wouldn't be able to keep going if we tried to run it.  

We did lose Bernie at that point, but we acquired Laura again which was nice.  From there, it was one final push up our last cliff and onto the beach.  The last four kilometres are all on the sand – deep, deep dry sand at that.  It is the most beautiful beach but oh man, it was sooooo tiring!  

Luckily it really was just about the end – just over the promenade and up a final hill to dib in for the finish.  We made it at 06:53 and we were so happy! 

After a nice cup of veggie soup, we managed to score a place on the first minibus back.  As soon as I got back I booked in for a massage and it was the best massage everrrrrrrrrr at the time!  After that it was supper and bed.  I couldn't even stay up for Bake Off Extra Slice!  That is the sign of tiredness.

I was on a massive high after today – can't wait for tomorrow!