I missed doing a stage of the Round Norfolk Relay this year and as we were visiting a friend in Norwich it seemed a good idea to fit in a race along the North Norfolk coast. I expected it to be flat, but it started on a heath above the coast and we ran down to the coast. As it was an out and back course I knew I had the climb at the end to look forward to.
We hit the coast and and 2m stretch of shingle beach. This was very hard work, as bad as running in sticky mud but you come out with clean shoes. Luckily I missed some it by keeping inland as much as possible - although I had not run this stretch before, I had seen other runners on the Relay taking an inland route. It was a bit muddy in places, but far better than the shingle. But you couldn't avoid all the shingle. Finally it ended and I got to the first checkpoint.
From there to the turn around point, it was easy going, hard paths, little wind, a bit of sun, but not too much and lovely views. After a cup of tea and biscuit I started back. There were still runners coming towards me and some were carrying on along the coast as there was also a 100K event, so the marathon was just the short event !
About two thirds of the way into the event, I started to feel the after effects of doing Kielder six days ago. My legs became very tired and the shingle beach sapped even more energy from my legs. The gentle climb back to the heath and the finish seemed steeper than it was. It felt good to finish and I was happy with my time of 4hr 49min
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