Written by Peter Stone
The advert for the Endurance Life Northumberland Ultra said “Running here will nourish your soul like nowhere else on earth. The Northumberland coastline boasts some of the most dramatic coastal scenery in the UK and is best known for its sweeping sandy beaches, rolling dunes, high rocky cliffs and isolated islands” - could it really be that good?. It’s not an area of the country I knew, sure, but how good could it be?
Arriving at Bamburgh Castle at 0700 for registration it seemed like there might be one or two positive signs to support the claim - the magnificent castle was both the point for registration and the finish of the race – giving the whole event a sense of history and grandeur. The amazing castle sits in prime position on a dolerite outcrop looking out across a pristine beach and then on to the Farne Islands. It seems as though it may have been home to a fort or castle since at least 400AD - today it remains in the ownership of the Armstrong family who have owned it since Victorian times.
Registration for the race was seamless and fast – timing chips were issued, race numbers allocated and even the Castle café was especially open to ensure there should be no excuse for running out of steam later on. A well spirited race briefing was followed by a bus trip down to the start of the Ultra in the shadow of Alnwick Castle (you will have picked up the whole ‘castle theme’ to the day by now). And there we were, around 100 racers in a field ready for the off. A customary blast of the air horn and away we went – pursued by a high speed drone which accompanied us over the day filming the various races.
The first few miles of the route are fairly normal field running eventually leading to the River Aln with the highlight being a series of stepping stones across the river which, if negotiated badly, would result in a (very) early bath. Safely across the river the route took us to Alnmouth where we got our first sight of the North Sea. Turning northwards we started heading towards Bamburgh and, after a mile, came to the first checkpoint. As with all the checkpoints on the day the fare here was a little meagre but that was not a problem for me as a discussion on Facebook had alerted me to ‘bring your own’. True, there were the ubiquitous jelly babies, custard creams and bananas but many people opted to self-supplement as well. For me it was Runner’s World formula flapjacks and American Hard Gums throughout the day. A quick rewatering and we were away again.
From here the real fun on the route begins. In essence it follows the route of the Northumbrian Way and follows the coastal path and the beaches themselves. The initial phase of the coast route took the path along the side of Alnmouth Golf Club before cutting across the first of many beautiful sandy bays. The knack here seemed to be to keep to the quite wet bits – too dry and it’s very sapping – too wet and it’s the same. A weaving line across the bay showed the way faster people had found that line across the bay.
The ten mile mark came at Boumer, home of RAF Boumer, one of the main search and rescue helicopter bases in the north of England. As we passed it occurred to us that might be helpful later on…At around 13 miles we came to Craster, home of the word-renowned Craster kippers, and the start of the half marathon. We passed a large number of runners warming up on the cliff top and ran on towards Dunstanburgh Castle. Although ruined this is another fantastic piece of architecture and kept the interest and the spirits up. It was about this point that some of the half marathoners came dashing past us quite a few with words of encouragement (‘keep going’, ‘well done’ and ‘nutter’).
Approaching Beadnell, the start of the 10k race, we were getting closer to Bamburgh – the end for the marathon and a significant staging point on the Ultra. At last Bamburgh came into view and, fairly quickly, were climbing the sand dunes up towards the castle. For marathon runners the route ended here but for anyone doing the ultra a sign indicated that there was a little more left. A swift run across Bamburgh Golf Course and then across some very chewed up farmland to the H2O stop at Budle. From there it was a somewhat wearing 4 mile road section before re-joining the beach to finish, once again, up the dunes to Bamburgh Castle. For the last six miles I had been chased down by another runner – James Blair – who finally caught me up with 3 miles to go. We ran together and somehow decided to finish the race together. We both came in just over 7 hours which was pretty much what I was hoping for. My only two aims were – finish and don’t be last. Well I finished and was 66th – that’ll do!