South Devon Ultra, 27 Jan 2024

My first ultra - a slightly random decision made a few months previously at the suggestion of my partner who thought south Devon in January would be a good idea! We spent the few weeks before the race closely watching the weather forecast, trying to establish what wind speed was ‘too windy’ and panic-buying trail running poles (which turned out to be a complete lifesaver!).

So on a bright January morning, after driving 5hrs from Cambridgeshire to Devon, we found ourselves on an Endurance Life start line with around 200 others (a combination of trail marathon and ultra runners) ready to take on 34miles and 2000m of elevation.

We had agreed to run together and went in with the goal of finishing (in one piece). We held back at the start and let the ‘serious’ runners get ahead whilst we settled into a pace as the path narrowed down. The first 8 of so miles featured some beautiful paths along to Start Point and then around to a view point of Salcombe. The path was undulating and we were able to run most of it (with the exception of some narrow paths with slippery rocks!). At this point the course then headed inland and the hills (and mud!) commenced. We walked up a lot of the steeper hills and unfortunately, also had to walk down some of the steeper ones too! This was where the poles were a fantastic purchase! The runners had really spread out by this point but it was nice seeing several other couples dragging each other around too! It was a first ultra (or trail marathon) for a lot of people which was reassuring! We kept ourselves fuelled and hydrated with a mix of gels, oat bars and sweets along with biscuits/crisps/bananas from the aid stations. It was definitely tough fuelling for such a long time.

Around the 20 mile mark it became really tough with 3 steep hills in quick succession. Thankfully this was followed by a long steady downhill and it was nice to feel the legs relaxing again. We were excited for the long flat part path (the Slapton line) which would take us towards the end of the marathon loop but unfortunately this had a horrible headwind and a path covered in sand and was really tough on the legs. After this it was a steep hill up and down towards Beesands again. A slightly depressing moment followed when a runner, having already completed the ultra route (so at least 8-10miles ahead of us!) was running back towards his car looking like he’d only just started running.

At the marathon loop finish we said goodbye to some other runners who were finishing there (at this point questioning why we hadn’t *just* done the trail marathon) and carried on to do a loop of the 10km course to complete the ultra. By this time the sky was beginning to darken and it took a lot of motivation (and sweets from the aid station) to keep going. The path back down to Start Point was especially beautiful and it was a lovely part to get to run twice. We headed back inland and round some little villages to head back towards the finish. By this point I’d say we were walking 75% of the time (I like to think power walking but it was probably quite a slow walk!) but managed to break into a run for the final mile down the hill to the finish.

80,000 steps later, the relief of finishing was huge. There were only a handful of people left at the finish as we were definitely towards the back of the pack but the event team were lovely and welcomed us with hot drinks and our stash. We finished towards the bottom of the pack but given that almost 20% DNF’d the ultra (a lot calling it a day or timing out at the marathon end point) we were happy with how it had gone (and achieved our A goal of finishing!).

It probably took only a couple of hours before we were thinking about doing it again next year! (But agreeing we’d do a bit more hill training before!)

Millie Rhead