Thunder Run

A ten mile run turns into twelve

Only another two weeks until the 2014 Round The Island race here in Mersea. It is not an easy race and for me it will be a case of getting round rather than trying to achieve a specific time. 

The run will take us all around my little Island home

The terrain is mixed and there is a lot of beach running followed by grassy sea wall and just a few areas of solid surfaces. It is going to be a half marathon distance this year because the sea wall was breached in the winter resulting in a huge hole beneath the path. There is no money available at the moment to repair the damage and so the race organisers have had to come up with a detour that is going to take us about a mile further. The race is usually about twelve miles. This year it will be 13.11 miles.

This is the start of a previous race which shows the
difficult dry sand

• Taking up the Round The Island Route
• Thoughts on the change at The Monkey Steps
• Crossing the Strood and rescuing a sheep
• The Heavens open
• We can see clearly now the rain has gone and we can see all obstacles in our way
• Run re-cap

Taking up the Round The Island Route

Last week Becci and I tackled the 'East' part of the route which you will find some notes about previously here on the blog. This time we thought we would run the 'West' part of the route finishing in the 'East'.

We picked up where we had left part of the altered route and went down onto the beach at Mersea Outdoors Centre.

The re-routed map which Tim Denshen has very helpfully
posted on the Race website

Thoughts on the change at The Monkey Steps

The website shows the route extending along the beach
to the Board Walk 

In order to avoid the bottle neck at 'The Monkey Steps' the organisers are taking the route further along the beach and then up to the road via the new(ish) board walk. This seemed to make more sense to us even though it means harder work at the beginning of the race.

Crossing the Strood and rescuing a sheep

We continued along the seawall until we got to the Strood (the causeway joining the Island to the mainland). We had a short bit of dangerous road work and then we joined the seawall on the other side of the Strood. We ran on the track just under the seawall as the grass was shorter and easier to run in but we lost the view.

After a while we saw a runner coming towards us through some sheep. He then climbed a wide gate but we decided to get up on the seawall at this point but there was a sheep our side stuck in the kissing gate. Fortunately, a van appeared and we were able to get their attention and the farmer got out to see to the poor sheep who was trying to get through a section of barbed wire.

The Heavens Open

We had been very lucky up to this point with the weather. It was very warm and humid but dry and then there was an ominous darkness like dusk and a clap of thunder announced a really heavy downpour.

The rain was warm and I was soon completely drenched. I felt really exhilarated even though I knew it might be dangerous if there was lightening. My shoes were sopping but it felt as if I were running on warm, wet sponge and was very invigorating. 

We can see clearly now the rain has gone and we can see all obstacles in our way

Oh dear and the first of these obstacles were the dreaded heifers we encountered on our last run. The difference was that their gate was open and they had crossed the muddy 'cut' at the bottom of their side of the seawall and were definitely waiting for us.

Of course I love cows - at a reasonable distance
and with a barbed wire fence between them and me

Not wanting a repeat performance of the previous time we met and they charged up to us, Becci and I decided to double back to see if we could get across to the field before theirs and so into the woods to get back home.

To no avail as there was nowhere to cross. It being too far to go back we then had a brainwave and decided to get down onto the foreshore (which is really a mud flat) and follow the barbed wire fence to the edge of the mud. Then we would get round it and go back up to the seawall where the cows could not see us. We would then creep along to the gate.

Yes, well, what can I say - desperate situations
call for equally desperate measures

Well it worked! But by this point we were absolutely worn out and we still had about three miles to get home.

We decided to get off the seawall by the Oyster Fisheries and then make our way back to the road for a nice, straight shuffle home.

Discovering that my trail shoes were not that adept at
gripping wet metal gate bars

Run re-cap

We ran a total of twelve miles in the end. Two more miles than planned. We were thoroughly soaked and worn out but we had gained more experience of the varied terrain of the Island.

My Garmin makes me smile as it makes it look as if we had perfect weather.

The splits make interesting reading too as we had to walk in places and it took us ages to walk across the mud flats but there is one very good pace in the timing.

Apart from the race,  I don't see myself repeating this route again unless someone could guarantee the cows would not be there. Thank goodness for the company of Becci.

I took some water with added electrolytes as well as some pretzels and dates and I also had a sports gel at five miles. I used this for the last half marathon and it seems to help keep my energy at a reasonable level.

Next up another Hash on Monday and some more shorter runs before race day.