The Beachy Head Marathon attracts participants from all over the World and has been voted one of the top three marathons in the UK by readers of Runners World magazine. 1,500 people participate in this annual event which offers one of the most challenging and picturesque routes in the country, winding across the South Downs coast and countryside. At just over the standard marathon distance of 26.2 miles and with 3,500 ft of ascent, plus gates, stiles, bridges and several flights of steps to negotiate, this was certainly not going to be an easy run.
Given the time of year, and having spent a very wet night in Eastbourne the night before, we couldn’t have asked for better weather conditions on the day. For most of the morning it was overcast but warm and dry with sunshine from midday onwards.
At 08h55 six members of the TWMC (including ourselves) were lined up on the road outside St Bedes school waiting for the maroon to
sound that would signal the start of this 26 and a bit mile cross-country race. The others had been here before. But for us this was
to be a new experience.
At 09h00 precisely the maroon sounded and we were off up the first steep hill then up and over Willingdon Hill to the sound of Joe, the Lone Piper, on his bagpipes before descending to Jevington.
After reaching the road at Jevington, and shouting some abuse at an overweight gentleman in a Jaguar who was having a mini road rage incident with the marshal for holding up the traffic, it was up another steep hill and into Westdean Forest. Another down and up and lots of mud brought us to the top of the Long Man of Wilmington before heading downhill to checkpoint 1 and onto Alfriston.
Crossing Alfriston high street we followed the South Downs Way up Bostal Hill to checkpoint 2 where, after a few easy miles, we re-crossed the B2108 south of Alfriston and the Cuckmere river valley to reach Litlington and checkpoint 3. Cheered on by the crowd it was more ups and downs including 2 unwelcome flights of steps before reaching the busy A259 and the Seven Sisters Country Park.
Due to a serious traffic jam that was now forming, the police held us at the road crossing for several minutes then it was off up the hill and back down again to Cuckmere Haven, the sea, and the start of the Seven Sisters.
With the ‘warm up’ over it was now time to start the hard work. After becoming intimately acquainted with all 7 of the Seven Sisters and receiving some assistance from HM Coastguard who were handing out water and sustenance on the top, we reached the final checkpoint at Birling Gap.
Re-energized and with only 4 miles to go it was time to tackle Beachy Head and the finish. The spectators were great and the marshals full of encouragement, although rather worryingly they had been telling us ‘not far to go now’ since Alfriston!
After reaching the ‘summit’ of Beachy Head (and it felt every bit like a major summit) it was downhill all the way to the finish. The last 385 yards were down the same 45 degree slope we had run up at the start and, with now very tired legs, it was a case of risking life and limb to get to the bottom of the hill in one piece and cross the finish line.
We both achieved better times than we had expected: Simon finished in 4:41 and Jillian in 4:48.
Overall, the event was very well organized. The course was well marked and marshaled and all road crossings were manned. The atmosphere was great and we all had an enjoyable day. Simon asked someone before the race how they managed to keep running over this distance and they smiled at him and said ‘That’s easy. If you stop running, the men in white coats will catch up with you and take you back to the asylum!’. Some of us are looking forward to the asylum’s day out next year!
For more details, visit the official Beachy Head Marathon website at
http://www.beachyheadmarathon.org.uk