Race Report - Atlantic Coast Challenge
Written by Carla Evans
Race Report – Atlantic Coast Challenge
Atlantic Coast Path – 4th-6th October 2024, 3 marathons in three days.
I entered the Atlantic Coast Challenge as it was a fantastic opportunity for me to explore 78.6 miles of the stunningly beautiful South West Coast Path. My lifetime goal is to explore the whole 630miles. I decided to run the first day as my qualifying marathon for my club championships as I am aiming for the fidelity award this year. I never planned on running the whole event, that would just be insanely crazy, right??!! I only ended up running the whole event when I gingerly stepped out of bed on Saturday morning and realised my legs still worked!!!! I could walk! No problem, and they didn’t hurt, my feet were fine too, I could actually move quite fluidly. How weird! Well, perhaps maybe I should try running again today.
The whole event turned out to be one of my favourite adventures to date. I would highly recommend it to all of you. I enjoyed everything about it, meeting lots of lovely like-minded people. I’ve never experienced such a variety of terrains either. Having to self-navigate too and find check points. It really was an adventure and it was breathtakingly beautiful also. I saw the longest, widest most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen in my life, ligh houses, seals, donkeys, horses (one stood right in front of me on my tiny narrow path, refusing to budge). I ran up and down massive sand dunes, got lost in sand dunes, climbed through prickles, helped newfound friends climb fences.
Most of day three was jumping from rock to rock and ploughing through flowing rivers of mud, on occasion up to our knees. We were like Bambi’s on ice, slipping over and laughing. There were lots of very Cornish looking little whitewashed houses decorating the cliffs. We ran through an old abandoned mine, over lots of little bridges, through estuary’s. The sea was turquoise blue, dotted with surfers. It was just so varied and exciting, it made the hours just disappear.
A few quotes from my weekend that made me smile:
Me at breakfast after putting my toast through the conveyor toaster for a second time: “Urm, excuse me, I’m sorry, but my toast is on fire.”
Me on my third day, in the pouring rain, jumping over my ten millionth slippery rock in a river of thick mud that looked just like chocolate: “This is so dangerous! One wrong step and our legs could just snap!” Some guy behind me: “That’s very cheery, we could also go for a swim in the sea after and get eaten by a shark!”
Sat at on the grass at Lands End, with our medals round our necks, eating our very greatly received Cornish Pasties. One of my newfound friends Laura said: “I’m really proud of my little legs, I often complain about them, they’re too short and not thin enough. I’m never going to complain about them ever again. They were amazing getting me through that. I bet Naomi Campbell’s beautiful long legs couldn’t have done what mine have just done!”
My Dad always taught me, and I tell my girls on a regular basis, “It’s healthy to put yourself out of your comfort zone.” I would say to anyone thinking about taking on this kind of adventure. Don’t overthink it, get it booked. When you are there, everyone around you is in the same boat, you are all in it together and it suddenly doesn’t seem anywhere near so daunting. You can do this and it will probably be the best thing you ever decide to do.
