Snow Ice and Epic Trail Runs
The countdown to the Dover trail run had been on my radar for a few months - but I had been trying to ignore it as I had big reservations on how it would go. My trail running training had been limited this winter following my fall and this race was due to be epic.
A week before the race though I decided I may need to know a little bit more about what I was going to be undertaking. We located this video of the course. Epic was the right word - but in an incredibly exciting way. The course looked amazing and the views spectacular. No matter how hard the course was going to be it was going to be an amazing experience and a great challenge. So.... the countdown then really began as I started to get excited about the forthcoming weekend.
And then.... snow! What - out of the blue- the weather reports started to come in saying that UK was going to be hit by storms, snow and a cold snap! This was far from ideal with Dover being on the coast. Flood warnings were at a high!
Needless to say throughout the whole week I was in denial that the weather would hit and continued to plan for my trip down to Dover to race. Even with the snow coming down on Thursday night my bags were being packed! What was a bit of snow between friends....and lets be honest - we have run in mud, rain and waded through water - surely a bit of snow wasn't going to hurt us! I have no idea where this hard core me has come from though - I used to be scared of the cold - let alone spending several hours outside in it exercising.
A few hours before we were set to leave Endurance Life announced that the race was going to be cancelled. The company didn't seem to want to cancel it, but it was out of their control. The council had made the decision that it was unsafe to race due to the wind. This was really disappointing as the decision was made on the current weather warnings and not the predicted weather for the Saturday when the race was due. All weather predictions were indicating that Saturday would be a perfect day! Endurance Life confirmed that they would be on site throughout the day and that although they couldn't run the race officially they appreciated that lots of us would still pull on the trainers and head out for a run if the weather conditions improved.
With this in mind and the promise that t-shirts/medals could be lurking at the base camp for the race we decided that we would head down to Dover anyway.
We had already paid for a hotel and the race so apart from a tank full of petrol we thought why not..... if the weather was nice we would venture out alone and see what the Dover trails had to offer. A lot of people might feel that we were being irresponsible, but we would only ever head out on the trails if the weather conditions were much better - after all we are not totally crazy and it is important to stay safe.
Upon arrival in Dover on the Friday evening we headed up to the proposed start (St Margarets Cliffe - base camp) to suss out exactly how bad the weather was! Well - lets just say it was far from ideal. Basecamp was on a top of a hill and the north wind was blowing at a rate of 45mph! I cannot quite explain how strong it was - but I certainly couldn't stand up!
We ventured out of the car as a few other couples had turned up at the same time as us! Although it was clear nobody could run in these winds everyone had great faith that conditions would significantly improve by the morning. Even with the cancellation of the race still in place everyone seemed convinced people would be running! All we could do is wait and see - so onwards we went to our hotel.
An evening at the Ramada Hotel - was what we had to look forward to before we decided to run or not. We had picked a cheap and cheerful hotel, but in all honesty the hotel was wonderful. The rooms were very clean, freshly refurbished and the bar was amazing. It was perfect value for money at £39.00 for a twin room between two of us and dinner was a bargain! We were very chuffed with our home for the night and had a great nights sleep in preparation for a potential adventure.
Morning came too soon and 6am saw us up and getting prepared to hit the trails. The weather forecast was looking good. The wind had dropped and there were rumours that the sun would be coming out to play! The race was never officially due to start until 10am, but with the cancellation status still in place we thought we would head up to the start around 7.30 and assess the situation.
Base camp was alive with activity upon our arrival. For a race that was cancelled it felt really organised. We were provided with our race t-shirts and a cup of tea upon arrival. The organisers were really disappointed that the event was cancelled, but were really supportive and provided us with some good guidance in the eventuality we decided to head out for a run. Naturally they wanted everyone to be safe so confirmed that if we did venture out we should take supplies, avoid certain cliff areas and to keep an eye on the changeable weather.
At 7.45am we headed out on a variation of the course. The first track took us down to the cliffs, but we didn't need to run too close to the edge. This was probably the worst part of the whole course. With the sun still rising we still had to contend with snow and ice underfoot. The first few miles were relatively slow under foot as we dodged slippery sections while also taking in some breathtaking scenery.
The course took us right up the coast away from Dover castle to the lighthouse on a variety of trails and tracks. These trails followed the main England Coast Path winding along the cliff tops. The route was very undulating and as we dipped up and down to bays and small villages. It was certainly good hill training and we did our best to keep a steady plod up hill and a quicker pace as we descended again to make up time.
The views were incredible from some of the peaks as we could see the White Cliffs of Dover against the stormy sea. France was also waving at us from across the channel also. Annoying every now and again our phones thought we were actually in France! Darn roaming charges.... lets hope they didn't get us while we were out on our adventure.
After the initial icy start - the weather improved remarkably as we headed to the further point of our route. This was at Walmer Castle. I have always loved castles so when I found out that we were running between two I couldn't have been happier. Deal Castle was however a little underwhelming, but I guess I had been comparing it to Dover that is much more majestic!
From Walmer Castle we headed slightly in land and started a long steep accent back up to the Cliffs. We saw a number of small shops and coffee shops which would have been nice to have visited if we had not been mid run!
At this point 6 miles in we were wondering if anyone else had ventured out for a run! We had hardly seen anyone and we had honestly believed that the majority of people would have headed out early. Around ten miles we bumped into a few fellow runners also doing the half marathon. It was nice to know we were not the only idiots taking on the trails.
We were nicely surprised though because when we rounded the corner onto the final track at 11 miles we were met about 60 plus people heading out on the course. It appeared that lots of people had headed down to the start when the race was initially due to start and had all taken the view to run it. It was a welcome boost to help us get back to base camp. Lots of people to say hello to and lots of smiles. This was much appreciated as the final stretch was across an open field directly into the north wind. It was freezing cold and I was never so pleased to have reached the end! We were quickly met with a cup of tea and the lovely news that we could have a medal for our efforts. The organisers couldn't officially give out the medals, but these were available to take if we wanted. An added bonus for our dedication in getting out there today.
Our run was far from race material and the speed was nothing to boast about, but today was all about safety. It was just nice to have been able to appreciate the beautiful views and to experience some new trails. I would thoroughly recommend people to attend the race next year as today was amazing for a non organised event - if it was organised it would be even better than it was. I certainly wasn't disappointed and it was EPIC!
