An early start was required on Sunday morning in order to arrive at Chipping Ongar for 7 am and registering for the start of my first ultra. The end point, St Peter's chapel at Bradwell-on-sea has special meaning personally and I had contemplated doing this race before. On those occasions I had come to the sensible conclusion I was not ready, this year would be different. In preparation I set out to get lots of long runs under my belt, but reality meant I was desperately playing catch up in the last month - the longest run being 22 miles.
The conditions were to put it mildly, soft. The first half was like an extended cross country race, muddy, boggy and very wet. This made it tough going especially as I had compromised on grip in favour of comfort for the distance. The second half was more enjoyable and firmer under foot, following many of the twisting creeks, mudflats and salt marshes. A pleasant change from the mornings endurance. As the light was beginning to fade I made my way along the final stretch of sea wall and arrived at St Peter's with the aid of a head torch, tired but thankful that I had completed the 45 miles in just over 10 hours.
There were plenty of refreshments at the checkpoints, although I did take plenty of gluten free snacks just in case. At times I was with a few other runners, but mostly on my own. The directions were not always obvious and there was a few diversions along the way. Nothing too serious though. As ultras go this must be one of the toughest, it was good to finish and I'm not sure when I would run it again.
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