17th January: CTS Dover

Two weeks in to the new year and its time for my first marathon of 2016 down on the south east coast in Kent, where in another first, this run was the Inaugural Coastal Trail Series Dover event.

Previously the January race of the series has been on the isle of Anglesey on the most north westerly tip of Wales (and a ball-ache for me to get to), so whilst it was a shame to not be running up and down Mount Anglesey and its surroundings, it was certainly a far more convenient journey. I was also intrigued as to what the course here in Dover would be like, when my only experience of it is passing through the port whilst escaping to mainland Europe!

Following my normal plan I drove to the event base for midnight. Finding there was no available parking nearby I pulled-up on a verge at the side of the road and hunkered-down for a kip… A slightly more comfortable one than previous time as I had fitted a ‘rock n roll bed’ in the back of the van.

In the midst of a week long cold-snap, I knew it would be a chilly night, but even with the floor, walls & ceiling of the van insulated and foiled ‘space blanket’ panels covering the windows, I woke up to find a thin layer of ice on the inside of the glass!

It turned out I was opposite the field which was the event parking, so I drove across the road and breakfasted as the sun slowly rose before heading down the hill to the visitors centre at the Coastguard base and registering under the watchful gaze of Dover Castle… At least with how cold it was there was no danger of the van getting bogged-down in mud whilst I went off gallivanting!

Frosted grass and a quiet port.

The ground was crisp underfoot and whitened with the frost. As the sun rose over the becalmed harbour beneath us we could see there were no clouds in the sky, so today’s race, whilst cold, was looking to be in glorious sunshine with cracking visibility and maybe a little bit of warmth from the winter’s rays - well you can but hope!

The castle perched above everything.

As it was the first time running the course, all we had to go-on before the race was the published map of the route on event organisers Endurancelife’s website, which whilst an OS one, you still really need to be ‘on the ground’ to put a context to everything… From what I could tell it was a figure of 8 of equal halves with the southerly one first before the northerly and a very steep climb in both halves.

Parading along the promenade.

After the briefing we were off descending the cliff path and the pavement in to the centre of Dover itself before heading up and out the other side of the cliff road. I was making good pace at the start towards the back of the leading bunch with all this descending, but after we had made our way out the other side and found ourselves climbing the steep path alongside the A20, all the signage had disappeared. Like sheep we must have blindly followed the leaders past a right turn… Decision time now: turn back and re-tread 1/4 mile downhill and repeat the ascent the other side of the wall, or forge onwards with the climb, cross the road and tack-around till you pick-up the course again. I chose the latter alongside a couple of others and soon enough we rejoined the course on the edge of a housing estate, having not gained an advantage of cutting distance or disadvantaging ourselves by adding on a good half mile like the others did.

Looking back on the port on the way up and out.

The cliff-top path looming large (we diverted right at the base of the hill).

Back on the course we were now heading down away from the A20 and Dover, passed the ventilation shafts for the channel tunnel down to our left, before running through a tunnel that spat us out in open countryside beneath the cliffs, following the trail along through a nature reserve and over the pebbled beach parallel to the railway in the direction of Folkestone.

About to enter the cavernous hole.

Inside the tunnel.

Along here I found myself running with a local guy raised in Deal and who was loving the chance to run in a race where he grew-up. He explained to me that the nature reserve we were on was reclaimed land made from the spoil of the channel tunnel excavations. They deliberately piled it all up there to protect the railway line which kept on being damaged by storms and high tides. The net result was a good 50m of extra land extending out in to the sea around 5-10m higher than what there was before and stretching for a couple of miles!

Hitting the shingle of the beach.

He was very impressed to be so far in front of the field, to which I explained about those at the very front having taken a wrong turn so they were about 10 minutes behind, so expect within about 15 minutes to half an hour to have a steady stream of people come passing by!

A stream on the beach.

Soon I was by myself again as I picked my way over the boulders and mud that was making up the going underfoot as it changed from the grassy nature reserve to the pebbled beach.

Under the white cliffs.

Back across the beach

Looking forward along the sea wall.

Progress along here was considerably slower, but under the sunny skies it was nonetheless enjoyable; just you the waves beside you and the birds calling above… A quick scramble up on to the sea wall and a short blast along here we had reached roughly 10k and the furthest away part of the initial loop - and the climb up over the famous white cliffs… The steep promise on the map. This was slow, hot and heavy progress: step after step until finally the top was reached and the first of the day’s aid stations.

Starting the climb up the cliff.

Crossing the railway bridge.

Back on the cliff top path we were soon cooled by the breeze as from our on-high vantage point we could see Dover getting bigger in the distance as we headed back towards it and the halfway mark.

Looking down on the sea-wall we had just run along.

'Operation Stack' in force on the HGV's approaching the port.

Approaching the town centre, we detoured to the left, climbing towards the wartime fortifications on the ridge-like hill with the rest of the town of Dover below us to the left. Up here with the sun able to hit the ground, the hard icy surface had given way to a slick muddy trail underfoot and some people were skating all-over the place through not having footwear adequate for handling these conditions!

Rampaging over the ramparts.

From the fortifications it was back down to the sea front and the reverse of the initial mile under the castle, before climbing back to near the start and continuing round overlooking the now thronging ferry port. On the path here, the chalky mud was sticking to your feet like shit to a blanket - filling your grips and making your trainers useless for any purchase on the ground and weighing a ton as you tried not to slide all over the place.

Just about to drop in to the town centre.

All alone with the crisp clear air, cracking views and slow progress through the cloying mud, for the first time in a while at a race on went the iPod and shuffling through there were a couple of cracking tracks that made the next couple of miles along the cliffs, down to St. Margaret’s and the slow climb up the steps on the cliff face fly past. I always find the miles 15-20 psychologically the hardest of all in a marathon as you have just gone past the halfway and the end is not yet on the horizon, so I’ll take anything to help with the slog!

Climbing back out the far side of the port.

Soon we descended into Kingsdown and the promenade along to Deal before the turn for home… It was along this stretch I was caught by a couple of familiar faces in the form of Cliff & Roxi, a pair of Canicross runners from ‘back home’. The 3 of us made our way along the flat tarmac to the aid station before they pushed-on leaving me to keep on trucking with just my tunes for company.

Claggy mud!

From the turn it was pretty much uphill to the end, so I tried to push as hard as I could as the sun began to wane, the shadows lengthening and the chill factor rising (or should it really be plummeting?)… After a few miles I caught Cliff & Roxi again as they were slowing down through Cliff picking-up a knee niggle and they were praying for the end to come sooner rather than later, as with only a couple of miles to go it would be quicker to struggle to the end rather than any thoughts of dropping-out!.. When they had passed me they had taken-on another dog from a third runner who had to drop-out through injury approaching the halfway. This meant Cliff was attempting to get a dog he knew, but had never run with before, to run in sync with his faithful hound and obey his commands and do things at his pace, which was adding further stress to just getting round the course in one piece!

Lengthening shadows.

As the sun nearly disappeared over the horizon in front of me I eventually I crossed the line after a touch over 28 miles with the ground beginning to freeze-over again in the darkening skies, for a 74th place finish out of 127 who toed the line at the start.

Waning sun on the final leg.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the scenery through which we ran - including the ubiquitous white cliffs, and running beneath them you appreciate their size and majesty all the more.. When you say Dover, you think dull, grey and industrial as all you tend to see is the road in and the port, with the town itself hidden over the other side of the cliffs, however there is a helluva lot more than just the port and town: there’s miles of rolling cliff-top hills and fields to either side of it and to the north.

Sunset over the port.

The difficulty grading of this course is only given as a 2/5 (although Endurancelife’s difficulty ratings would have a standard town-centre marathon as about 0.1/5) it still has plenty of challenge and a relentless final 10k of uphill slog, plus scaling and descending the white cliffs twice is not the easiest of feats… At least I can now say I went up and down them twice in a day!

Cliff & Roxi crossing the line.

For the record, these are the tracks on shuffle that accompanied my trek:

Dido - Slide
Jamie Myerson - Revisions 
Metallica - The Struggle Within
New Order - Mesh
The Beatles - A Hard Day’s Night
Flowered Up - Phobia
Pixies - Ana
IAM - Petit Frère
The Stone Roses - I Wanna be Adored
Crowded House - Fall at Your Feet
Trinity-X - Forever
Goldie Looking Chain - Time to Make a Change
Manfred Mann - Doo Wah Diddy 
Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden
Rui de Silva - Touch Me
INXS - Kill the Pain
BT & Tori Amos - Blue Skies
Basement Jaxx - Fly Life
Carter USM - Second to Last Will and Testament
Louis Armstrong - We Have all the Time in the World
Jellyfish - The Ghost at Number One



Eat pies.
Drink beer.
Run far.