Exe to Axe

The advantage of going to a race on your own is that you can leave at the time you want to, drive at a sensible speed and arrive calm and stress free with plenty of time to spare. Having said that, I am missing him…………..

First challenge was to get to Seaton for 8.30am on the weekend when the clocks go forward. Second challenge was the car park charges - 85p per hour. Well you try working out how many hours it’s going to take you to get to Exmouth on a bus and then run back - and then multiply the answer by 85 - and at 8am which is really 7am! I did manage to work out that I didn’t have nearly enough change and that a cheaper option needed to be found - which proves my point that it’s always worth getting to a race in plenty of time (Hope he’s reading this in a cyber café in the Alps between black runs).

The race starts from the Foxhole Café on Exmouth sea front and follows the coastal path for 20 miles (advertised) or 21.2 miles (real life) back to Seaton with a total of 4000 feet of climbing. I started off fairly steadily trying to conjure up Martin’s usual mantra “too fast, you’re going too fast” and sensibly let a young girl from Exmouth Harriers take an early lead. I caught her up at Budleigh Salterton - she clearly didn’t have the advantage of Martin’s wisdom regarding pacing - and settled down to enjoy the race from the front.

At Budleigh you head inland for half a mile to the bridge over the River Otter - a beautiful (and flat!) stretch before once more turning south and tackling the climb along the cliff path before dropping to Ladram Bay. Shortly after this you pass the first (or last depending on which way it’s being run) of the trig points from the Four Trigs, and this meant that I was onto familiar territory. At this point I also became aware of another female runner on my heels. Each time I glanced back she was closer and looking strong and she finally passed me on the Sidmouth sea front. No need to worry - she was a relay runner and was stopping at Sidmouth, so I could relax, slow the pace a little and hold my lead.

The second half of the run is by far the hardest - first the long, steep climb out of Sidmouth, then the drop to Salcombe followed by another muscle screaming climb, then down to Weston Mouth for the short stretch of beach before yet another ascent. The pace over the first half of the race was beginning to tell now and I was really regretting the T shirt I’d put on under my vest because it was baking hot.

As I dropped down to Branscombe, Fred Fox from YTRRC caught me up and we walked the hill up the other side together. Once we reached the top and began running again he soon pulled away from me - but the worst of the climbing was behind and only a few short miles to go now. I passed a few runners between here and Beer, who had also clearly got their pacing wrong, although I couldn’t believe by this stage that anyone was running slower than me.

Down the hill into Beer and a sharp right turn onto the coast path and to my dismay I spotted another girl sprinting down the hill a mere 50 yards or so behind. I tried to make my tired legs climb the zig zag steps out of Beer a little faster and passed another male runner. The final descent into Seaton and my rival seemed to have fallen back a bit but as I turned onto the coast path and the steep drop to the sea front she came into sight again, and she was gaining on me. I had absolutely nothing left in my legs but I gave it my best shot and if I had only known that the finish was at the end of the first stretch of promenade and not at the Hook & Parrot (Grizzly finishing line) as I had assumed, I think I could have held her off.

As it was she passed me with about 30 yards to go and beat me by 6 seconds. I was gutted as you can imagine, but I have only myself to blame for giving in just a little too easily. Now I know how Martin felt at the JK last year when he stopped on the bridge and Dave swept past him to victory!

This is a fantastic race, great scenery but a really punishing course and on the day, the combination of starting just a little too fast and the totally unexpected high temperature caught me out. Link to the results in on the website and hopefully some photos will be added to the Gallery shortly.