CTS Dorset Ultra

This race came about for me on the back of a conversation with Kirsty at Geneva airport on the way home from experiencing the UTMB in Chamonix this year.

The conversation can be summarised as her telling me I could get sufficient qualifying points before the end of the year for a CCC or TDS entry; bear in mind that it was early September and, at that point, I’d never run more than 20 miles in one go.

So, I did the Lakes in a Day (50 miles through the Lake District) in October. Which got me 2 points.

And exactly 8 weeks later, I was stood on the start line for the CTS Dorset Ultra. 45 gruelling miles along Dorset’s “Jurassic” coast, which would get me another 2 points (assuming I finish it…).

Dorset’s a long way from Aberdeen. About 11 ½  hours on the train each way, to be exact!

I’d never been to Dorset before, so it was the ideal opportunity to get the points and to do/see something new (whilst getting a good run in too!).

0730 and there were nearly 200 of us huddled together in the December sun for the pre-race brief. And what a brief it was!... it went on so long that everyone was shivering in the frosty morning by the end and I, for one at least, was relishing the steep climb from the start line to get some heat in my body. I was soon going to regret those thoughts though!

Eventually, we were off up that steep rise. Then down just as severely as we went up. Then up and down 3 more times, and that was before we’d even covered 5km!

The ultra course was a series of loops passing through the event village each time. We first headed West from Lulworth, back to Lulworth, then a loop to the East, then the first loop again, then a shorter (10km) loop to the West to finish. 

So we ended up doing those first vicious climbs 3 times! We didn’t go above 190m all day, yet my GPS recorded over 3,100m of climbing during the course. It was brutal and relentless all together!

Here's my Strava record of the run if anyone's interested.

And here's the second hill:

The loops were the hardest part of the race. I started to hit a really low point around 40km in; as I passed through Lulworth (and the event centre) a few shouts of encouragement from spectators (mostly along the lines of “he’s doing the ultra, he must be nuts, keep going!”) lifted my spirits enough to head back out.

I then hit another real low at around the 50km mark, with the pain starting to get on top of me, and I ended up walking for quite a while.

A doctor, Peter, who noticed I was limping as he caught up, saved me; we ended up chatting and pacing each other nearly to the finish. I felt a little bad that I’d perked up sufficiently to drop him on the last climbs of the day; and my own shadow from his superbright headtorch behind me spurring me on to a fast finish. I must search him out via Google and drop him a line to say thanks.

In the run up to the race, I was a little bit concerned over the communication (or lack of) from the organisers. I shouldn’t have had any concerns; and on the back of this race I’d recommend an Endurance Life event to anyone.

There were 4 race distances (10k, half mara, full mara and ultra) all happening on the same course at the same time, and everything was really well organised and went smoothly.

Just after the half and ultra courses merged, someone asked me how far we’d gone. The look on her face when I said 35km done with 35 to go (she was “only” doing the half) was priceless!

We were treated to some amazing weather, with bright sunshine and clear blue skies, followed by a finish under a full moon bright enough to almost negate the need for headtorches.

My official finish time was 10hours04mins, leaving me 57^th from 110 finishers (with around 55 DNFs). Pretty happy with that, but it would’ve been nice to slip under the 10 hour mark.

I learnt a lot from this, which I’ll take forward to my races planned next year; and that will hopefully include one of the races in the UTMB week. But they're the usual lessons that I'm sure most ultra runners learn: don't start too quick (I did), eat regularly (I didn't), etc.

So, as I sit here typing this, I’m sore, really sore. The bursitis in my heel that plagued me in the run up to this race is even worse, but I’m still riding the wave of the high from finishing.
I've got my 4 UTMB points, and now just need to decide which race to put an entry in for next year.

I’ll enjoy the euphoria while it lasts, and prepare myself for the lows that are likely to follow. Hopefully I can get back to running before too long, and then there’s Australia in 2 weeks to look forward to.

More hills!

Beautiful scenery