ROSELAND TRAIL – RED RAT (20.4 miles) – Kirsten Irish
Portloe to Porthpean, Cornwall
I was supposed to do this run last year when Tim did the 64 mile but sprained my ankle beforehand which put me out of action for about 4 months. The organisers of this event are very good, however, and deferred my place to this year.
Tim and I travelled down to Cornwall on the Friday, booked into our B&B (we don’t camp!) and then went for a lovely pub meal before going to the race registration to have a kit check and register for the following day. As this run is largely self sufficient (2 water stations within the 20 miles) you have to carry a reasonable amount of kit which included foil blanket, warm top, waterproof coat, at least a litre of drink leaving from each check-point and gels/food. The 32 and 64 milers have to carry even more!
A good nights sleep and then back to the registration for race brief at 9.10am, on a bus at 9.20am and then bused to start, 20 miles away at Portloe.
The race started at 11am from the beach at Portloe, straight up the cliff path, largely single-file, so you were governed by other peoples pace at that stage. For me that was a good thing as it kept me slow. The first few miles were therefore fairly slow and steady but I was already overtaking people on the steep uphills as I had practised walking fast uphill on our very own Seaborough hills!
The first checkpoint for me was at mile 9 which was in a village hall and had so much food and drink on offer it was amazing – being gluten free though I had carried most of my food. I managed a banana and some jelly beans and really appreciated a cup of still coke. I spent a bit too long in this checkpoint and drank too much so set off with belly ache!
The next few miles were reasonable, views were amazing. The cliff path kept going from beach to top and back down. But what was worse for me was the camber on the fields – it played havoc with my knees!
The camaraderie out on the course was great – you were passing white runners (11 miles), red runners (20 miles), black runners (32 miles) and green – infected runners (64 mile plague) who had started off at midnight and were still running on the Saturday afternoon! I was a little apprehensive at the thought of running by myself but there was always someone behind or in front of you and the sign-posting on the course was very good.
The last 4 miles, which I had already been warned about, were the worst! My legs started to cramp at about mile 15 and then there were steps, steps and steps!!
My plan of attack was to count them in 50’s (I can only count that far when breathing hard) but there were so many 50’s! And really steep paths! At mile 18 I was wishing for the end and I was getting slower and slower – not helped by the fact that I saw a sign for marshall point 7 and thought that it was the 7 mile marker for the 11 mile race. No idea why as no other markers on the course – just a mind thing!
Finished the race up a steep road from Porthpean beach in 5hrs 14mins, with very tired legs.
At the end of this run, I was never going to do it again but would definitely recommend it to others and might now run it again.
Mudcrew are a brilliant race organisation and location was epic. I would say that it is the next stage up from The Grizzly as the steepness of the coast path is constant.