North Coast Marathon Series

North Coast Marathon Series

I remember when I first heard about the North Coast Marathon Series.  I was running through Monkstown Wood in November in the freezing rain as part of an East Antrim Marathon Series event with well known marathon runner Eugene “Oggie” Winters and he mentioned that he was organising his own marathons now.   The 1st one would take place on the 2nd January. Several questions went through my mind simultaneously that meant that I forgot to reply to his query about my attendance.

These were: It’s the 2nd of January on the north coast. It’ll be bloody baltic! It’s xmas, you know, a time of rest? EAMS are already doing back to back marathons on 30th & 31st December. Are people going to do another one after 1 days rest? How many people are going to attend? There’s around 60 doing this one including the half version.. How many will journey 60 odd miles to do yours? As it turns out about 50 went to the inaugural event and it got good reports.  Even though I had reservations my perspective of what a valid marathon is was altering in any case.  In that EAMS marathon I was doing 4 laps of Greenisland suburbia. I would end up doing another on the 30th December along the coast from Carrick and enjoyed it. I made a note to fit one in if the dates were right.

The next one was scheduled for the 20th March. As it turns out this date was fine and I could incorporate it into my Highland Fling plan. I’d arranged to do the D33 mile Ultra the previous week and I needed a long run which was less than 33 miles, but I still was able to keep the weeks mileage up at around 60.There was 1 problem. I’d signed up for the Larne Half. The primary reason for doing this is that I wanted to get used to running on tired legs for the Fling so I was always going to do a long run on the Sunday as well. Recently I was wrecked after doing the Carlingford Half and a 25 mile training run on the Sunday. The solution was to ease back on the pace on the Larne Half by about 10-20% so I wasn’t fatigued. As it happens a girl I knew from North Down, Helen, was aiming for a 1h45m PB and it made sense for me to pace her.  

Larne went great as it always seems to, and I headed back to put the feet up, get the carbs in and watch the rugby. In this case it was bolognese with chips and a large pizza along with some nice ale. Otherwise my preparation could have been better. I had no gels, no sweets some shot bloks. I resolved to get some confectionary in the morning while I got some diesel for the journey.

Upon getting down to the start I didn’t really expect many surprises. It was very much a spin-off of EAMS and it almost seemed like an extension of the franchise. They both have the following features in common;

- Cheap entry fee (around £20 with proceeds going to charity)

- Organisation through Eventbrite with a closed Facebook group for info

- Restricted entrance numbers. Less than 100.

- 2 starts. 1 at 8am for slower than 4h30m runners and 1 at 9am for quicker runners

- Minimal marshalling to help with busier junctions with supply drops around every 8 miles

- A nice medal at end with lots of confectionery at the end. EAMS had the back of  a car with cans of full fat coke and crisps like a school tuck shop.

I was choosing the later start as I already had to get up for 6am to get down there with getting fuel and provisions. At short notice the start time was moved forward to 8.45 which made the timing a bit tighter than I’d have liked.

When I arrived I saw a few familiar faces. There was Big Ivan who was there in support of his partner Fiona after running Larne the previous day. He’s not crazy enough to do both, neither was Fiona who skipped Larne. There was a girl from North Down, Cara, who I’d never spoken to but recognised and there was Jonny Lindsay who I’d never spoken to, but knew his brother well. The organiser was Helena Dornan, who was a distinguished local Ultra runner (she was the first lady at the recent Last One Standing Ultra). There were maybe 20 people running. Missing was the NCMS Chairperson himself, Oggie, and it occurred to me that he was almost certainly running the race with the 7.45am start. That’s the problem with an event that was designed “by marathon runners, for marathon runners”. The organisers might decide to run the event themselves!

The start was prompt at 8.45 and off we went.  I went at a 9 minute/mile pace (4 hour target time)  which immediately relegated me to the last 4 runners. The rest, including Fiona were absolutely flying ahead. I suspected she was going for the 1st lady position.  I was ok with all this speediness, but there was a Facebook post from Helena detailing how a couple of runners went the wrong way towards Portballintrae in the previous event, and I really hate getting lost in races. I also don’t want to be last in a race. Considering there were probably some slower runners in the 7.45 start overall this was unlikely, but I knew that it could well happen in practical terms.

Race start. Helena and Cara (centre) in shot

The other runners at the back were a guy who was wearing cycling gear, a couple of runners with Southern AC vests on and Jonny Lindsay.  The sun was quite bright now and it was turning into the sunniest race I’d done since Chicago in October. The views were superb of the cliffs and the sea, and there were several golf courses with bemused players looking at us. There was a steady stream of cyclists going past. A number were saying things like “great running, big lad” and being generally complementary. Thankfully there was footpath for several miles all the way through Portrush and towards Bushmills.

Dunluce Castle

At Bushmills (about 10 miles in) it was a left at the junction with the Copper Kettle cafe (as mentioned by Helena) and on towards the Giant’s Causeway. At this point the footpath disappeared and it was onto the road. There was an uphill stretch that went on for ages, the road was in poor shape and there was a constant stream of cars to play chicken with. It was now that I started to see runners coming the opposite direction. One of the first was Oggie, wearing a Chicago Marathon shirt who high fived me, along with others. It was getting customary for the out and back runners to high five each other. When the road turned left to the Causeway there were greater numbers and the first of the 8.45 starts on the return stretch appeared. I passed a couple of the runners ahead as the numerous bumpy hills took their toll. Eventually we reached the turnaround point which was at 13.1 miles precisely.  

The turnaround point

I took a quick breather and started chatting to one of the Southern AC runners. It turns out he was from Waterford and was inspired to come up after meeting Oggie at the Tralee marathon the previous week. I found it hilarious that Oggie runs around 60 marathons a year and is an evangelist for his own series, getting people to travel 300 miles north for it. He seemed like he was enjoying it, and had already signed up for Walled City and was asking me about Newry. The upsurge of tourism from The Republic hasn’t been as much as was expected, but it’s clear from this, EAMS, and the Ultras they have in NI like the Energia 24 that there’s nothing holding back runners from crossing the border to go to our events.

Keep er lit big lad

I was starting to find it tough after about 16 miles.  It seemed hilly on the way out and I thought this meant it would be easier on the return, but it really wasn’t. On the plus side the views of the scenery were better on the return. I got a clear view of Dunluce Castle and the views of Portrush in the distance, along with the backdrop of the Inishowen Peninsula. I caught up with Cara and the Waterford guy who had now adopted a walk/run strategy. I explained that I needed the running miles and went on. Cara asked what I was planning and I mentioned about The Fling. She said I was running too fast. Fair enough. At this point I knew I wouldn’t hit 4 hours but would probably not be too much after that.  I then passed Jonny who had also taken to walk/run.

At around 20 miles I decided I’d try and do what elites do and “kick” meaning use my remaining energy reserves and make use of the perceived downhill. This didn’t really work as the downhill stretches were short and my legs were pretty sore. At mile 23 I saw Helena who cheered me on. I didn’t see any marshals or anybody else for that matter. I went on autopilot to the finish.

At the finish there was some Lucozade, crisps and sweets. We were promised Morellis ice cream at presentation of our race number, and something was going on at the Anchor Bar. I didn’t really hang about as I was starting to cool down and my legs felt like someone had taken a bat to them.  On looking at the results later it turned out I was placed 23rd out of 44 with a time of 4.19.29 which I was fine with.

Finish with Oggie

So who is the NCMS for? Its for experienced marathon runners who are fine with self-supporting and who really don’t take it that seriously. I'm taking it as an enjoyable way of training for bigger challenges, and it works great for that. I can’t imagine people training for 16 weeks specifically for it, nor should they. My next marathon, my 25th, is Manchester, is very much a traditional marathon, which I will be taking seriously.