The Giants Causeway! A name that conjures up images of hexagonal shaped rocks, cliff faces resembling a gigantic set of organ pipes and white capped breakers crashing ashore. My thoughts? If only Finn McCool had finished the job he started I could be sitting somewhere along the coast of Scotland writing this. I have no idea what distracted him from his task or whether he was in breach of contract, though who would argue with him anyway, but ferry operators on these shores have been grateful to him ever since. Maybe he had something more challenging, like running from Portballintrae to Ballintoy and back again, to occupy his mind. Whatever the reason he left a coastline which is stunningly spectacular, or should you miss your footing on the cliff top path, could be spectacularly stunning. But in any event it was  this historic location that 26 Extreme chose last year for the first off road Causeway Coast Marathon and spurred on by the success of that event returned on Saturday with a programme to suit all tastes comprising an Ultra (40 Miles), Marathon, Half Marathon, 10K and Walk.

East Down's Ruth Francis, fresh from her sojourn in the South African sunshine during the World Cup and with a warm up run in the Dingle Marathon last month, doesn't believe in doing things by halves but she did it by 3 halves, starting at 7.15 on Portstewart Strand, running through the Marathon start at Portballintrae all the way to Ballintoy for the turnaround and back to Portballintrae again. Unfortunately as she turned at her 26.2 mile point in 4 hours 50 and while going strong her stomach turned too and left her with a long struggle to the finish line – but unlike Finn she stuck to her task and came home in 8 hours 17 minutes, unbowed and smiling as ever.  Well done to her.

Just to put this event in perspective, the route heads off through sand dunes and cliff top path to the Causeway, picks up the road past the famous Stones and then climbs 151 steps ( Yes I counted them, might have been 152 as I had a rush of blood to the head and possibly took the first two in one stride) to the top of the cliffs again and continues on rough track over stiles and rocks to White Park Bay. Taking to the sand after 10 miles of that is a challenge of a different sort as it pulls at already tiring legs while threatening to wash the feet from under you. I managed to keep mine dry on the way out – the sand was firmer closest to the tide – but coming back was a different story. I had developed a blister on my left foot before halfway which was causing some considerable discomfort on the uneven terrain, especially on the downhill stretches where braking was necessary, but fortunately I was able to avoid limping because I managed to produce one on my right foot as well and this kept me pretty well balanced. In the scrambled thinking process which sometimes afflicts long distance runners I reckoned that bathing my feet in the curative chemicals of the salt water would help so I ran through the shallows – in truth I was too tired to avoid the waves – and found that it certainly made a difference.  Now I had blisters, wet feet and additional pain caused by the salt on the raw flesh. Good decision or what?

Anyway I made it back to the finish line in 4.21 – just to confirm how tough it was even my Garmin packed it in reading 4.17 with 25.5 miles on the clock – perhaps I should have done the same! However a great run by Declan McElroy  gave him 7th place of the 68 runner field in 3.47 with the race winner Dale Mathers from Newry coming home in 3.24 and the irrepressible Iryna Kennedy completing the distance in 6.34. Orla McElroy completed a splendid family day out, finishing exactly one hour behind Declan. Patricia McKibbin whose first marathon was the Mourne Way  challenge in June clearly relishes the easy options as she completed her second here in 5.29 – great run by her.

Daryll Madine flew home specially from Salud to run the Half marathon and eclipsed his last year's time with 2.18 while Denis McKay knocked 7 minutes off his 2009 time, recording  2.45.  Murlough runners too deserve a mention for their efforts, not least Paulette Thompson's assistance in tying my shoe laces afterwards, a good deed she described  as “Helping the Aged”, after she too recorded 2.18 with clubmates Carol McMenamin and Mark King clocking 2.16 and 2.03 respectively.

Meantime Brendan Teer was returning to 10K running in Coalisland and took 5th place in 36.45 over a hilly course – his verdict?  It's not only Down that does hills and he's looking forward to the easy “Round the Griddle race in Saul on 21 November.

Don't forget the Gr8 Dundrum Race organised by Murlough AC on Saturday 16 October, it promises to be a cracker.


Joe Quinn

4 October 2010