What better to do during lockdown but make the most of your own ‘backyard’.
Having enjoyed it despite the weather, I considered entering Brutal Events ‘The Oner’ a 24 hour 83 mile Ultra along the Jurassic Coast for April 2021. I decided to test myself on the first thirty miles from Studland to Lulworth, which has some some brutal hills and If I could do it with an average pace of 16 min/miles or less it was on but, together with many events it was deferred to 2022!
Luckily, mine is the rolling Dorset Countryside and the Jurassic Coast. Sam and Josie from Sandsfort Castle Cafe, a magnate for athletes of all disciplines and abilities, set a challenge a few years ago, ‘The Cafe 50 Single Shot Ultra,’ They also have the 100 challenge, once you finish the 50, turn around and do it in the opposite direction! So, come mid-summers day 2020, or a few days later, on what promised to be a hot sunny day, I set off just before sunrise. Nic, my hubby was organised with iced water every 15 miles or so. Well no sunrise appeared and I got lost on Portland in the thick mist which hardly lifted until late afternoon. I was tempted to call it a day as I passed within a mile of home but, nearing the end, Brian Fields appeared as if by magic to guide me for the last few miles and Helen and Alex Adams were at the Café, after 13 hours 15 minutes, to award me with a cardboard medal – now a prized possession!