The Wall - 19 June
Please see reports by Matt and Simon below
Report by Matthew Holt
This was the first time I have done a Rat Race organised event, and I must say the organisation from beginning to end was superb.
Their events are known for being quite expensive, but if you want to do an ultra distance event, especially for the first time and are a bit nervous, then I would recommend these guys.
Everything they do is provided to give you the best chance of finishing. We didn’t receive any maps, written instructions or even a GPX file of the route as the entire 69 miles was completely signed and marked. Plus extra marshals were deployed at every major turn to ensure you went the right way. As well as a number of checkpoints that offered water and sweets, there were five ‘pit stops’. Each pit stop was catering on an industrial scale, with various drinks, at least 7 types of sandwiches, crisps, cakes, but best of all (for me) fresh fruit. I could have happily spent an hour at each one consuming my body weight in strawberries, grapes, bananas, oranges and apples. The vegan / veggie options were also brilliant. If I’d have known how good they were I wouldn’t have bothered packing any food in one of the two drop bags they sent to various points on the course for you.
Rat Race were unable to secure an indoor finish venue where you could shower and change, so I decided to drive to Gateshead on the Friday, leave my car there, then catch the train to Carlisle. You needed to collect your tracker on the Friday afternoon from a hotel in Carlisle, so I booked a room in the local Premier Inn. I didn’t have to worry about getting to sleep that night, 60 minutes of England vs Scotland football had me snoring like a good ‘un and meant I missed the end.
The next morning we all made our way to start at Carlisle Castle. The route of The Wall race follows Hadrian Wall from Carlisle to Newcastle in an easterly direction. Having put your drop bags with marshals, you made your way to the start line. This was Rat Race’s first event in 18 months, and you could tell they were delighted to be back doing what they do best, organising real events.
Covid meant a rolling start of 6 runners every 10 seconds between 6.30 and 7.00 am, and Simon McCudden and I started at 6.38 am. With 80% of the 70 miles on road, I was careful not to start too fast. The course is relatively flat for that distance too, its only has 4,100 feet of elevation in total, with most of that just before the mid way point. It was quite easy to put in a quick marathon to start with but I held back and shuffled along at 10 min/mile.
The first pit stop came and like I said above, I could have grabbed a chair and put a stone on in weight with all the food on offer. Never mind, best keep going.
The cloud cover made for a cooler day than in recent weeks. However, with a full pack of essential kit, by 5 miles in my T-shirt was soaked and I kept dreaming of the fresh tops in my drop bag at Hexham.
Between miles 24 and 30 we had to contend with a lot of the elevation, a lovely off road section that made a nice change to the tarmac. Although it was off road, there was a lot of rocks to negotiate, a bit like someone had once built a wall there, knocked it down, and left the remnants scattered around, or maybe I just imagined it.
Another two pit stops came and went before we finally reached Hexham at 44 miles. This was the biggest pit stop of the day, as you could decide to do The Wall over 1 or 2 days, and camp here on Saturday night, with the final 26 miles on the Sunday. Again a good idea if you wanted to try this distance for the first time but not in one go.
That fresh T-shirt was blooming lovely to put on, and I decided to have a longer stay to consume two lots of soup, a coffee and a humus sandwich. Finally I dragged myself off the grass and started the slow plod to warm up my stiffening legs and get everything moving again.
The next, and last, pit stop, was at Newburn 17 miles away. That seemed a long way away, but I shuffled and walked along. We went through the lovely town of Corbridge, and in the early evening sun, nicely dressed and clean people sat outside the bars and restaurants doing normal things and generally having a right nice time. We in the meantime, shuffled pass in a sweaty and somewhat rough looking state and stared longingly at them and their ice cold beers and white wine.
The sun was breaking through more and more now and it felt like it was getting warmer not cooler as the evening wore on. When I was about 1 mile for Newburn, I decided on a quick pit stop. While most other runners had a seat and consumed their food, I filled my water bottles, grabbed a black coffee, another humus sandwich and a pot of the largest juiciest strawberries known to man. I decided to walk while eating, so the next mile was a 17 minute mile but at least I was another mile along the route rather than still in the pit stop.
I decided to shuffle as best as I could and managed 12 min miles for the next hour. I was expecting 70 miles, but at 68 miles on the Garmin, the unmistakable silver roof of the Sage appeared in the distance. I didn’t want to believe it just in case I had got it wrong, but another few yards later and the view of the Tyne opened up before me with several bridges spanning it, including the Tyne Bridge and The Millennium Bridge.
This was definitely the best finish I have experienced to a race. The quayside bars were full of people outside, and the vast majority gave you a wave and cheer as you went by. If only you could bottle that feeling, it was really amazing. Finally, the Millennium Bridge took you from the Newcastle side to the Gateshead side of the Tyne, where a huge marquee and cheering crowd welcomed you over the finish line.
I managed to finish in 14 hours 29 minutes, half an hour ahead of my hoped 15 hour target. In total 69 miles with 4,100 feet of ascent through a lovely and a truly historical part of our country.
Report by Simon McCudden
Leading on the great account from Matthew above, I too found The Wall a great event, superbly organised, friendly fellow runners, wonderful food at excellent checkpoints/pit stops, positive and supportive marshals. Rat Race looked after us all very well,
I was nervous during the week leading up to the event but as soon as Matthew collected me to drive up to Newcastle on Friday afternoon, to leave his car near the finish in Gateshead, we had a laugh. We nearly missed our train from Newcastle to Carlisle because I got stuck in the queue for the coffee shop with someone in front of me was ordering 4 large lattes! However the train route was great with lots of lovely signal boxes to see! Despite our taxi not turning up early on Saturday morning a kind person gave us both a lift to the start at Carlisle Castle.
Oh yes the event, well I know the route of Hadrian’s Wall having made many visits to the area during the last 40 years, being an archaeologist I knew what we were looking at as we made our way along the route – the scenery is fantastic in the central section and the whole route was one of great variety.
I hadn’t run more than 35 miles for 30 years so I decided to take a very steady start and try to keep an even pace for the whole event, which I managed to do – the last 25 miles from the Hexham pit stop, I used my new walking poles (my wife Sheila’s idea) and the poles were a real help in keeping me to a steady pace. I felt very positive during the whole event and thoroughly enjoyed the whole atmosphere.
The experience of running into Newcastle along the Quayside, under all the bridges crossing the Tyne, even at 2.20 am on Sunday morning, was brilliant and Andy running in with me for the last mile was a very kind and generous gesture by him. Special thanks to Andy for his great support, to Pam for her company during all the training I had put in, seeing Pam at the 30 mile point was very welcome. Well done to Matthew for his brilliant finishing time and company. I achieved a time of 19 hrs 41 mins, the time was not important, the enjoyment in taking part was everything.