Final preparations are being made for the Run To The Sea Ultra Marathon from the Moors Valley Country Park to Hengistbury Head, Bournemouth, tomorrow (Saturday 14th October.)
Runners are travelling to Bournemouth from up and down the country to take on the gruelling 50km route, being marked out by the marshals today (Friday 13th October.)
They will run along the Castleman Trailway from Ringwood down to the seafront before a long stretch along the seafront until the race comes to an end in Christchurch.
The debut of this event in 2020 was a roaring success, meaning that the event has returned to Bournemouth and its sister event in Brighton each year since.
Organiser Jamie Shillam expects similar numbers again this year: “As far as I’m aware we are expecting a great number of runners comparable to the last few years.”
Jamie compared this event to others he has worked on: “Where other events seem to have dropped numbers, the ultras we run seem to stay consistent.”
With that level of expected participation, organisers have to stagger the runners start times from 7.30am to 8am.
Runners will have a total of nine hours to complete the course, with four water stations at roughly 10km intervals to aid them along the way.
For such an intensive event, intensive training is required, as participant Kay Louise Middleditch highlighted. Kay said: “In the run up to this, I also completed a race to see how many loops of a 5k route I could do in six hours.
“This helped me because I tried to emulate the checkpoint situation and how and what running as I don’t use gels and things.”
Runner Jo Pelham is looking forward to running with her husband. She said: “I am running with my husband and our goal is to have a fun adventure out together and enjoy the new scenery we will see. I’m excited to run another ultra and learn more about myself.”
Following the race, runners will receive a bespoke medal, free goody bags and downloadable photos from the race.
Police called after Bournemouth University rugby training disrupted by drunken invader