Kingdom of Northumbria Coastal Ultra Race Report by Sue Walker
I entered this race late January with entry fee of £58 inclusive of bus transfer. The organisers, Wild Deer organise lots of events in northern England from 10k on trails to ultras.
Runners were able to park at the finish in Druridge Country Park and get bussed up to the start at the south side of Bamburgh. Predicted race time was used to assign waves, with the slowest runners going off in the first group of buses. The fastest runners were then brought up to the start. Runners could start at any time from 8am until 10:30am and the deadline for finishing was 6pm in Druridge Country Park. Runners could also make their own way to the start and were free to start after 8am. The race was fully chip timed start to finish with race prizes being posted out, so it was possible to be first over the finish line but not be the race winner! It meant the race start area was very relaxed with no long toilet queues.
The pre-race briefing was simple. Run Bamburgh to Druridge Country Park following the England Coastal Path signs, supplemented with small yellow arrows, and keep the sea on your left!
At 8am, the temperature in Bamburgh was 1oC, with frost and a heavy mist which started to burn off around 9:30am. The predicted maximum temperature of 10oC but it turned out to be closer to 15oC. Wearing leggings was unnecessary – shorts would have been fine.
The race was estimated to be 54k, 33.5 miles ish, and I think we had about 8 miles on tarmac. There were a couple of miles on tarmac from Bamburgh to Seahouses, a couple of tarmac miles around Alnmouth, a mile or so through Amble and then the final couple of miles approaching Druridge Country Park. The organisers recommended trail shoes but road shoes would have been fine. The underfoot conditions were good, mostly grassy dunes with some sandy bits and only a couple of muddy bits.
There were three checkpoints with drinks and snacks provided and the route took you past several public toilets so no need to nip behind bushes!
The scenery was stunning, made more atmospheric by the misty conditions. The normal backdrop to my start photo should have shown Bamburgh Castle. Dunstanburgh Castle appearing out of the mist was just magical. If you turned around to look north, there was blue sky with no mist but heading south, it remained hazy for much of the day. Running around Warkworth Castle was also impressive. Both Dunstanburgh and Warkworth castles are huge – much more than a simple fortified tower house.
Running through Amble was delightful too. The route took you through the town and then apparently we ran on water, running on Amble pier and looking out to Coquet Island.
Druridge Country Park was a lovely place to finish the race, though I’d had enough by then and could have done without the final loop of the lake! It was great to see fellow Fifers Alison McGill and Susanne Lumsden on the course too with Alison finishing as first woman and Susanne first FV50.
Post race goodies included a medal, beanie hat, drinks (water, beer, cider, alcohol free beer) and crisps. There was also a very popular ice cream van doing a roaring trade.
I thoroughly enjoyed this event which covered a very similar route to the Endurance Life Northumberland Coastal Ultra that Niall Paterson ran just a couple of weeks earlier. Niall’s event ran South to North , and he also had glorious weather.