The Rye Harbour in East Sussex. A glorious nature reserve. Home to an astonishing 4500 species of plants of animals, some 300 of them rare and endangered. It is one of the countries most important and largest wildlife sites.
This exceptional area of wetland and coastal landscape was the setting for the Twilight Chase. A 6 hour timed event to run as many 4.4 mile loops around this pancake flat corner of the uk. What an idyllic way to spend a balmy August evening for our super experienced Mr.Marathon man, Steve Hickman……what could possibly go wrong?
“How hard could it be?” Steve said on Facebook
75mph winds…. that’s what could go wrong.
“It couldn’t have been any windier”
The geography of the area that makes is so beautiful, also makes it one of the exposed parts of the coast.
Starting at the sailing club at 4pm, Steve set out towards the Nature Reserve past the Mary Stanford Lifeboat House and on toward, but not quite reaching the red roof of “Grans Hut” with 26 wind turbines in the distance. Here Steve and the other 99 runners made the turn to head back to HQ.
Upon returning to the aid station, Steve was given a wristband for each lap completed. With the sun setting at 8.30pm it was a race against the clock to battle the wind.
“It felt like you were running, but not actually moving!”
But the super trooper hung on to complete 6 laps of the morale battering course to reach the marathon distance 5 hours and 12 minutes
Marathon 158 done ✔️
