Causeway Coast
Posted by on 29 September 2016
DAVID HAWCROFT tells his tale of the Causeway Coast Half.
Saturday 24th September saw the running of the Giant’s Causeway half marathon race (or even a full marathon or ultra for the seriously mentally impaired). The Causeway is an area of staggering beauty with the race going from Carrick-a-rede (the rope bridge), through the Causeway visitor centre and across to Portballintrae. You can even run across the glass roof of the underground causeway visitor centre for a bit of devilment if you want.
‘Multiterrain’ is a scarcely adequate term as the race goes along the endlessly rolling cliff top, through rock falls, a mile or so of beach, and on this occasion up and down a steep cliff since a high tide had blocked the usual access to the beach.
The weather was as dramatic as the scenery with a howling gale and rain. You could see the rain squalls out to sea and went through a mental guessing game. “Are we going to get this one; yes – no – no – ok – aaaagh!”
Many races have their idiosyncrasies and memorable points but as well as the course the race instructions were different. Along with the usual stuff was ‘This is all National Trust property so close the gates after you , and no public urination at the start’ - tricky one that.
Anyway after all that it was back to my very understanding wife for an evening dinner to celebrate our golden wedding anniversary. What a day!
