The Newcastle way is the perfect intro to ultra running, although it is not ultra length being almost exactly a marathon distance (42km) the trail loop has a perfect mix of scenery - from the long stretch of beach, old bridal ways through farmland, forest trails and the stunning Mourne mountains for a back drop.
The day I ran the Newcastle way was dump and quite misty so the views were not great. I decided to start and finish at the 12 arches bridge opposite Murlough beach. There is a good carpark here and it was almost empty. The route description on the walk ni website suggests starting and finishing at the Newcastle tourist center on the promenade and travelling in a counter-clockwise direction. I chose to avoid this as I thought it would be better to finish the run on the beach section instead of the hilly section through Tollymore forest park - this was probably a good decision but I think the decent out of Tollymore to the finish on the seafront would have been pretty awesome. Also it was hard going in the sand on tired legs towards the end.
Note: it is ideal to avoid running along the beach section at high tide as there is only a narrow strip of pebbly shore which considerably slows progress.
I started quite late in the day (just before noon) and was hoping to finish the run before dark (in a time under 5 hours). The trail is well signed, even through the two forest parks which have numerous paths. In Tollymore forest a short section of path was closed following recent floods which had wrecked a wooden footbridge, a minor diversion is in place at the moment. My garmin gps watch has a pretty limited battery life of around 4 hours at best so I had a backup watch which I started when the first became low. I later merged the two files to get a complete picture of the run. As this was a relatively short run I carried my own basic gear and food (choc bars).
I was happy to have broken 5 hours at the finish and maybe could have finished around 4 and a half hours had I started with the beach section first. I think it is possible to complete the trail in under 4 hours. Why not give it a go!