I seem to have picked a perfect day for the run! 13 degrees and bright sunshine for the entire afternoon!
It would be warm but I took 1.5litres of water in the back pack and felt that would be enough to see me through.
Set off from the Tourist information office in Newcatsle town centre and headed into the park. Almost immediately got stuck in a group of school kids who were out on a nature walk!
From the park, made my way up into Tollymore Forest to tackle the 2 big climbs of the day. These were tough but I had always planned to do it this way round and get the climbs done early. A decision I maybe regret later when I hit the last 10km of deep muddy sand on Newcastle beach!
The Bryansford Road is a long straight tarmac road which I then cut off right and into a field. I went wrong here and crossed the small river which was stupid as I relaised 5 mins later I was stuck in a field with no way out and had to turn back and lost maybe 10 mins in total (and got wet feet!).
Castlewellen Park was as beautiful as ever and at this point you know youre halfway and have the nice lake as your view for the next 15 mins.
Coming down the Dundrinne Road I was feeling really confident and coasting along nicely...until I realised Id missed a turn and had to run back up the hill, cursing my stupidity again!
After that its lots of fields and farms, nice countryside.
And then across the busy Dundrum Road and into Murlough National Nature Reserve. This is the part of the course that I knew best and I knew to expect a difficult last 10km of running on sand. It was muddy and deep in parts and really saps any remaining strength in your legs. I had a choice of running on large beach pebbles or running in deep mud, I went for the pebbles.
Then the long long long stretch of Newcastle beach is insane! You can see the town in the distance but it never seems to get any closer!
Once off the never ending beach its up onto the promonade and at this point I got the burst of energy everyone gets when the end is just around the corner.
Got to the finish and felt like there should have been crowds of cheering well wishers; there was actually just an old couple enjoyong an ice cream and a few school kids making their way home..ah well..