RUN THE RAID
By Michael Bissett
On Sunday August 3rd Tom Farrell and I took part in the Run the Raid Half Marathon. This is a point-to-point race starting in Spittal (Berwick upon Tweed) to Lindisfarne. It commemorates the Viking Raid on Lindisfarne in 793AD.
It was a 90-minute drive from Edinburgh down to Lindisfarne to park the car. We had to wait a little time until the causeway was safe to drive over – we let a few cars go in front of us just to test the waters before we headed onto the island! Registration was on the island itself, and a bus was laid on to allow you to easily get to the start.
Run the Raid is very much a multi terrain half marathon, starting at Spittal and running along the prom before a short stiff climb up on to the rocks of the Northumberland Coast.
The start was a little narrow, so I made sure to get off to a swift start and was even ahead of Tom for the first kilometre! Once on the coastal path it became trail for a few km before we hit the dunes. The dunes were narrow track and a little sandy. This was where Tom really started to stretch out ahead of me. The dunes were great to run on and were a good test of my strength and trail running skills. There was roughly around 5-6km of dune before heading back onto more regular trail as we started to head towards the island.
On reaching the causeway it was around 14km in distance, and I must admit to thinking that the race was going to be short as the causeway surely wasn’t that long. Turns out the causeway was that long! It was on tarmac and flat but was a definite mental challenge especially after the time on the trails. Running along the causeway you could see the nature reserve around you and out into the North Sea.
After what seemed a very long time, we reached the car park where we had left the car hours earlier but the race was not over. We headed into the “town” where many of the locals and tourists were out cheering us on. We were led down to another part of beach on the other side of an island and a little hill to climb. It was time to do a mini bit of scrambling! The hill was tiny but after 20km of running it felt challenging to say the least. On top of the tiny hill the famous castle came into view and it was a short run around to the end and the finish line.
The medal is seriously impressive and a fitting reward for an amazing course. I managed to finish in 35th place out of 328 people and 6th in my category. Tom had a fantastic run with an 8th place finish. I could see him from afar running on the dunes and it was a bit of a masterclass in how to complete a trail run. He worked his way through the field and was never passed by anyone. He was also just outside his half marathon PB!
This is still a new event – only in it’s second year. Next year they are thinking about changing the causeway section to use more of the trail around the island which would add an extra dimension to the run.
I would recommend this race to anyone in the club who likes the look of it. It is flat – the only climb is up some steps at the start for a few hundred meters. The trail is very runnable. There are great views, and it is a unique race, well organised by Fylde Coast Runners.
