By Kate Watson
‘The Cub’ is a 9-mile trail race which begins and ends in Seaton, East Devon and is run every year in March. ‘The Cub’ is the smaller version of the ‘The Grizzly’ which is double the distance and double the elevation. After initially signing up for the Grizzly, I was derailed by an impending dissertation deadline, and a couple of weeks before the race I ‘downgraded’ to The Cub.
The race began with half a mile of shuffling along the shingle of the town beach, before heading over the hill to Beer and then on to Branscombe. The route then rejoined the beach at Branscombe and looped back to Seaton. Most of the race was on the Southwest Coast Path.
It was a fantastic event, with over 2,000 runners, supporters lining most of the course, bands playing music and beer was handed out on the approach to the village of Beer, and spring sunshine. It was also tough, very muddy, lots of elevation, most notably the ‘stairway to heaven’ (where coastguards were on hand should anyone fall over the side) and about a mile of running on the shingle beach!
I finished in a time of 1:47:19 and was 28th female out of 358.
It was apparently the muddiest year on record and the firemen were on hand to hose down the runners!
A massive thank you to WRC for funding my entry fee through the club bursary scheme