The last time we went to Guernsey it hadn’t gone to plan for Carmen due to the eye infection leading to events that required her to pull out of the race early. I can’t imagine it had been an easy decision, but it had been a sensible one. It did however leave her with unfinished business, and the need to return again. I’d taken about twenty minutes off my time, and I was close to a sub-7 hour race. I was curious whether or not I could do that, and entered as well to keep Carmen company for the trip. We would however be running our own races, with our own goals in mind.

This time we got our bookings done plenty of time in advance, and would be back at the Best Western Moores Central again, but this time our flights would not be from Gatwick. Since our last trip, we’d noticed that Aurigny also did flights to Saint Peter Port from London City Airport - they weren’t too badly priced, and the advantage of these is that we could take the London underground all the way there, and not have to worry about parking charges.

I’d also pre-booked a train to and from London to save me needing to drive since I wouldn’t need it for getting to the airport either. Our evening meals for the time there were all pre-planned too, which is something I’ve not done before. We’d have pizza from Rosso, Italian food from Gusto, and then back to China Red for what has become the traditional post-race Chinese meal.

After two previous attempts at GU36, my goal for this year was singular: beat last years time, with an aim to go sub-7 hours. My Garmin Fenix, ever the optimist, seemed to think 5 hours for that course was doable for me at my current level. If only. However, it had predicted a time of 2:57 for the 22 mile run I recently did across London’s canals, and I’d done it about ten minutes slower than it’d predicted. I felt the GU36 prediction however wasn’t taking into account just how severe the cliff section is despite it knowing the elevation changes.

My training certainly hasn’t been the best. Haphazard at best. I’ve done hilly twenty milers, an extremely soggy marathon in a new location for me, and plenty of long runs that have not gone to plan. My speed-work hasn’t gone great either, with me being unable to hit the sort of speeds I was even a year ago, forgetting a few years previous. However I did notice a gradual improvement from where I was before Christmas; what had been hindering me last year was no longer a problem, but I’d not taken advantage of that last summer due to shoulder issues, and still had quite a way to go to return to where I was. I’d introduced a long, slow hill to my regular training route. Hill repeats weren’t as frequent this time, and I felt that was likely to hinder me on the cliffs today.

However, if I could get through the cliff section without torturing my legs too much, then it would be on the flat 20 miles after where I’d need to find the time. The usual areas for this are minimising the time in aid stations - which I couldn't improve on much, and cutting down on the time spent walking. This would be where I'd have to find the time, find some way to keep on going when it's tough. I broke my goal down into two stages - get out of CP2 within 3hr20, and get out of CP3 before hitting the 5 hour mark.

Kit List

The required kit list for this race never changes, and with two previous visits to Guernsey it was easy to decide what to take with me. I could just refer back to either of those times. I’d not taken my DSLR with me last year as I knew I wouldn’t need it. This time though, I’d not long bought a Canon EOS 5D mark IV so thought I’d take it with me to put it through its paces. For this race I used:

• #ukrunchat technical tee,
• #visorclub visor,
• Flipbelt containing my iPhone and 200ml of lemon Tailwind,
• Knee-length nike shorts,
• Absolute360 socks,
• Saucony Omni 20 running shoes,

I'd considered calf sleeves to protect my legs where it'd be overgrown on the cliffs, but thought they may be better after the race for recovery. In my running backpack I was carrying:

• Around 750ml of water,
• Waterproof poncho,
• Long sleeve top,
• Snacks.

Whilst most people have a drop-bag for CP2, I decided to not bother as I wanted to keep my time at each checkpoint to a minimum, and I only run in road shoes anyway. I'd decided that the snacks would only be there for emergencies.

Pre-race Day

We'd flown into Saint Peter Port from London City Airport on Friday, and went for pizza at Rosso that evening. Today we were volunteering at the parkrun once again, just like last year. We left out around 07:30, with both of us having thrown away some disappointing porridge. The bus stop was only a short walk away, and a short wait, and the 11 bus took us to Baugy where it’s still a 15 or so minute walk to Pembroke Bay. The bus journey, as with all bus journeys, is £1.50 per person. The walk went quickly as we were talking to a New Zealander on the way.

At parkrun I was volunteering on finish tokens, and doing that solo can be tricky when you need to get the next batch of tokens ready whilst there’s still plenty of people trying to exit the funnel. Somehow I managed without any mistakes, and met back up with Carmen after she’d finished barcode scanning. We’d both had people wishing us good luck throughout the event.

We stayed off our feet as much as we could after that, only going out to get lunch from The Slaughterhouse with dessert from Waffle & Co., to collect our race number and look around a couple of shops, and to then go to Gusto for a carb-heavy meal ahead of the race just like last year, and the year before that.

Race Day

As always with Guernsey, I was up early for breakfast, and to prepare myself for the race ahead. Here we were again. The start of another Guernsey Ultra 36. It’s been four years since the landslide near La Valette, so I thought maybe we’d revert to the original route up out of Saint Peter Port. This was not the case however, and after the casual plod through town where stalls were being set-up, the usual ascent had begun.

When looking down from the road as I walked up, I could see the charred remains of The Octopus. I could see barstools inside where the roof had collapsed. I had vague memories of a fire being reported on BBC News and wondered if that was it. Onwards I went and joined the cliff path at the top of this road., where I started running again. The plan, as with last time, was to not run any of the hills to try and keep my legs as fresh as possible for later. I overtook some runners on one of the relatively mild technical downhill sections as I ran down the hill at speed. I heard one of the runners say they didn’t want to do the same so early on in case they tripped.

Around 2.5 miles into the race I heard a runner behind me call out in pain, I turned to look behind as I slowed down and saw they’d twisted their ankle and was down on the floor. I went over to help them as another runner caught up with him from behind as well. I went to help him up, but before I could he insisted I carry on running. I hesitated but when I saw him standing back up I got going again, not having lost too much time. If a runner is in trouble you should always stop to help them, but in this instance the organisers do say that if you do, you should let them know and your time will be adjusted accordingly. I felt I hadn't stopped for long enough for it to make a difference, and I was always going to stop to check on them regardless.

It wasn’t long after that when the familiar climb to Jerbourg came around. I remember how hard this climb was in previous years, but it didn’t really seem that bad whilst I was tackling it whilst talking to another runner about the lack of decent hills in Leicestershire. With around a 46% graded climb, it was slow going. I think part of my memory of this climb may be from the first year when I'd gone up the hill again a day later after having cycled there.

"We're almost done," I reassured them.

"I've heard that one before," he replied, seemingly thinking I was talking about the race as another runner had laughed too.

Realising this, I quickly added, "I mean to the top of this hill! It's just past that bit we can see from here." I think at this point we were all quite cheerful, and enjoying the scenery and the sun. Of course, too much sun can soon become too much of a good thing.

Once across the car park it was back on the trail for more descents and ascents. At times a runner with walking poles helped point out mistakes before I made them, after I’d been able to find a gap to overtake him. He was able to move quicker on the climbs, and many of the runners around me were too, so a lot of the first 8 miles was spent switching places with other runners. I hoped that Carmen had enough runners in front of her nearby to not make any mistakes either as there'd been places in this first section I could have gone wrong without others around me and a vague recollection of the route. I was glad to see so many places with photographers as well as it felt more likely she’d get some good photographs of her running this year.

8 miles. When I reached CP1, I ran straight through, just as I have done both of the previous times I’ve run this race. Last year I was out of CP1 in around 1hr37, and this year it was 1hr34. That was a pretty positive difference, and although it’d been warm from the start, it wasn’t yet really impacting my endurance. I also hoped I wasn’t taking the cliff section too fast, but overall the cliffs were so far feeling far more comfortable than they had last year. It seemed… odd. Even the steep climb out of CP1 wasn’t that bad - perhaps helped by not being slowed by anyone taking the steps slower in front of me. It did however help me put some more distance between me, and the few runners I’d passed in the last ten minutes before reaching the checkpoint. Those fast descents were definitely one of my stronger areas.

The second section of the cliffs felt hotter, and at times it felt like there were ‘pockets’ of hot air that I’d run through. I started to sip on the 200ml of concentrated Tailwind I’d got in my flipbelt more often, but I was also starting to feel hungry and was looking forward to something more solid at CP2. I’d had only one small sip of Tailwind in the first section of the cliffs just before reaching the checkpoint, but had been sure to stay on top of sipping at water from my water bladder. I didn’t really want to touch the mix of nuts, pretzels and popcorn in my bag if I could help it - they were more of an emergency snack. I should however have applied sunscreen before the race as the clear blue sky we now had was not forecast until much later. On this nice morning there were so many people out on the cliffs supporting the runners too, and walkers too. For the most part the walkers would let the runners pass when needed to.

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There was one point where last year I’d made a mistake just after 10 miles as I’d not seen the orange ribbon. This year, I didn’t see the ribbon again, but I noticed the big stone block on the floor saying “Cliff Path” and an arrow pointing to the path going down through the trees. I started to realise that some of the earlier sections today where I’d not seen ribbons, may have had these stone markers too. I was almost 10 minutes ahead of last year by this point as I’d found I could take the down hill sections much faster if I went with careful strides with only one foot ever touching one of the steps rather than both. I’d also tried to alternate which foot I was using to lead with when doing climbs as well so that no one side would get more tired than the other. It felt like a good idea and was a little conscious of the impact the steeper down hills would be having on my knees.

There was one section that was fairly narrow, and at the start of it I saw a sign face down next to an air horn. After I’d passed it I realised this was the clay target shooting area, and did wonder if I should have blown the horn first. There were red flags out so figured it was in use. I could hear something on the other side of the greenery, but wasn’t sure what it was. I was however thankful to reach the other end of that bit without incident.

My only mistake in the entire race was around 12 miles when I ran down a hill to a viewpoint with three benches facing different directions. When I went back up the hill I realised there was an orange ribbon I’d not seen, so whilst it was a minute (I now realise after the race) and some effort wasted, I was quickly back on track. I’d been overtaken by a couple of people whilst making that mistake, but I didn’t really want to push to try and overtake again. They were pulling away from me too, getting farther and farther ahead. I wondered how Carmen was doing, I hoped she was past CP1 now, and still going. I really hoped I wasn't going to get a call to say she'd fallen again as I had a feeling it was around here when I'd got the message last time.

In the miles that followed a few more runners overtook me, so I was in a similar position to where I was at the start of the cliff path once more. The areas that were overgrown weren’t too bad if I kept on running as the nettles had less time to brush my skin than if I was walking. It wasn’t as muddy as last year either, even though there was one small bit that had standing water. This meant I didn’t slide about along this section like last year. There was only one climb that felt particularly hard this time, and in my mind it didn’t feel as bad as I remembered it.

The strangest thing though was that I hadn’t realised I’d done the last climb until I was heading down hill and recognised part of the area as being where I’d made a mistake the first year on the way down to CP2. Obviously I didn’t make the mistake this year. There was one section I’d had to wait for another runner to point the way last year - I hadn’t spotted that place this year, just as I hadn’t remembered it from the first year either. It made me wonder if last year that had been some extra distance I’d managed to add on by taking a wrong turn, or if I was just remembering it wrong. It could just be I was concentrating on where I was going, and not on what was around me.

There’s some narrow rocks to run across before reaching a field where you run past the Fairy Rings, and then onto tarmac. To me, that signals the end of the cliff path, and the start of ‘easier’ running.

16 miles. From alternating between walking and running I got to CP2 in 3hr 11, quickly grabbed a slice of Guernsey gâche, put a Mars bar in my pocket, and then started to drink a cup of flat coke as I got going again. I’d probably used about a minute at the checkpoint at most, and this gave me the chance to overtake quite a few of the runners that had overtaken me between CP1 and CP2 as many changed their shoes. It wasn't that long before they started to catch up with me again though - I think their plans were to run the entire 20 miles and not run/walk it. I did eat the Mars bar in that first mile, but thought it a bit too sweet at this point.

The next 20 miles would be where I’d see if I could achieve my target. I was about 8 minutes ahead of target at this point, so still felt positive, though I was also thinking that I should perhaps not push too hard as what remained was going to be very exposed with little shade from the sun that was slowly leaving me sunburnt. I knew I’d got a little under 2 hours to reach CP3 to stay on target, and would then have just under 2 hours from there to get sub-7 hours.

At the end of Vazon Bay was a photographer sitting down next to the kiosk until he saw me coming and stood up - this was the first year I’d seen a photographer after CP2 so felt it was really nice how much course coverage they were getting this time. My hope had been I could use people overtaking me from this point on as motivation to work harder, but that didn’t really work. I couldn’t quite remember what my strategy was last year for when to walk and when to run on this relatively flat bit, so it became very unstructured. Still, my legs weren’t feeling too bad, so I’d pick a spot in the distance, and would run to that or beyond it before I’d take my next walking break.

I saw a sign for Le Creux es Faies, and wasn’t sure if that’s a place I’d been looking for by bike the first year. I thought about taking a photograph just in case it had, but by the time the thought occurred to me I was already too far past it for it to be worth it. This had happened a few times during the race. Looking back now, it had actually been Fort Saumarez I’d been looking for that first year, but I couldn’t remember that at the time.

A couple of miles later I’d reached the sand, and found the sand wasn’t quite as bad as in previous years but made sure I only walked for that section. It was however better for running on this time than the small stones later - I’d forgotten how much hard work they could be.

20 miles. This part of Cobo has a number of businesses along the coast and it was safer to cross over to the other side to be on the pavement. The problem though was getting back to the other side when the pavement returned on the sea side. Having to deal not just with passing cars, but with cars turning into the side roads I needed to cross as well. It may have been better to have stayed running on the road instead of switching to the pavement.

There was another clay target shooting area around here, and this time I could see in to where they’d also got targets at ground level as well. I thought I heard gunfire, but never heard any targets being hit.

I didn’t have that many more miles to go until the checkpoint, maybe 10K. I wondered if I’d reach CP3 in under 5 hours in order to meet my goal, though I did wonder if I’d made my notes correctly as that would mean I’d then need to do 11 miles in just under two hours. Was that enough time when I know the final section will be my slowest as I tire? It would mean I couldn’t be any slower than 11:00/mi. I was sure my average across those 11 miles had been slower last year. Suspecting I'd noted down the wrong times I needed to reach checkpoints by didn't help. Every tower I could see in the distance I wondered if it was Rousse Tower, and the checkpoint.

I almost made a mistake at Grandes Rocques Beach, but the pole guy (now sans poles) had caught up again and saw I was about to go the wrong way.

“I think it’s this way, to the right of the kiosk,” he called out to me.

I’d only just started to turn the wrong way, and never really left the intended path. It was lucky he had as the next ribbon was past the kiosk, and across the car park to where another path started. If I’d taken that wrong turn I’d have never seen that ribbon and would have wondered where I’d gone wrong - it’d have cost me a lot of time if it hadn’t been for his help! For the next few miles as I got closer and closer to CP3 I saw him gradually disappear off ahead of me. I did try for a while to make sure I wasn't that far behind, but it didn't really work.

25 miles. I reached CP3 in around 4hr 56, and undid my backpack and water bladder as I approached so I could be in and out as quickly as possible. They filled my bottle quickly, I’d got about 250ml left, and they filled it back up to almost a litre. That’d do. I asked if they’d got any thing cold, and they suggested a Callipo so once I’d been handed one I began walking away from the checkpoint quickly. Moments later I got a call from Carmen to say she was at CP2 and had just changed her shoes. She’d been very careful on the cliffs, and told me she’d gotten in just under the time limit. I think she’d got more time than she thought though.

For the first mile after the checkpoint I walked whilst eating the Callipo, as it did take the whole mile. It did mean however that this was my slowest mile of the day. I thought I could make up for it with some quicker miles after that, but it was far too hot. It’d taken a while after that first mile to find a bin for my Callipo wrapper as well so with that in my hand I wasn’t thinking about water. By the time I’d found a bin I was already past the marathon point.

I was walking far more frequently than last year, and getting overtaken more, making it feel like I was falling further and further behind my goal. At around 28.5 miles I could see The Beach House cafe we had a drink at yesterday following parkrun, and remembered being told it was 6 miles from there. I got it in my head that must be wrong, and there’d be 7 or 8 miles left to go instead.

The hill out of Pembroke was harder than I remembered, and I think it was around here I saw a couple of runners stop as one of them was in need of a blister plaster. I didn’t see them again until they overtook me a couple of miles from the finish.

I passed one couple out walking, and they asked how far this race was. When I told them 36 miles I’m not sure it fully registered.

“Oh okay,” and they carried on walking.

30 miles. There were a couple more forts, and at Beaucette Marina it felt like I was now on the final ‘side’ of the island. It truly was less than 10K to go. I eventually ran down narrow country lanes with views of greenhouses and fields. A runner overtook me whom I think I recognised from last year when someone had sailed past when approaching the area with the drone warning signs. I tried to keep up so it’d feel like I was making progress; but by the time the houses were gone, she was starting to disappear into the distance ahead of me just like every runner that had overtaken me so far.

I did feel this area was familiars and not too far from Dehus Dolmen, so it wouldn’t be too long before I’d be getting near to Vale Castle.

There was no unofficial fourth checkpoint like there had been the last two years, but, following the path after that I managed to follow the trail to where Rue de Bordeaux meets Castle Road. At that point the trail comes to an end and you have to jump down from the wall to the road in order to continue. If I’d thought about it, I would have realised the road is partially marked for walking, but I’m always thinking I need to stay as close to the sea as the paths allow. Maybe next time I’ll remember to use the road there. I did however warn Carmen of this later when it was her turn to run along that bit so she wouldn’t have to deal with a big drop.

This road led around to the car park for Vale Castle, and from there I crossed the car park and followed the trail up-hill at the side of the kiosk. There were people cheering and congratulating me on doing so well. It didn’t feel like it though. I just felt too hot.

32 miles. Just 4 miles to go. I realised to achieve my target I needed to be doing somewhere around 08:30/mi and I knew that wasn’t going to happen, so I decided I may as well take it easier and not push too hard in this heat as it wasn’t worth it now - I’d already messed up and couldn’t correct it. So, I walked the majority of that mile, adding about 2 minutes on to what I would have otherwise done for that mile if I’d not done the calculation.

33 miles. I was running along St. Sampson Harbour, and was almost at the point of the traffic diversion from yesterday, near the lime works. I thought 3 miles and around 25 minutes to do it in. I suddenly thought that was more than doable as that would be a very easy run for me normally. I also thought how this was around the place that Carmen had called me during last years race for the penultimate time, and that did push me on a little bit.

After less than half a mile of putting in more effort I thought I’d calculate how many minutes per mile I actually needed to be doing, and realised this was still 08:30/mi. Impossible. At least this late in the game. I figured at that point I’d walk the majority of what was left and maybe save my legs a little so they’d handle looking round museums later easier. I finished this mile another 2 minutes slower than what I’d intended from not even attempting to run any more of it. A cyclist passed me and said I was almost done, and I thought of how nice it’d be to just cycle to the finish and get it over with. No chance. I needed to walk until I was done.

When I reached 34 miles I knew the monument was just beyond the next headland, but it didn’t look like it was 2 miles away. I was on the phone to Carmen again as she was finding this heat to be exhausting too - neither of us find warm weather easy to run in. This area feels like a never ending path, and every year it’s been one of the worst bits for being exposed to the sun. This year for a bit of added fun, a BMW was parked across the end of the path so had to put more effort in to get around it.

I did run a little more though as I reached the start of some roadworks - just so I could run on the road and not need to wait for the traffic before crossing over. I could see China Red, and this suddenly got me very confused. I’d got about a mile left to go according to my watch, but I knew China Red was only about half a mile form the monument. How did that work? Had I gone wrong somewhere I hadn’t realised and lost about half a mile? I also wondered if my signal had been lost at some point, and I’d not noticed, and I wondered if taking that half a mile difference into account would have affected my earlier calculations. Had I given up too early? It was too late now in either case.

I carried on walking and didn’t run again until I wasn’t far from the monument when a runner overtook me. I’d run to overtake them again, and kept on going until I finally touched the monument firmly with both hands to finish in position 43 of 99 finishers.

Only five had failed to complete the race this year, which was absolutely amazing considering how much warmer it had been than the last two years. My time however was 07:07:14. I’d missed my target by just over 7 minutes, which is several minutes quicker than I’d predicted when I realised I’d be missing my target.

That original calculation had been based on doing half a mile more than I had. Now, I wondered if I’d continued on with my strategy for as long as I could have, which my legs did still feel capable of when I started to just walk, whether or not I would have met my target. I think maybe I could have found 5-6 minutes, but it’s one of those things that I will never know. What could it have been if I’d known that the course measures a little under 36 miles if you get the route pretty much exact? I think it’s one of those things that is best not to dwell on.

At the finish I looked around in the tent and didn’t really feel like any of the snacks they’d got. I then asked someone where I go to get my medal, and one of the officials got me a medal and gave me a t-shirt as well. I then asked if they’d got any cups to get a drink of coke, but they hadn’t arrived yet as they were leftovers coming from CP2; so I emptied my 200ml flask of the remaining Tailwind and part-filled it with coke. I think really bring-your-own-cup isn't a bad idea anyway as it's avoids waste.

I figured I needed to eat something as I wouldn’t be having a proper meal until after 20:00, so went to the trailer there and bought a bacon cob (that's a bap/roll/etc. to anyone not from the Midlands) which I ate back in the room as I talked to Carmen as she approached CP3. I was laying on the floor now, and couldn’t be bothered to move as I knew I didn’t have that much time to reach the German Naval Signals HQ before they closed at 16:00. I decided it wasn’t worth the effort and instead walked to shops first, and then ambled slowly to La Valette Underground Military Museum where the entry for this is £8.50. I did however hope it was worth the price, as I wasn't sure what was there. I took my time, and even sat down on a bench in there for a while to give my legs some rest. The stairs were not pleasant now after the race had finished. It wasn’t that interesting for me - it was mostly military uniforms and medals, and mostly German ones at that. I should probably have researched its contents better beforehand. I did however buy some occupation-era Jersey stamps on my way out.

On my way back to the monument I bought an ice cream from near The Slaughterhouse. The large option sounded very big, so I just went with medium which was still more than big enough. I kept on walking from there as far as China Red, all the while talking to Carmen, and helping her with directions to try and keep her time down, and generally just talking to her to keep her mind off the race. She told me she’d already made several mistakes that had cost her, but now she just wanted to walk to the finish. She told me there was a chance she might not make the 10 hour cut-off even though I knew she'd got it in her to beat that.

I sat down on a bench for a while, and as she got closer, I thought about walking with her to the finish. I’d got my DSLR round my neck though, so I walked back to the monument first and checked to make sure they’d give her a medal still if she went over the 10 hours cut-off. They confirmed they’d got a duty of care to know all runners were safe, and anyone leaving CP3 would get a medal when reaching the finish no matter how long it took them - unless they tapped out and needed to be collected.

I rushed back to the room, dropped off my camera, and got walking again, and as I got to China Red I could see her in the distance so stayed on the opposite side of the road to see how close I could get before she saw me. We were about 0.75 miles from he finish when she saw me so I crossed over to join her walking for the remainder. As we got close to the finish she began to run, so I started filming and watched as she finished GU36 for the second time! It was fantastic news she’d done it despite the harsh heat of the late afternoon. Whatever her time, it didn't matter. She was done. We'd both managed to complete another ultra marathon, and agreed we weren't going to do this again next year.

We both sat down eating a Callipo and then headed back to the hotel. The market stalls that had been along the quayside when I’d finished earlier were now mostly all gone and they were reopening the road. Once again we ate at China Red to end another trip to Guernsey… until next time? Though, never again, maybe.

The race was also covered by the Bailiwick Express - Runners tested to their limits in round island ultra. There's also a video where you can see me and Carmen at the briefing, and then him passing Carmen towards the start of the cliff section.