The Tide Race (Scilly) 2024

– Race Report by Julie Williams –

Running through water !!! Not a problem for one our intrepid members.

A race with a difference.

Read on for the full story…

We have been visiting the Isles of Scilly, off the coast of Cornwall, for many years and occasionally have been on the islands when the tide is low enough for a short time to walk between Tresco and Bryher.  In August 2024, a particularly low tide allowed a half marathon to be held in which participants run around and between the two islands, possible if you can make a 10 mile check-point by the 2 hour cut-off.  Otherwise, you risk being cut off by the tide and have to cut the race short to safely return to the start.

As I knew we would be on holiday there that week, I signed up – with some trepidation about the route and terrain.  I enlisted the help of Jacob Burton who set me a training plan involving a lot of trail runs, speed and hill sessions and a couple of 15 mile long runs.  On arriving on the island I felt pretty confident about completing the run, until I tried running round the rocky cliff trail sections and realized that I had to take them slowly to avoid falling and for my nerves about running near steep cliff edges.

On the day, we were fortunate that the rainy and windy weather cleared by the start time (midday-ish) and a group of 87 participants gathered on the beach, many of them running veterans of the Scilly 60 (an ultra 60k run across 5 islands with a 40% DNF rate).  Our first mile was across the strait dividing the two main islands to a small rocky island in the middle before heading back to Tresco and around the perimeter.  We set off through thigh deep water to reach a sand bank, managed to run to the first turning point, then waded back through the deeper water to start the first islandperimeter.  The first mile took me about 15 minutes, soaked me to the waist and filled my trail shoes with water and wet sand.  Being a bit worried about the cut-off time, I decided not to pause to empty my shoes and instead managed to get the next 3 miles done at a good pace.

That felt great, until I got to the steep, rocky and narrow trail sections where I let a bunch of runners braver and more sure-footed than me overtake and speed past.  After successfully completing that technical section, there were some very welcome tarmac road bits back to the beach crossing.  It was on this road section that my husband and friends loudly cheered me on from the pub garden, waving their pints and chips at me, in what I think was supposed to be an encouraging manner.

After another stretch across the sea bed, thankfully in ankle deep water this time and wet sand, I started catching up with the faster runners to navigate around the cliff paths on Bryher.  I passed the cut-off point with 11 minutes to spare and then concentrated on pushing my tired legs up and down more rocky hills without falling over.  By 12 miles I was very glad to leave the hilly trails, head back to the beach and make the final crossing across the sea bed.

It was lovely to be met again at the finish by my husband and friends, even though they quickly relieved me of my prize of (a can of local beer) and were too clean, nice smelling and dry for me to feel comfortable standing too close to.

The other runners were lovely and friendly – everyone helped each other navigate the paths when it was tricky to see where to go.

The first male and female finishers completed the race in an amazing time of 1:48 and 2:01, respectively. Overall about 70 out of 87 finished the whole distance. I was very happy to finish in 2:26, 8th woman and 38th place.

It was a great experience and one I probably would never have considered without some team TRAC cross country running first.