Race Report - Cross Bay Challenge

On a big day for British sport, The men’s Wimbledon final, British F1 GP and Tour De France were all eclipsed by a field of 402 runners taking on the Cross Bay Challenge half marathon from Hest Bank (near Morecambe) to Flookburgh in Cumbria.

Setting off at 12:30, ten minutes before low tide, we were unsure quite what to expect. Within 30 seconds my trainers were full of water, I’d overtaken a lady harnessed to a dog (good idea), and `sand marshalls` raced ahead on quad bikes – this wasn’t going to be your typical half marathon. Dave Simmons quickly broke into the leading group of runners from the start, and that was the last I saw of him until the finish line as he came home in a time of 1:50:25 (39th overall) to take the 20 championship points.

On a “Z” shaped course which started north-east towards the Kent Channel, Dave James and myself looked like having a decent battle for second place through the first 7kms as we crossed a dozen or so energy-sapping channels, several of which were thigh-deep in water as we waded against the force of an outgoing tide. Unknown to us, this would prove to be the easy part. Approaching Silverdale, the course swung a sharp dogleg left heading straight into a stiff westerly breeze for the next 12km. After teasing me for the first section of the race, Dave put his foot down and gradually stretched out the gap by 15 seconds or so through each subsequent kilometre. 15km into the race and he was gone from view and the battle for second place became a battle to finish. At least there were the stunning views at this point of the race – the sun was out and the now golden sands were framed by the South Lakeland fells to our right and Morecambe ahead and to the left.

For the final 2.5km the course thankfully made a switch-back to the north and then to the north-east. With the sand drying out, and the wind now at our backs the pace quickened to something approaching our normal split times as we approached the finish line.

Dave James finished in 99th position overall on 2:01:55 (with a clocked distance of 13.35 miles – so technically a sub 2hr half marathon he tells me!) whilst I was a few minutes back on a finish time of 2:06:20 (116th overall)

A tough race but great experience – put it in your diary for next year.