Suffolk Ultra

Having signed up in early June, my initial game plan for Suffolk Ultra was to make a quick jump over the North Sea, run as fast as I possibly could and be back in Gothenburg by Sunday lunch. After everything that happened on Öland and in Tallinn, my goals shifted though, to the point that I decided that I might as well just fully enjoy an ultra for once.

 

Running with an average heart rate of 131 (or about 40 bpm below Tallinn), I was treated to an incredible day along the English Channel, exploring the Minsmere Coast nature reserve and the “dykes” of Southwold.

With parts of the course flooded and the first twenty kilometres fairly technical on narrow paths with lots of undergrowth, I am not sure how fast I would have been able to run anyway, but every time my heart rate jumped up, I slowed down, making sure to stay in the blue zone with my Suunto. 

About 30 km into the course, I came close to the Sizewell nuclear plant which of course warranted a selfie. To my surprise, I saw quite a few posters stating that it is "Not too late to stop Sizewell C” which was kind of unexpected. Often, communities close to nuclear plants tend to be the most enthusiastic but, inquiring a bit further, it seemed most locals were concerned about all the heavy traffic going back and forth to the construction site rather than radiation or anything more metaphysical. In the end, I finished among the last ten runners doing the ultra distance, feeling incredibly strong and confident that, had this been a 100k race, I would have been able to continue long into the night.