This is my first race of April, and I approached this with some caution, although this was advertised as a 7k race I knew it would be a bit of a slog due to having to run on sand. This was a bit of an unknown as yet, and my thoughts were that it should be fairly firm and compact as I would be running on the sand down by the sea. A fair few from my running club were also running today, so it was going to be a good day out.

What I had not taken into account however was the fact I normally start my races towards the rear of the pack (due to being a fairly slow runner) and as such what I thought should have been compacted sand was now in fact all churned up by the previous runners, and was now really soft and lumpy, making it especially hard on the ankles and calf’s.

The route was a simple out and back, starting at Viking Bay (Broadstairs) and out to the harbor wall at Ramsgate, bang on it and back, (hence the name).

I found the outward run to be good, however by the turnaround point my calf’s were beginning to feel the effects of running in sand, and this was reflected in the slower pace back

There was a total of 226 competitors, I finished in position 171 with an official finish time of 48 minutes and 56 seconds, upon crossing the finish line you were presented with your medal, a bottle of water and a stick of rock. The medal was pretty cool considering the short distance run, I have certainly had worse for longer distances raced.

Overall this was a good day out if a little tough, and a good opportunity to stretch out the legs and get a few more miles under my belt for the upcoming races later on. The atmosphere was fantastic, and the race well organised, there was also loads of encouragement from the marshals, finishers and spectators alike, overall a race worth doing again.