Not an easy race by any means, but Chris O’Brien (yellow jacket) and Mark Hillier (black) were determined to get through the Portland Coastal Marathon
There are long runs… and then there are long runs with 2,500 feet of climbing, a two-mile mud bath and a Bournemouth AC man and his mate wondering whose bright idea it was to enter in the first place.
Step forward Chris O’Brien.
Chris ran both his last two marathons, Newport last year and Manchester in 2023, in 3 hours 13 minutes. He hadn’t been tapering and wasn’t targeting or chasing anything on the Isle of Portland. Instead, he and long-time training partner Mark Hillier – with whom he tackled the Run to the Sea 50k back in 2023 – decided the Portland Coastal Marathon would serve nicely as “a long run.”
It was a late decision from Chris and Mark to enter the race
Training plan? Nothing specific.
Weekly mileage? A steady 36.
Longest run beforehand? Twelve miles.
When? Two weeks before race day.
What could possibly go wrong?
Mark had done his fair share of crazy ultras
Mark, a former Bournemouth AC member, is no stranger to the absurd end of endurance. His CV includes the Val d’Aran Pyrenees 100m (a mere 100 miles with 32,000ft of elevation), the Al Andalus Ultimate Trail (230km over five stages) and the Marathon des Sables (254km across the Sahara over six days). Compared to that, a coastal marathon in Dorset probably sounded like a pleasant jog.
The route follows the Portland section of the South West Coast Path, helpfully signposted with acorn symbols – though none of them warn you about what awaits underfoot.
Without having trained excessively, Mark and Chris were treating it as a Sunday long run
The race starts at the sailing club as you enter Portland and immediately makes its intentions clear with a sharp climb to around 138m before heading clockwise around the island’s edge. Runners drop back down, skim along the cycle path by Chesil Beach and return to the start/finish area… only to turn around and do it all again in the opposite direction.
“It started at the sailing club just as you get onto Portland, and then went up to around 138m very steeply and then around the isle on a clockwise direction, dropped back down and along the cycle path by Chesil Beach and back to the start/finish area. You then turn around and do it all again but anticlockwise,” said Chris.
“It was mostly all ok (some of the climbs are too steep to run really), but the mud on the two mile stretch up from the lighthouse was horrendous. There wasn’t any way to avoid it so we just had to run through it.”
Chris and Mark head along the trail
Chris opted for road-to-trail shoes, reasoning that deep lugs over marathon distance without specific training might leave his legs in pieces. For most of the day, that was a sound tactical call.
Then came the mud.
“But the mud was so slippery it really slowed us down and it was really frustrating not to be able to run through it properly. It was even worse on the way back, first with the steep climb up to the top. It was a grassy, muddy path that we had to pick our way up, and the half marathoners were also coming down it so it was a bit chaotic. One guy was even trying to slide down on his backside, which given the stones sticking out could have been a bit painful.”
There were some testing sections of the race to confront for Chris
By lap two, the two-mile section had evolved from testing to feral.
“When we got to the two mile mud section, it was so much worse as the rest of the marathoners and most of the half marathoners had come through it in the clockwise direction and the 18 or so marathoners ahead of us having also gone through it again.
“It had also been raining since just after the turnaround so this section was a total mudfest. I had to walk through most of it as I had very little grip. And I slipped over and fell in it twice – just to add to the fun!
It was a tough run but Chris and Mark got each other through it
“This was painfully slow and we lost a few places to those that had shoes more suited to the mud, but as we weren’t there to race it didn’t really matter.”
And then there was the small matter of distance. Officially a marathon, the watches told a slightly different story. By the time they reached the finish line, Chris and Mark had clocked 27.2 miles – an “ultra bonus mile” thrown in for good measure.
The super muddy and slippery sections proved treacherous for Chris
“The last six miles or so was hard as my quads were sore due to the lack of training and having to do so much extra work through the mud to stay on my feet – but I didn’t actually feel tired, just sore quads.
“After the last steep downhill, which we had to walk because it was flagstones with a sheen of slippery mud and if fell we would have broken something, we did manage a fairly quick last mile or so to the finish.”
Chris and Mark were happy to have completed such a gruelling race
They crossed the line together in 4:34:57, placing 26th and 27th out of 77 finishers – an average pace of 10:06 per mile across 27.2 miles on a course that climbed 2,546 feet. Chris was sixth in the M50–54 category, while Mark took first place in M55–59. Not bad for what was, officially, “just a long run.”
Ashley Scott who was second (left) and Marcus Biles (right) who was the winner
At the sharp end, Marcus Biles of First Class Fitness took victory in 3:21:34, ahead of Ashley Scott (South Coast Sharks) in 3:25:39 and Matthias Mueller (Ranelagh Harriers) in 3:45:48. Andrew Pace was fourth and first M50–54. Ali Young was first female and sixth overall in 3:55:07, with Mel Western (Egdon Heath Harriers) second female in 4:06:37 and Yssy Baker third in 4:16:19.
But this was one of those races where the clock tells only part of the story. One Bournemouth AC runner, a trusty companion, modest mileage, no grand ambitions, 27.2 coastal miles, two directions round an island, and enough mud to redecorate the lighthouse.
Sometimes, that’s exactly what running is about.