Samphire 100 miles, with SVN Running, 24.09.2022

A weekend adventure at Samphire Hoe with Sarah, also with Andrew for the first marathon part, and with lots of friends along the way.

Starting off at 08.00 on Saturday, Sarah and I ran 27 laps of the Hoe, to do 100 miles, in 21 hours and 51 minutes, finishing at dawn on Sunday.

The night before, we stayed in the Folkstone Purple Palace, and Andrew, Sarah, Jon and I fuelled up with dinner (aka the one lentil hot pot/ potato pot with chips). 

The morning dawned quite nicely, and the weather was mostly OK on Saturday, just some squally showers, but they passed over quickly. The Hoe was looking lovely, and the cows and sheep were out in force. We had both a cow and a sheep incident during the run, but our cow herding skills were on top form. Another animal moment of note was meeting Roxy, a 10 week old French bulldog, who was out for her first walk, and looking a little bemused by all the runners, but seemed to enjoy all the extra attention!

The sea wall was very calm, and the waters in channel were only gently sloshing about (or, lapping, which I forgot the word for).

On Andrew's last lap, we did a quiz about King Charles, so as to learn some key facts about our new monarch. 

After Andrew left, we missed his cheesy jokes, and felt like the lonely cheese. Halloumi.

Thank you Jon for letting us use your van as a checkpoint! Very kind. Our nutrition strategy went well, which was to have something every lap, including mini salty baked potatoes, spinach and pine nut falafels, rocky road, cheese and grapes, jaffa cakes and jammy dodgers, pretzels, shrimps, ginger, and Kendal mint cake. We also nailed our hydration, and many pee stops were scheduled (luxury loos in the day, portaloos at night - which were also pretty luxury for portaloos).

The sunset was absolutely mesmerising!

Overnight there were a few hours of nasty windy rain. We decided this came from France, on Cloud Thierry, who we had seen approaching during the evening. Having worked our way through a few different combinations of layers and gloves, we were glad when Cloud Thierry finally departed, and we were left with the most magical clear night of stars overhead (thanks Jon for the photo!). We got our layers right, and it felt nice and cosy overnight. 

On the horizon, the clouds and lights danced around in ever moving shapes, but a constant was the orange glow, which we couldn't quite work out what it was, and so it became known as the Discotheque. And in the darkness in front of the Discotheque, the lights of the ships twinkled away in the channel. 

I enjoyed the route, I've never done 100 miles all in Samphire Hoe before (as the Halloween 100s go up on the cliffs). I've said it before and I'll say it again, Samphire Hoe is so magical....driving down the tunnel, out into the secret world, a great place to escape for a weekend! 

As always, it was the best fun to spend a whole 100 miles with Sarah! Thank you to my princess twin for a fabulous adventure. 

It was beyond brilliant to catch up with so many people over the weekend, and have lots of long overdue catch ups on the way round and afterwards. I'm so proud of everyone who was there, everyone was awesome.

Loved spending time in the hut afterwards, catching up, and with hot sugary mint tea.

Thank you so much to Rachel, Traviss and the SVN Marshal Team especially Karen, Kirsty, Kim and Sophie for a most excellent event!