Simon Keitch Photography Blog

With the images now delivered and my legs starting to get back to normal it’s time I blogged about my assignment last weekend for Men’s Fitness Magazine and EnduranceLife.com.  I arrived on location at Port Isaac in Cornwall at 9:30PM last Friday to meet the Endurance Life crew at the starting point of the Classic Cliffs 57 mile (91KM) Ultra-Marathon; the milage alone doesn’t do the epic nature of the course along the coastal path of north Cornwall and Devon justice however so click HERE to view the profile/elevation drop and gain. I’d been assigned to cover the race for the event organiser Endurance Life, and Men’s Fitness Magazine who had entered a two man team into the race; twin brothers Nick and Steve Tidball of Vollebak who will be writing about their experiences in the next issue. The race got underway at midnight and the overcast skies made for zero visibility although it was relatively warm at least and the storms seemed to have blown over by that point. Boscastle was my first stop on the route at the second checkpoint at 13 miles into the race; one of the race marshals guided me up the steep path to the top of the cliffs above Boscastle and as I struggled to stay on his heels with 30lbs of camera equipment at 1 o’ clock in the morning I knew I’d be worse for wear come tomorrow. From this vantage point I could see the headlamps of the runners appear from far on the horizon and then slowly make their way towards me; a large group came through at one point and the cluster of bobbing lights gradually moving nearer was strangely beautiful.

The inky black darkness of the night doesn’t make for great photos however so I was glad when the sun finally started to come up and give me a little light to work with. The cliffs above Widemouth Sand provided some amazing views of the cliffs and surrounding hills although by this point in the race the competitors were already starting to get very strung out which meant a lot of waiting, and unknown to myself at that point one of the two-man Men’s Fitness Team had dropped out at sunrise with a foot injury. Fortunately one of the marshals eventually caught up with me and relayed the information, and so I packed up and moved on. I later caught up with Nick, the remaining Men’s Fitness team member at the Devon and Cornwall border and shadowed him through the next two valleys.

Hartland Point; the 50 mile checkpoint was my last stop along the course; the coastal path starting to flatten out a little by this point (relatively at least) although many of the competitors had dropped out by this stage due to either injury or fatigue. I hiked up to the top of the cliffs and sat in the long dry grass looking back towards the bay and waited for the runners to come through on their way to the checkpoint below. It was 14 hours into the race at this point and being a sunny Saturday in July there were plenty of tourists around, looking over at me curiously and a few stopped to chat; amazed that yes, they’re running 57 miles, no not cycling, on the coastal path rather than the road, and all in one day.

Final stop was Clovelly; a beautiful but odd Devon fishing village built into the (very) steep hillside; access to which can only be gained via a large gift shop and laying down nearly six pounds per person; essentially the Disneyfication of the archetypal fishing village. No motor vehicles are permitted within the village and any haulage required is done by donkeys that pull sleds up the steep cobbled alleyways; although for tourists who feel unable to walk the half-mile from the car park down to the sea there is a Land Rover bus service available which presumably circumnavigates the village itself. While shooting runners as they arrived at the finish I set up some lights and photographed Nick from the Men’s Fitness team as soon as he arrived; he looked (disappointingly) good for having just run 57 miles and been up for 40 hours and counting by his brother’s estimation. I shot a few more frames of Nick and Steve and some of the other competitors before deciding I had everything I needed, packed up and hiked back up to the car for the coast-to-coast drive back home; I arrived back almost exactly 24 sleepless hours after I left, exhausted but happy with my take.

Above: Nick Tidball – Men’s Fitness Team – 57 Mile Portrait

Issue 2 of Shred West magazine is now on sale and features one of my images from this year’s Bontrager 24/12 endurance mountain bike race on the cover; the shot is of local rider Richie Rowland ten hours into his ride in the 12 hour solo category. More of my work can be seen in the magazine illustrating articles about the recent South West Mountain Bike Championships, as well as the portrait that I shot for an interview with Inov8 adventure race team athlete Alli Northcott; more on that to come.

Also at the Celebrate Start Bay event last weekend was the adventure race organiser Endurance Life with the launch of their new Trail Blaze course which begins and ends at the Sea Breeze Cafe in Torcross; an electronic key is hired from the cafe which is then used at each of the checkpoints at intervals along each of the five way-marked routes which vary from 2 to 24 miles along the coastline between Strete Gate and East Portlemouth. On completion of a route the overall time and split times are automatically uploaded to a leaderboard on the Trail Blaze website and the time and current leaderboard position is sent to the individual’s mobile phone via SMS. The launch was far more low-key than planned due to the heavy storms that hit the Devon coast overnight making it impossible to erect the Endurance Life gantry which the trail runners were to set-off from, but the rain eased to a drizzle for the start at 11AM and the athletes set-off in on the inaugural run which included members of the British Telemark Ski Team who were in South Devon for a Summer training weekend.

Not only did it not rain at this year’s Bontrager 24/12,  the event actually saw the kind of intense heat and dust that I’d normally associate with somewhere like the sponsor’s home of California, and probably had more than a few riders praying for just a little rain to cool them off and damp down the course a little. Kudos to Martyn Salt and his team for organising another hugely successful event at Newnham Park; the challenging eight mile course was praised by every rider I met and the race site had a friendly, positive atmosphere even in the middle of the night, when there was a DJ set-up in the woods and a jazz band providing the entertainment elsewhere. Image above: unknown rider on course at the 2008 Bontrager 24/12 almost 23 hours after the start of the race.