Sarah Adams completes the Jurassic Coast 100-mile footrace

At 8 am, on Saturday 11th of June, Sarah Adams, from the Cranbrook Running Club, set off on a two-day Jurassic Coast footrace from Poole’s South Haven point to Exmouth.

With blistered feet, through two days of hot weather, experienced ultra-runner Sarah Adams finished the 100-mile Jurassic Coast race in 33 hours and 33 minutes.

The race called the Jurassic Coast 100, organised by Climb Southwest, took Sarah and her fellow competitors across the entire 155 km UNESCO world heritage site. The Jurassic Coast, located along the Dorset and East Devon coast, consists of eight near-continuous sections of largely undeveloped coastline. UNESCO has recognised the Jurassic Coast for its outstanding, globally significant geology¹.

Recounting the race, Sarah said the section on day one between “Poole and Weymouth was a lot hillier than I expected, especially around Lulworth. I reached Abbotsbury just as it was getting dark and continued in a group of four [runners] through the night. [At night, it] was nice to have cooler temperatures for a few hours”.

Sarah said, by day two, “[After] a bit of breakfast at the Lyme Regis checkpoint, [I continued] on through the undercliffs to Seaton, [and then] on familiar territory for the last 20 miles to the finish [line] in Exmouth”.

Sarah added, “[on day two] my legs and the rest of my body [still] felt great, but my feet had massive blisters which were getting more and more painful with every step, [the pain] really slowed me down, and I just had to fight to get to the finish [which] I eventually reached at 5:40 PM on Sunday”.

Sarah said, “it felt good to finish. But I’m disappointed with having the blister trouble that cost me a lot of time”.

Sarah, no stranger to ultra-marathons, has run in many 30 to 60-mile-long races. Sarah said, “I am always looking for a new challenge. I ran the 100 km Jurassic Coast race in 2019 and wanted to progress to the [Jurassic Extinction 120 mile] version [this year. However,] due to [painful] blisters and the heat, at Weymouth I decided to drop [the Isle of] Portland and to complete the 100-mile version [instead]”.

Sarah began training for the Jurassic Coast race in January. Sarah said, “[during training] I aimed for 50 miles a week. [Consisting of] 20 miles runs every Saturday, 10-mile runs every Sunday and smaller runs during the week. [Each week] I always took two rest days to recover. [Training included] strength circuits with Richard Fleming (the [Cranbrook] Running Club Personal Trainer), which has helped [me to] avoid injury”.

Sarah, who has been a long-time member of the Cranbrook Running Club, said, “A few members of the club came out to support me on the route while other members tracked me on the live race tracker”.

Sarah added, “I would like to thank Mark and Deb Phillips, Mo and Lorraine Ricketts, and Cy Ball for coming out to support me, it really helped push me along to the end”.