It started a year ago with a chat to Jason McCardle of Sussex Trail Events who has been thinking about starting an Ultra on the Sussex Border Path for some time. Jason is the nutter behind the Car Park Marathon and the Pier Marathon that I reviewed in this blog 

The Sussex Border Path has some personal history with me. I moved to West Sussex as a teenager and remember seeing the shiny new signs for the Sussex Border Path when cycling to Blackdown hill around 1989 to 1990. The idea of going back 25 years later to see her in her full glory was hugely appealing.

Sussex Border Path Fastest Known Time Route

It was devised and first published in 1983 by Ben Perkins and Aeneas Mackintosh and like the Monarch’s Way is not a national trail, and is instead maintained by volunteers.  The sign for it is a bird on the logo hence my nickname ‘ The Birdie’ for it. 

We agreed to have a go as a ‘speed recce’ and make navigation and safety notes as we went along and then  that the race might take the format of a ‘virtual’ leaderboard and runners do it anytime they fancy and then upload their results to the webpage for a belt buckle and a sense of pride. 

Jason ‘came to his senses’ shortly before the agreed date to do it.  So I found myself on the train with a one way ticket to Rye. I started around 8pm to a gorgeous sunset and about 10 miles of beautiful raised rural walkway along the floodplain fields around Rye. As the sun set the damp set in and the crops and grass became soaked in condensation so I had to switch to waterproof trousers 

My plan was a similar pace and tactic to my tried and tested FKT on the Monarch’s Way. I planned to keep moving through the night on the first night and bag 45 to an hours sleep occasionally as I needed it but remain moving for up to 20 hours per day. I carry gear to allow me to wild camp quickly and easily without being seen. You can learn more in my multi day gear list here 

All trails have their own unique characteristics and ‘The Birdie’ as I started to call it ( Sussex Border Path is a bit of a mouthful) has a few special quirks.  On the plus side I found the trail to have some incredibly beautiful and very remote sections, Bewl Water and Rye were huge highlights as was a very lovely section south of East Grinstead that’s well worth the dog leg.  From Haslemere to Rake is also lovely sandy trails snaking in and out of the Serpent Trail and the sections through the South Downs are great too. 

‘The Birdie’ also has some flaws ( or challenges).  The trail can be poorly maintained in certain areas and neglect and lack of signage made the going very tough. There are also lots of field crossings with no clear path which makes moving very slow when crops or grass is high.  The signage is unecceassarily awful from Haslemere to Rake and given the number of footpath posts up wouldn’t take much to mark all the correct changes in direction, the Serpent Trail has done a great job there. Finally its a very wet trail. Its muddy. Very Muddy. Even in the summer its very muddy. This trail must hold a record for the most small footbridges in one trail.  These micro footbridges are like double styles and work hard to tire you out twice when transitioning from one field to the next.

Finally like all trails over 100 miles it has some inevitable ugly areas. East Grinstead and Gatwick Airport are awful and well worth skipping if you aren’t on an FKT ! As I went through the rather gruesome section through Gatwick airport a friend Russ that works there had left a number of sarcastic signs up to make me chuckle.

The weekend I chose was very hot with high humidity. I took refuge most days in the midday sun by going to a pub and staying in the shade and having lunch. As a rather remote trail the number of village shops etc available were few and far between so water and food on route are hard to come by. The abundance of streams and rivers allowed me to cool down by taking off my shoes and wading in to cool down.

I managed to link my Garmin watch up to a starva account and create a tracker system to Facebook. This meant friends could follow my progress all weekend and as a result I had varius frinds drop by during the weekend to come along for a few miles and keep me company, or simply hand me food and a drink as I marched past. My ‘spirit animal’ Lee Fuller came back ( he arrived with a well needed McDonalds Breakfast on my Monarchs Way FKT) and Henry Church ( who handed me a penguin bar on the Monarchs Way FKT) turned up in the South Downs with a coke and a sausage roll!   I even met someone new called Rosanna who met me both days and took care of me at the end when it was too late to get a cab home and I had to sleep in a field under a coat for a horse for the night. She was the reason I got a Toto song stuck in my head for 48 hours.

Jason McCardle came out and met me on the Sunday morning and after a chat and my enthusiasm for just how pretty a lot of the trail is he was strongly  decided on this becoming a 140 mile Ultra held once every 3 years.  He originally thought this race would run from Thorney to Rye but based on some points from me I think I’ve convinced him this race is better done in the direction I did it.

There was also a huge Thunderstorm for 3 hours overnight on the Saturday night just before I got to East Grinstead. I was lucky enough to find a barn to shelter in and sleep for 3 hours while the storm passed. 

Eventually I got to Thorney Island late on the Monday Evening. As we went through Emsworth another friend Graham popped out with a beer for the finish! Thorney Island is the last little bit that’s still West Sussex . Half of the island is an army base and airfield so although access is granted 24hrs a day to the path you need to buzz and get permission at the gates on the way in and out of the island.  The Army seems bemused at my arrival as they had reports of a drunk and staggering person moving slowly towards the gates. In fact it was a Binge Runner with very little sleep.

I managed 50 miles in my first day, 40 miles the second and 51 miles on the final day carrying all my own gear. It was a bonkers mini weekend adventure and as know known time exists for the trail being done in one day I bagged the Fastest Known Time at 3 Days and 8 Hours.  I also marked hundreds of waypoints and navigational markers and made safety and food and water notes so that the race in the future can be run as safely as possible over such a huge distance.

It would be easy to end things there, but this weekend finally taught me that my binge running lifestyle had caught up with me. My feet are now in a bad way. Following the trenchfoot and nerve damage I got from the Monarch’s Way Fastest Known Time and now this run I have built up a large amount of thick skin on my feet. Normally this stops blisters but my feet are so bad that I’m now getting blisters form under this thick skin that aren’t visible. It explains why I am in so much agony over long distances when my feet seem to look ok, just a bit swollen. 

I’ve taken this run as a warning and taking some time out from long distance running for a few weeks while I got some poor unsuspecting podiatrist to strip my feet back to normal. 

No medal, No goody bag, no glamorous race finish photo at the end. Despite the rutted field and light rain I got a good few hours sleep and made it to work on the Tuesday morning a bit late and a bit tired.  I met some great new friends, perhaps started something that will go on to be a great Ultra race , ran in some new places and generally had a superb time. I was the first ‘Birdie’ and I’m hoping inspire a few better runners than me to smash my 80 hour unsupported time.

Binge Running may be bad for your  health from time to time but it feeds your soul.

Fastest Known Time for the Sussex Border Path now Acknowledged here

To find out more about this future event click here