Kingdom of Northumbria Coastal Ultra, 9th March 2025

This spectacular 54km Ultra Trail Run starts near Bamburgh Castle and follows the stunning Northumberland Coast through Beadnell, past Dunstanburgh Castle, Craster, Alnmouth, Warkworth Castle and Amble, before finishing at Druridge Bay Country Park. Basically, the Northumberland Coastal Run on steroids.

A beautiful route that must have looked spectacular in the early spring sunshine, once the sun came out! The race has a staggered start from 8am to 10am, and the early starters were robbed of their photo opportunities with Bamburgh Castle as a backdrop due to thick fog! Nina Jensen says that she couldn’t see the runners in front of her if she let the gap grow to more than a few metres! However, the sun did break through the mist and reveal the Northumberland Coast in all its glory later on.

Three Claremont Road Runners took on this challenge – Aaron Mansell, Arthur Liu and, who else, Nina Jensen. For Nina, this was business as usual, but for Arthur, never keen on winter running, this was a rare outing before the clocks go forward. On Strava, Aaron Mansell simply described it as “Easy long run Sunday”!

A big “Well done!” to all three.

I can’t find the official results yet, so times are taken from Strava.