 It's about 11 o'clock in the morning, we've been driving for about three hours but we're not far away now from Great Yarmouth which will be the finish line for the Sunrise Ultra which is 83 miles, 133 kilometres so which we'll be starting at about 3.30 this afternoon. We're going to get a bus from the finish line to the start line so we can start the race and then when we get back to the finish I'll have my car to drive home so very handy. Norfolk is very flat we're going to be running along the Norfolk coast path. It's not going to be very hilly so it's just going to be a flat run for 83 miles. We're at the car park at Great Yarmouth, we've got half an hour before the bus leaves so I'm getting changed in the car. We've got an hour's journey or an hour and a half bus journey to Snettersham which is where the start of the race is 83 miles that way. So everything I'm going to wear is on the back seat here on the back shelf here so I've got my buff hat, my race belt, my waterproof jacket, my shorts, I'm wearing my top and then my underwear as well. As has become customary I've got some rice pudding to eat on the bus. I've got a warm layer here required by Mandatory Kit and then everything else is in my Salomon race belt, my race vest here. So there is waterproof trousers, a waterproof jacket there, then long sleeve top and long sleeve trousers as well. Medical kits or like you know emergency plasters and things like that. I've obviously got my hydration bottles, my Salomon soft flasks, filtered flasks, not that I'll need water filtered in Norfolk but there we are. What else have I got? Various bars of food because the aid stations are some 20 miles apart on this run so unless you've got crew you are going to need to fend for yourself so I've got some bars to eat and some Paracetamol and that is about it really. 133 kilometers I think we should be okay. Oh yeah obviously head torch and spare head torch and spare batteries. Oh and survival blanket one of the most important if you need it it's one of the most important things you'll take with you. Not a space blanket but a full body bag basically a survival bag that you can put yourself in and then all that is wrapped in a waterproof container as well so that's that's my gift. All right not too bad so we've made it to Snetsam and the coast path so we need to sign in register get our number. All right there I am number 11. We've got to have trackers put on for this event just so they can tell where we are and also people at home can watch where we're going. Right welcome to Snetsam on the Norfolk coast we're gonna I think we're running the whole of the Norfolk coast path pretty much 83 miles from here all the way down to Great Yama there are about I'd say 50 to 60 runners here and we're starting any minute now the idea of this is that we start at Sunset and if you're fast you finish before sunrise it's called the Sunrise Ultra. All right look at the view from Sunset. Where is the Sunset? This is Dan Lawson. Look at the difference between Dan and me and Dan's going to finish about eight hours quicker than I am as well. It's going to get dark pretty quickly so most of this run is going to be done in the dark hopefully though we'll be able to get sun footage for you of the Sunrise Ultra. What's your name? Dominic. Hello Dominic. So Dominic when was your first Ultra? First Ultra was October 2019 the White Stars Jurassic Coast and that was a 50k event yes so it's taking you three years is this your longest Ultra so far no I did the 10th path 100 in May this year fantastic yeah so this will be a walk in the park for you Dan a flat route but less than 100 miles well I don't know about that but certainly hopefully I can finish this one without injury so how did you manage in the 10th path 100? It was good I really enjoyed it a bit I'm glad to see I've got a few hills about 60 miles yeah picked up a bit of a niggle in the knee. What time did you manage? 23.08 under 24 can't complain at that no I'm very happy with that time brilliant well have a good run Dan thank you very much all right so we've only done about three kilometers and it's almost dark already so head torch will be going on very shortly all right so we're five miles in to the Sunrise Ultra it is now dark although I haven't yet put my head torch on we're running through Hunstanson well we're running along the coast path with promenade in Hunstanson and I imagine that during the summer this is very pretty but it's dark and cold it's raining we're about 12 miles in it's a boardwalk for a long way and we've done about 26 kilometers so that's what 16 17 miles. Brancaster state and we're 27 and a half 28 k in there you go something like that you know it's raining it's a bit blowy but it's all right we're getting okay and listen this is the first checkpoint I think is what I want yeah oh actually I'll take one of those shoes as well awesome and right yeah that's me done thank you 28 miles 27 miles lovely Christmas trees look and we're just coming up to the second checkpoint where are we now you are wells next to the sea wells next to the sea I'll have a bag of crisps if you've got anything yet and I'll have one of those baby bells again any particular flavour um no no something really salted yeah so we've reached clay that was a hell of a journey um we've been running okay until um I don't know about 25 miles and then it just got really muddy and very very difficult on the foot and I've walked loads of that last section um but we're now at 38 miles at clay and we've got another 14 miles to the next aid station uh what's the time looking at one second um so eight hours 44 minutes I've got 63 kilometers on my watch but um it's not quite that so there we are I've got coffee here and I've got pasta here right so Dan who we saw at the beginning uh Dan Lawson who as you know is the Le Jog holder is it Le Jog or is it Le Jogle he holds Le Jog okay um he is already approaching the next aid station so he's going to finish in 13 hours something like that we're looking at about 19 to 20 hours now I'm not now in any rush having just gone through all of that mud I am uh I'm quite happy to just take my time I'm going out in the cold and wet now does anybody want to come with me love to mate no see you later thank you so much thank you very much for your help thank you take care bye bye and we're off after the mud four miles of shingle beach I'm just trying to hold my camera at the same time as running it's not a good idea at the highest point of this run uh that isn't very high um but we're running on the cliff we're about 45 miles in and um I shouldn't really go near the edge but there are there are definitely cliffs there you can't hide it's too dark isn't it anyway it's pleasant running here after the shingle we're down the steps and along the lower promenade it is three o'clock in the morning not feeling too bad back is aching a bit but other than that actually got over my low period which was in that mud at about 20 miles that was horrendous so I've got over that I'm feeling okay that's a very bright light that just came on as I ran past it's um sea view car park wherever that is 11 hours 48 minutes and according to my watch but probably not 50 miles according to the official race distance coast path goes that way roman camp circular walk nine miles the prom is just a little bit further on still pitch black near birds singing so the birds think it's morning time really looking forward to seeing the sun come up now it's been a long night but it's only it's only just after four o'clock in the morning so it's still three hours I think of darkness about 3k from the next aid station so we've made it to over strand aid station which is 53 miles I'm reliably informed I thought it was 52 so bonus mile there is a there is a half sunrise happening and some of those guys sitting here and my my bus mate has decided to call it what's what's going on come on come on what's your excuse I'm not enjoying yeah I'm soaring too many places and doing is that with this without a gpx file isn't oh right you haven't got a gpx file that's that's that's gonna be hard yeah yeah I've got a lot more times I can count but let me tell you not all of us are enjoying it so we've got about 19 kilometers to go to the next aid station once we're there it's then 21k home it's 6 30 in the morning here so I'm really hoping the sun comes up soon because I am I'm bush now I just like some sunshine to wake me up and give me a bit of energy morning it's 20 past seven in the morning on sunday we're about 100k in with about 37 36 37 kilometers to go but we've been walking along this beach for it seems like forever there's a cliff there's a little cliff here that I can't get up and I'm just walking along the peach waiting for an opportunity to get off the peach took my head torch off as soon as I thought it was light enough to see where I was going absolutely done in now but still over 20 miles to go it's just not happening today unfortunately nothing going on in my legs back's aching still 20 miles to go at one point I was hoping I could get in about 9 a.m but it's um well it's probably near that now um more likely be getting in now between 1 and 2 p.m so it's going to be close to 24 hours 23 hours something like that but I'm going to get to the end it'll just be very very slow I'm not going to dnf that's for sure well the sun is out I am feeling a little bit better now running a little bit stronger I'm still not going to do anything like the time I wanted to today um it's it is going to be closer to like 23 hours but that's fine it's just the way it is isn't it so um I think it's about two kilometers two or three kilometers to the next checkpoint and then we've only got about 13 or 14 miles to go home or to the finish line the finish line is at the Britannia pier in Great Yarmouth so searching for my aid station which I really hope is really not far away I've been hoping it's around the corner for the last 5k I would have walked right past that then found it here it is so this is the last aid station now so we have arrived at sea Pauling which is actually not the final aid station there are um one or two uh little smaller stops but there are only 14 miles to go and that to me now my head that seems like absolutely nothing um just considering what we've done and then the night we've had um it was it was a bit good hello there so we've been going for 19 hours and 50 minutes we have 10 miles to go I've done 121 kilometers in 19 hours 50 minutes that's pretty slow but I am moving very slow but only 10 miles to go now 16 kilometers and we will be done looking forward to it that was really nicely no seals amazing lifeboats having a fundraiser that's the sign saying coast path to the right absolutely whacked but we are only eight kilometers from Great Yarmouth and the finish line of the sunrise ultra 5k to go just over 22 hours run legs aren't working anymore just trying to trot it in just over a kilometer to go in the sunrise ultra I'm going to do it in just under 23 hours the end of like 83 or so miles it was quite sunny um earlier on so I I took loads of clothes off but I need to get them back on again because I'm going to freeze I knew I was going to have you miss someone I missed you sir okay summary time so um I finished in 14th which I'm going to have to be happy with 22 hours and about 50 minutes something like that um so that'll do um it was much much harder than I expected it to be partly the weather um but also the terrain underfoot so we had shingle we had sand on the beach we had boardwalk the worst thing was just slippery mud really really slippery mud in the early part of the race when it poured with rain that was really hard and I would argue I think Giles would probably agree the race director um I wouldn't make this your first ultra maybe you could do the half as your first I wouldn't make this um your first um flat race either um you need to be up for the challenge so it's a it's a tough one I mean the weather might change it if the weather's completely dry one year it might change it completely but um from what I've done um I would say you you need to be up for the challenge you need to be ready for something that is going to hurt um even you know it's it's not 100 it's 83 miles uh but that was very tough and you can see by my time okay I'm not fully trained I'm in a bit of a low period but uh 22 nearly 23 hours for 83 miles of almost flat running pretty much flat running uh yeah that was really really hard right this is Giles racer except Giles I was just talking to my uh of the camera there and I was saying that if you need to be up for the challenge for this race it's not it's not a race to be taken lightly it's not a race that you think oh it's flat I can just rock up and I'll finish it um would you recommend that people who sign up for this are experienced ultra runners already I mean um we see it in the first time we did it the drop out rate and it was a complete race you know it's not it's not a common garden you know someone running on the coast the idea here is that you actually have a proper winter running experience for that you need to be comfortable operating all at weathers at night largely in the dark in all sorts of terrain you need to navigate in that environment and that's kind of the the kind of events we want to put on when we when we set it out and um don't try for that well I have fun about that and and if that's what you set out to do then that's definitely what we've got yeah well thank you for an experience Giles pleasure it's great having you