The crazy multi-storey car park marathon in Worthing

The insane sounding Worthing Multi-Storey Marathon was put on by Sussex Trail Events at the town's Teville Gate Car Park on Feb 26th 2017. The race consisted of 71 laps - that's 71 times up and 71 times down this dreary looking hunk of concrete:

I simply couldn't resist signing up for such a ridiculous race. According to the race company, it is the UK's first multi-storey car park marathon. (While they were unable to find evidence of a multi-storey marathon anywhere in the world, it might be a little presumptious to assume it the world's first.)

Regardless, here are the silly statistics:

Distance: Marathon (approx - GPS didn't work in the building, obviously)

Elevation gain/loss: 4,260 feet / 1,300 metres (calculated by 6 floors at roughly 10 feet x 71= 4,260)

Each lap: 600 metres in distance

Aid stations: Every 600 metres!

Runners: 44 (100% finish rate!)

We all gathered at the start line and the person with the cowbell started us off:

Immediately, the guys at the front rocketed off into smelly innards of the car park. It was about ten minutes after starting the race that everyone had been lapped by the top five runners - at least once.

I had never run in a multi-storey car park before, so I wasn't sure how difficult it would be to run up hill. It turned out to be very runnable. The slopes were not steep, and each 10 metre slope was separated by a short section of flat which made it all the more runnable.

On the first few laps, I felt quite dizzy. The route of the lap through the car park was mostly turning left - on the way up and on the way down - as this short vid shows:

In the opening laps of the race, there was the usual early-race buzz where everyone was happy about doing something so stupid. There was lots of laughing and joking and it was quite fun. This joviality wore off after a couple of laps.

That said, I did not find the monotony of the course difficult. The challenge that lay before me was enough to occupy my attention. I did resort to using headphones to listen to a podcast and a Guns n Roses album which nicely passed the time, but there was plenty to keep the runners attention occupied otherwise. There were lots of supporters at the start line which we saw every few minutes, and it was fun seeing a podium contender zooming past every few minutes.

Here's some footage of the race from outside the car park. We looked like a bunch of confused lemmings:

Something that I hadn't expected to be so difficult was overtaking groups of people. People were understandably bunching together to talk, but when it came to trying to pass them (even just one person on their own was difficult as the video above shows), you had to really speed up to pass them due to the fact that overtaking on a bend means you cover ground so much more slowly. Before the race, the RD said that if you wanted to pass on the inside, you should shout "track" and then the slower runner should move to the right. In practice, nobody did this (probably from fear of sounding like a dick). At least we didn't have to contend with cars - the car park was closed to traffic (obviously).

After a slow start, each lap took me around 3 and a half minutes to complete - the race leaders were doing each lap in about 2 and a half minutes. Runner tracking was done with an ankle tag and timing mat that counted and timed each lap. We could get a shout out of our number of laps completed at the bottom of each lap.

Before the race, we had been told that some national press photographers might be at the race to cover it. Unsurprisingly, this turned out not to be the case. (Turns out the media is more sensible than I previously thought.) That said, a mini-film maker called Scott Ramsey was there, and he live-streamed this nice little film about the race on Periscope. The Littlehampton Gazette also profiled a couple who did the race.

About half way through the race, I had adjusted to the dizziness of constantly turning left, but my left glute and right quad were starting to get quite sore. I hadn't considered the dissymmetrical impact that 1,500 sharp left turns would have on my legs. This would have been hard to train for, and I had joked about "going to recce the course" in the weeks before the race, but it might have actually been beneficial had I done so a couple of times.

Ten or so laps into the race, I passed a guy who was running barefoot. The next time I passed him, he was wearing shoes again. I can't say I blame him.

The top of each lap was the "highlight" of the course. When the sun came out after two hours and the fog dissipated, we were treated to a lovely view over the South Downs to the north. Somewhere to the south was the ocean, but I think the cloud obscured the view.

Towards the middle point of the race, I was still feeling okay, so I did about ten laps too quickly, and boy, did I pay for it later on. The final twenty laps were agony. My right quad was so painful that I could only muster a slow shuffle on the way down. I could run up hill fine, so I made the most of that and tried not to slow down too much.

A nice feature of small-circuit races put on by Sussex Trail Events is that each runner has to complete the final lap of his or her race in reverse. The runner is told to hi-five the remaining runners on the course on their way to the finish.

This turned out to be fun - for a time. After the fourth or fifth runner came past me doing hi-fives, it only served to remind me of the fact that I still had 15 laps to go. The blister that was forming on my right foot left me a little tempted to hi-five the fast runners in their face, but I did my best to aim for the hand.

The race winner finished in 3:05 and hammered every single lap without stopping for more than a few seconds.

An hour later, it was finally my turn to finish. Oh goody. Usually when I hear a cow bell in a race, I'm about to be charged at by livestock, but this time it signalled the forthcoming end of my marathon. It was an absolute pleasure to complete the course in reverse - turning right on every corner instead of left - and I got a big cheer from the lovely people supporting at the finish line.

In the end, I finished in 4:06 in a position of 16th. Much higher than I've ever finished before! (Let's forget the fact that only 44 people started, please.)

The final runner came through in 5 hours and 45 minutes. I have only respect for the chap that did it; he was clearly having a tough time, and having to walk the inclines of a car park for nearly 6 hours is testament to his mental fortitude.

On the plus side, look at the superb finish 'medals' - a faux car park ticket!

It is well known that Worthing County Council aim to smash down this grotty car park to build flats on it. And while I think they are very right to do so, I will be a little sad not to be able to do this race again to get a better time.

Sussex Trail Events had a difficult time procuring the rights to do this race in such a unique location, and the council even tried to cancel the event a few days before the race. It's not known how long until the council finally close the car park to redevelop it, but the race company have expressed an interest at doing another one in a few months' time - and some people who ran the race expressed an interest in doing a 50 mile option. I'd be open to both.

If not, what was my - and the UK's - first multi-storey car park marathon, may turn out to be the last.

Note: All still photography is credit of Jon Fielden - jonfielden.com.