Amalfi Coast Ultra Trail — Running Ranger

There is a reason why The Amalfi Coast Ultra Trail awards you 3 UTMB points if you reach the finish line. The utterly brutal and relentlessly unforgiving route pushes everyone that is brave enough to tackle it to their undiscovered limits. The Amalfi Coast is on the western coast of Italy, an hour south of Naples not far from Mt. Vesuvius. The area known as the 'Jewel of the Mediterranean' has a wealth of medieval architechture, cliff edge side villages and beautiful sea views. With 6981m of cumulative climbing to cover over 76km and over 11,000 steps to climb, I knew this wasn't going to be an easy ride. Competitors are given 19 hours to complete the race, which before starting, I thought might be a generous cut off time. As it's only the third year the race has been running, it is not widely known so only 60 competitors took to the start line of the 76km race. As the only UK representative and 1 of 6 ladies I had the opportunity to aim for a decent position.

76km route profile

The race also offers distances of 18km and 33km for those not wanting to do the ultra and these proved much more popular with over 200 people taking part.

I entered the race a few months ago after doing some research into European mountain races. Race day was Sunday so I took the Friday and Monday off work with the idea that I would be able to have a look around Amalfi on Friday and be able to put my feet up on Saturday to conserve as much energy as possible before the race. Unfortunately, after waking up at 04:30 to make my flight in time for the 13:00 transfer, I was made to wait 8 hours for someone to pick me up at Naples airport. The transfer was part of a package deal I booked through a company called Lost Worlds. The package includes a race place, 2 nights accommodation and all ground transfers. I unfortunately had a few problems with them during the trip but they have since made it up to me by offering me a free race at any one of their other races listed in the Lost Worlds Series... so no hard feelings now.

So Saturday ended up being a day of preparation rather than relaxation. I budded up with a lovely Kiwi called Tamara who I ended up rooming with for the weekend. We collected our race packs in Minori and went to a race briefing in the evening whilst whopping down a takeaway spaghetti bolonaise to save time and get to bed as early as possible. The race registration wasn't easy to find as we were given no instructions on how to find it so ended up asking local Italians to show us the right direction. The race briefing was presented in Italian with English translation and went through the 76km route from start to finish with time at the end for any questions we had (of which we had plenty!).

I woke up at 03:10 on Sunday morning to make my way to the start line with all my race gear, two small Nutella bread rolls and a High Five energy drink. The Minori Palace Hotel where I stayed was a 3 minute walk from the start line on the pier so I would recommend it to anyone taking part in the race as I wasted no time before the race travelling which is ideal with such an early start time. It was warm and humid outside as a storm was heading our way from over the sea so there was no need to wear a jacket as recommended on the kit list.

At 4am we set off through the local villages and started the first and smallest ascent. With plenty of steps to climb this was almost a teaser for what was coming up next. Within a minute the elites disappeared and as people charged off behind, I hung back knowing I would be stronger later as we had a long day ahead of us.

I felt rough for the first couple of hours and it wasn't until we reached the pine forests at the top of the first big climb, when the sun was coming out that I felt as though I was getting into the swing of it. Getting to the top was tiring, technical and steep. There were lots of hairy sections with steep drop offs so I was glad to be in the dark at that point! The climb was so tough that every so often I had to stop to take a breather where I would lean over my poles and get my heart rate down, making sure I was listening to my body and not pushing myself too hard to knock me out for the rest of the day.

Beautiful scenery at the top of the first climb

I didn't reach the top of the first climb early enough to catch the sunrise but nevertheless it was beautiful watching it reach daylight with such great views of the villages below.

I had one of my favourite runnable sections here. One of very few, as there weren't very many due to the technicality and steepness of the course.

The route was marked by white spray arrows on the floor and red and white tape tied to anything slightly higher off ground. They weren't very clear and could have done with bright orange tape as it is much more visible. The rain also managed to wash off some of the floor spray so it wasn't that visible after the storm. A combination of this and me enjoying the views meant I didn't see a white arrow pointing left at about 10 miles but after 500m I realised I hadn't seen another marker so turned back. This happened again to me about 2 miles later when I was with another lady who ended up getting stuck in a field of bracken so I waited for her until she could get escape. Hopefully they learn from this year and make the marking better as I know a lot if people got lost along the route.

As the sun was setting, before the last descent

The endless climbs and declines were relentless. They were so steep with no recovery in-between so it was hard to keep momentum and speed up. As I was going slow, my legs weren't in too much pain so the real test for me on this one was to cope with the extra long time on my feet.

On the third big climb I was sabotaged by a pack of barking dogs who trapped me against a wall until the owner came to let me pass. I must have been barked at by a dog every 20 minutes! It's fair to say Italian dogs must hate runners!

I spent the last 30km running with Sanna Jansson from Sweden and Tom Maessen from the Netherlands. It was great to have company for the last few hours because it got dark by 19:00 with some of the most technical sections to go. The most technical downhill we did in pitch black. The light of three head torches definitely helped, even though I did take a few tumbles and left myself with plenty of cuts and bruises. The trails were dry, dusty and steep with lots of loose rocks. It was mentally challenging knowing how long it was taking but I was pleased to be with Sanna and Tom to keep my mind off the fatigue. By this time I was starting to feel weak and hungry. I had been taking salt tablets every hour and a gel every 1 hour - 1.5 hours but after so many hours my body was craving solid food so I was eager to get to the finish for a pizza! The three of us stayed with eachother right until the end and held hands to finish all together. As Sanna had been ahead of me at the start of the race they gave her 2nd lady and me 3rd which I was very happy with.

Me and Sanna enjoying the views before the last descent

The whole experience was brilliant. Yes there were lots of complaints along the way, like lack of water, too few checkpoints, not enough marshalls and bad sign posting but the trails were truly spectacular and enough to tempt me back to Amalfi again. The volunteers that did help along the route were lovely too which is always nice to have when you need a bit of TLC. I'm sure as the race gets bigger and they have had more years of experience, there will be race improvements, so bearing in mind my learnings and recommendations below I would say yes I do recommend the race to anyone looking for a mountain ultra in Europe... But be prepared for a tough, very long, challenging but rewarding day.

Learnings for anyone interested in running the Amalfi Coast Ultra Trail:

Bring more than one litre of water OR use the natural spring taps for refilling - I was deceived by the 'water stations' on the route profile. I was not aware that some of the stations would be natural spring water taps rather than checkpoints so I passed a few without filling up and as a consequence ran out of water in the first 20km.
Wear gaiters!! They do not mention this on the kit list but the ground is so dry so a lot of the trail was on dusty paths, including some of the downhill so it completely filled my shoes up.
Bring some sort of solid food. By the end of the day I was craving for something solid! I was so sick of my gels and needed something to fill the hole in my stomach after not eating anything for 18 hours.
Have a bright head torch. I made the mistake of not buying an expensive one and spent 6 hours in dark without a strong light. Don't forget there are so few people in the race that you will most likely be on your own in the dark at some point so can't rely on the light of other peoples head torches.
Don't carry too much extra weight on gloves and jackets as recommended on the gear list. It was high 20s, even at 4:00 in the morning so I only needed one layer.
If you don't want to be alone in the dark at the end, buddy up with someone in front or behind you. It will really help with morale towards the end of the race.
Watch where you are going!!! It's seriously easy to get lost and with so few people doing the race you really have to rely on your own directions and route awareness.
Prepare to be slow. This is the steepest race I have done and it seemed next to impossible to run up or down some of the sections.
Stair train! There were so many flipping steps you wouldn't believe!
Make the most of the views and have fun!

My kit for the race:
X-Bionic Trik T-Shirt, Pink

Lululemon Skort, Yellow

Injinji Socks

New Balance Leadville 100 Shoes, v2

CompressSport Visor

Mountain King, Trail Blaze Trekking Poles, Pink