The trip

Sri Lanka was the 25th country in which I ran a marathon, or more hiked in this case.

Ciara and I had planned to go to the Seychelles, Madagascar and the Mauritius for our honeymoon. However, a military coup in Madagascar a few weeks before we were set to visit through a spanner in the works. After a lot of consideration and replanning, we ended up cancelling the whole trip and going to Sri Lanka and the Maldives instead.

We flew out of Heathrow on the 30th of October and landed into Colombo the next morning. This was two weeks after my IT band hand flared up in Romania. We spent a night in the city then caught the train to Kandy in the morning. After two nights there and a full day tour up to Sigiriya with a few stops on the way, we were on another train to Ella.

Ella would be my site for the run. It was very touristy and I thought the trail paths and relatively quiet roads would make it a better option than either of the bigger cities we passed through. I wanted to get it done and out of the way, but on the first morning I slept through my alarm slightly on and missed the first and coolest hour after sunrise. As we only got in to Ella late the night before and I didn’t know the area at all, I very quickly decided to not run that morning and shift it to the next morning, having a calmer relaxed explore with Ciara on day 1.

Morning 2 came and I was up and ready. I set off not long after the sun was up and started running on the nicely empty roads. I had a smile on my face running through the beautiful hills, but that smile would be gone before my watch hit mile 2.

My IT band started tightening up and hurting and I knew immediately that I wouldn’t be able to run for much longer. So after 15 minutes or so I slowed my stride and sadly had both feet on the ground. More than 24 miles and God knows how many hours laid ahead of me and I had to accept the reality that this wouldn’t be a run.

I turned around not long after and headed back down the road I’d chosen as the first route, back towards our hotel. I was kindly re-greeted by some dogs now showing a lot more teeth and growling much more aggressively than they were when I passed them moments earlier. The adrenaline of slowly creeping past the two blocking the road ahead (trapped by the one behind who gave me a false sense of security by letting me past then starting the barking) completely got rid of the IT band pain, but sadly that high was short lived.

I took a detour past the iconic nine arch bridge and walked the tracks back to the centre of town. I approached 6 miles and stopped in the hotel to update Ciara on the situation. I’d carry on for a while on my own, then we’d walk together to see some of the sites, then I’d finish off the required miles on my own.

So the next stint began and I followed the tracks away from town and the bridge towards Ella rock. Hills were not fun, up or down, so the flat tracks had the potential to be a safe haven. However, sleepers spaced about 2/3 of a comfortable stride apart and a lack of consistent path alongside the tracks meant that this wasn’t a very enjoyable place to walk either. I turned off the track and began the walk up to Ella rock but turned around as soon as it got too steep to minimise further strain on my IT band. The locals I passed twice I. Quick succession must have thought I was either lost or some sort of record climber.

It was then back to the hotel and out with Ciara. We effectively repeated my route so far but with slight changes. We turned off my first road earlier and made it most of the way up Little Adam’s Peak before the incline limited that option as well. We then followed the tracks back to a waterfall on the way to Ella rock. It was very helpful to have some company during the very long day.

After Ciara went back to the hotel for lunch, I decided to head back towards Little Adam’s Peak because the road there and the part of the path we’d already done offered the smoothest surface to ‘sprint finish’. On the road, a Tuk Tuk pulled over next to me and the guy driving asked if I spoke English. Thinking that they were lost tourist, I was slightly confused as to why they’d ask another (lost in a certain way) tourist for directions. Turns out George and Harriet had seen me on the morning and then again at that moment. Utterly perplexed, they had to stop me and ask what I was doing. After a brief chat they were off on their way and so was I slowly in the other direction. Thank you the pair of you if you ever read this because that simple conversation helped me out of the mental hole that I was falling in to.

I carried on up to the same turnaround point as before and made a few more miles out of the walk to get to the full marathon. It was a very tough day and I was glad to have it done. Ciara and I enjoyed enjoyed a few more days in Sri Lanka with a quick safari then back to Colombo to catch our flight to the Maldives.

Evidence