There’s something about Icart
In Guernsey, there are two routes that have a special place in runners’ consciousness.
They are challenging and most importantly have history. Run them and you run in the footsteps of a community.
You will often hear people posing the tongue-in-cheek question whenever an elite posts a new world record – ‘yes, but what would they do on the…’
Fill in the blanks with the Full Course, 4.75miles around L’Ancresse, or the 5-mile Icart loop.
Icart has been a mainstay of the All Terrain Challenge throughout its 25 year history, where dreams are made and broken.
It is a benchmark run, one well trodden throughout the year with a glorious cocktail of road, green lane, cliff trails and steps – and a fabulous view at times, if the sweat dripping in your eyes and heart rate pumping out your chest allows you the chance.
The ATC owes its 1997 birth to the inspiration of other similar races in the UK – The Northumberland Castles Challenge and the Sun Life stage race, known as the Tour de France of running – and runners Paul Ingrouille (Ingy) and Marcel Le Clerc doing the Mountain Bike Tour of Guernsey the year before.
According to Ingy, they were keen to include races over different terrains, and particularly keen to have a race and a TT over the same course.
Geoff King, who remains the main organiser, Marcel, Ingy and Gary Broster used to train alot together and one route was from where Gary worked, Des Marettes Vinery near Icart.
‘We often ran a version of the Icart loop,’ said Ingy.
‘It is one of the few cliff courses that is not a clear “Out and Back” and that seemed an obvious one for both the cliff race and TT. It was not raced until then and has grown into one of the most popular cliff loops.’
The first event was mid-August, with an aim to cover a marathon distance, 26.2 miles, but it was slightly short of that.
It began with a 5000m on the track, followed by the Icart loop race, an 800m climb up Jerbourg steps, a cross-country over four miles on L’Ancresse, a four mile circuit race on the Saumarez nature trail, the Icart TT and ended with a beach race over 3.5 miles on Vazon.
Just 10 seconds separated Francis Kehoe and Marcel by the end of the week.
By 1999 the 5000m had become the Imperial to Fairy Ring 4k with a ‘devil take the hindmost’ track event from 1998 for a few years.
In 1998 the beach race was Grandes Rocques to Rousse then back to Grandes Rocques and the following year it was held in Herm.
There have been tweaks along the way, but the structure put in place in those early years still provides the basis for what is raced today.
There is a theory that your time around the Icart loop will equate to your 10k, but the ATC now throws the curve ball of having four days racing in your legs.
Yesterday race leader Will Bodkin put himself in the upper reaches of the route’s bests with 33:29.
For perspective, Steve Dawes holds the record from 2010 with 31:28, followed by Francis Kehoe (31:57) and Marcel Le Clerc (32:07) from 1997 and Ingy with 32:30 in 2002.
There was a big move on the women’s side of the 2021 edition yesterday, with Elise Bott moving into the yellow vest after running 41:13.
Elise now has a five minute lead over Mel Nicolle with previous race leader Rosie Williams in third.
Lousie Perrio has run the Icart loop in 36:55 in 2014.
Results: Icart Loop
1 Will Bodkin 33:29
2 Luke Richards 34:14
3 Chris Norman 35:09
4 Fabio Teles 35:23
5 Toby Mann 36:51
6 Paul Moriarty 37:00
7 Ben Foote 37:37
8 Matthew Atkinson 37:49
9 James De Garis 38:26
10 Samuel Goddard 38:55
11 David Mosley 38:59
12 Adam Grogan 39:21
13 Aaron Walden 39:39
14 Ross Allen 39:47
15 Michael Le Page 39:56
16 Mikey Ingrouille 40:05
17 Andy Hatton 40:21
18 Marc Isabelle 40:33
19 Daniel Legg 40:45
20 Gearoid Lee 40:59
21 Elise Bott 41:13
22 William Fish 41:21
23 Iain Bailey 41:46
24 Nick Hynes 41:52
25 Paul Hewitt 42:30
26 Dave Hockey 42:33
27 Dan Hunter 42:35
28 Sam Walden 42:52
29 Tom O’Neil 43:02
30 Tim Wilson 43:18
31 Robert Gregson 43:20
32 Melanie Nicolle 43:24
33 Hannah Fitchet 43:33
34 Steven McCracken 43:41
35 Jon Sexton 43:53
36 Derek Beatty 44:03
37 Adam Dorey 44:17
38 Michael Way 44:30
39 Jordan Smith 44:40
40 Nick Boughay 44:45
41 Jenna Jackson 44:57
42 Penny Freeman 45:50
43 Darren Rouse 46:22
44 Agris Dulbinskis 46:25
45 Jocelyn McLellan 46:28
46 Tania Shires 46:30
47 Caroline Barby 46:38
48 Peter Beausire 46:53
49 Steve Sarre 46:53
50 Paul Domaille 46:53
51 Vicki Joyce 46:54
52 Craig Collins 47:19
53 Chris ONeil 47:28
54 Natalie Finlayson 47:39
55 Angus Kirby 47:45
56 Daniella Le Flem 47:50
57 Brett Bewey 47:52
58 Katy Hodgetts 47:54
59 Lorna Castle 48:07
60 Steve Wilson 48:18
61 Rosie Williams 48:19
62 Divon Crouse 48:26
63 Andrew Sexton 48:45
64 Emma Beardsell 48:45
65 Cecil Carter 49:43
66 Ruairi Harnden 50:15
67 James Starkey 50:41
68 Matt De Carteret 47:26
69 Nathan Galliene 50:07
70 Lucy Le Cocq 50:45
71 Paul James 51:10
72 Gemma Le Sauvage 52:24
73 John Duggan 52:24
74 Suzi Druce 52:47
75 Alison Lihou 53:53
76 Harley Gavey 53:53
77 Tomas Wilkins 54:00
78 Louise Critchlow 54:14
79 Martin Boyde 54:22
80 Joe Armstrong 54:27
81 Jeanne Svejstrup 54:42
82 Paula Dodd 55:04
83 Gregory Josey 55:11
84 Laura Havard 55:15
85 Tony Veillard 55:30
86 Jemma Crouse 55:49
87 Juliette Yeaman 56:10
88 James Soden 56:29
89 Matt Mason 56:50
90 Emma Alford 56:55
91 Ali Mason 57:01
92 Susan Atkinson 57:44
93 Sam Sexton 1:00:48
94 Nicola Sharp 1:01:11
95 Darren Smith 1:01:11
96 Brendan Wilms 1:02:32
97 Maree Wilms 1:02:32
98 Terry Harnden 1:03:55
99 Cath Birnie 1:04:50
100 Alun Williams 1:11:20
101 Sam Ingrouille 1:14:17
102 Berni Gilman 1:16:34
103 Mark Finlayson 1:18:46
General Classification
Division One
1 Will Bodkin 1:31:36
2 Luke Richards 1:35:59
3 Fabio Teles 1:38:40
4 Chris Norman 1:39:55
5 Toby Mann 1:43:02
6 Ben Foote 1:43:23
7 James De Garis 1:47:03
8 Matthew Atkinson 1:47:56
9 Paul Moriarty 1:48:46
10 David Mosley 1:49:04
11 Mikey Ingrouille 1:49:29
12 Adam Grogan 1:49:57
13 Samuel Goddard 1:50:03
14 Andy Hatton 1:50:22
15 Aaron Walden 1:51:00
16 Ross Allen 1:51:09
17 Marc Isabelle 1:52:13
18 Paul Hewitt 1:55:15
Division Two
1 Michael Le Page 1:53:15
2 William Fish 1:54:11
3 Daniel Legg 1:54:31
4 Elise Bott 1:55:47
5 Gearoid Lee 1:56:14
6 Sam Walden 1:57:14
7 Iain Bailey 1:57:18
8 Nick Hynes 1:57:30
9 Adam Dorey 1:58:00
10 Dave Hockey 1:59:13
11 Dan Hunter 2:00:42
12 Melanie Nicolle 2:00:53
13 Simon March 2:01:33
14 Tim Wilson 2:01:38
15 Jon Sexton 2:01:40
16 Rosie Williams 2:02:17
17 Robert Gregson 2:02:20
18 Hannah Fitchet 2:02:33
19 Derek Beatty 2:02:49
20 Steve Wilson 2:05:32
21 Mickey Haimes 2:06:19
Division Three
1 Tom O’Neil 2:01:36
2 Steven McCracken 2:02:25
3 Michael Way 2:04:15
4 Jordan Smith 2:05:16
5 Jenna Jackson 2:05:32
6 Agris Dulbinskis 2:05:57
7 Penny Freeman 2:06:44
8 Darren Rouse 2:07:07
9 Nick Boughay 2:08:50
10 Jocelyn McLellan 2:09:17
11 Daniella Le Flem 2:09:19
12 Matt Wadley 2:10:40
13 Caroline Barby 2:10:41
14 Vicki Joyce 2:11:03
15 Chris ONeil 2:11:35
16 Angus Kirby 2:12:13
17 Jason Powers 2:12:32
Division Four
1 Tania Shires 2:10:52
2 Peter Beausire 2:11:46
3 Paul Domaille 2:12:07
4 Natalie Finlayson 2:13:17
5 Brett Bewey 2:13:46
6 Lorna Castle 2:14:06
7 Steve Sarre 2:14:22
8 Emma Beardsell 2:14:34
9 James Starkey 2:14:43
10 Craig Collins 2:15:25
11 Ruairi Harnden 2:15:54
12 Katy Hodgetts 2:16:06
13 Andrew Sexton 2:16:22
14 Divon Crouse 2:16:26
15 Cecil Carter 2:17:02
16 Luc Blanchard 2:21:13
Division Five
1 Matt De Carteret 2:16:32
2 Nathan Galliene 2:21:12
3 Paul James 2:21:31
4 Lucy Le Cocq 2:24:49
5 Gemma Le Sauvage 2:25:14
6 John Duggan 2:28:21
7 Martin Boyde 2:28:24
8 Suzi Druce 2:28:57
9 Paula Dodd 2:30:54
10 Tomas Wilkins 2:31:26
11 Jeanne Svejstrup 2:32:38
12 Harley Gavey 2:32:59
13 Alison Lihou 2:34:24
14 Matt Mason 2:35:39
15 Laura Havard 2:35:57
16 Nicola Sharp 2:36:48
17 Darren Smith 2:37:43
18 Juliette Yeaman 2:37:43
19 Isabelle Mariess 2:45:02
Division Six
1 Joe Armstrong 2:35:15
2 Gregory Josey 2:36:23
3 Louise Critchlow 2:36:35
4 Ali Mason 2:38:01
5 James Soden 2:39:34
6 Jemma Crouse 2:39:38
7 Emma Alford 2:40:49
8 Susan Atkinson 2:42:53
9 Tony Veillard 2:43:10
10 Sam Sexton 2:48:53
11 Maree Wilms 2:51:48
12 Brendan Wilms 2:53:50
13 Terry Harnden 2:55:26
14 Cath Birnie 2:59:21
15 Alun Williams 3:06:53
16 Sam Ingrouille 3:11:24
17 Mark Finlayson 3:19:16
18 Berni Gilman 3:22:31
