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Whether he’s heading out for a Parkrun, or leading home one of Guernsey’s cliff racing icons, Ethan Woodhead is simply enjoying his running.
The 22-year-old’s approach is not exactly textbook.
Two days before finishing sixth in the Standard Chartered Jersey Marathon in 2:40.39, he was finishing second in the Saumarez Park 5K (16:17).
On Sunday, he comfortably led home The Dogbreaker, a 15-mile run that covers the length of the cliffs from Havelet to Pleinmont. The day before, he was setting a new PB for the Guernsey Parkrun course.
And all this off of a training volume that is a fraction of what you would expect from a typical endurance runner.
“At the moment, I throw myself at everything. Every chance I get, I run,” said Woodhead when asked about the thought the process behind backing up the Park 5K and Jersey Marathon.
“I should really start thinking about these things,” he joked.
Woodhead was the second Channel Islander home in Jersey, one place behind fellow Guernseymen Steve Dawes, knocking three minutes off his previous best.
“I wanted sub-three [hours]. I didn’t expect to get a PB because I did the Donkey Drop a couple of months ago and that didn’t do my knees any good so I haven’t been running much.”
He covered 75 miles in Distance.gg’s Donkey Drop, an endurance challenge that sets runners off to complete a loop on the hour every hour until they can take no more.
It is another example of the range in Woodhead’s armoury.
The opening five miles in Jersey challenged him, climbing for much of the time: “I was thinking ‘this is not what I wanted’. I was hurting.”
There’s a common school of thought that the marathon really begins at 20-miles, it’s where the effort and energy you’ve expended catches up.
But as he descended down the wooded Railway Walk and along the cycle path at St Ouen it he last few miles, Woodhead was feeling better than he did in the opening stages.
Sunday’s Dogbreaker was his first win in a Guernsey Athletics race.
He crossed the line in 1:51.27, some 12 minutes ahead of runner-up, Chris Norman.
It was, you could have guessed, a late decision to enter.
“I couldn’t help myself.”
A plan to simply sit in the lead pack was out the window as early as Jerbourg when he found himself out front alone.
Inexperienced on the cliffs, pacing was always a challenge, but in the end, he comfortably out ran the two hour target he had set himself.
“I didn’t expect that at all.”
Running is in the family, but it is only really last year that Woodhead has taken it up consistently.
He is something of a Parkrun tourist, loving the community that surrounds it: “It’s just something I have to do when I go to a new place. It’s like picking up a magnet.”
But - he is embarrassed to say - is not following much of a training plan, while averaging about 35km a week.
To put that in perspective, good club runners would cover that sort of distance on one Sunday run while preparing for a marathon.
“I'm trying to find a coach or going down to Guernsey Athletics because I do need some guidance at the moment. Currently, I'm just waking up and I'll do a 10k or, you know, do 10 miles or whatnot. There's no thought into it.”
Woodhead is keen that running doesn’t become a chore, but hopes that with some focus an Island Games appearance could be possible.
He is also dabbling in triathlons.
“It's nice to do the swimming and the cycling on the side and it relieves the pressure a bit on the running. So it all balances out. I love triathlons. And again, it's a good community down there. Everyone's so nice.”
Pictured top: Ethan Woodhead during The Dogbreaker. Picture by Phil Nicolle.
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