The Intertidal

The Intertidal is a point-to-point challenge across Jersey's south-east coast, starting at the slipway beside Rhona's Café in Gorey and finishing roughly 16 miles away at St Aubin's Yacht Club. Rather than following a fixed, marked route, runners choose their own line between six fixed checkpoints, at Seymour Tower, Icho Tower, Green Island, Havre des Pas, Elizabeth Castle and St Aubin's Fort, collecting a token at each. The entire course runs through the foreshore and intertidal zone, ground that is normally submerged and only exposed during Jersey's exceptionally large low tides, among the biggest in the world. Underfoot conditions vary constantly between firm sand, rocky outcrops, seaweed-covered reef and soft, sucking mud, with the terrain changing as the tide recedes and then turns. There is no fixed elevation profile in the conventional sense, but the shifting, uneven surface makes for a physically demanding crossing.