This weekend was the Chiltern Ridge Ultra – a 50km race with 920m of ascent – and 2 UTMB points for those ready to take on the wet, wild and windy weather!

The race was brilliantly organised by the family team at Runaway Racing. Chris and Caitlin’s goal has always been to get more people enjoying trail running – with a focus on drawing people out of London to experience what great trails there are to run close to the city. This makes their events very accessible, kind and informal – with loads of support and help. There were a lot of first time ultra-runners in the small field (135 starters – with a 70%/30% split male/female).

Whilst Friday had been a beautiful day, Saturday brought a big storm system – which meant most of the runners were in waterproof jackets (although those who started in longs had generally shed them by the end of the day). And whilst there was some mud, there was not so much that people needed running gaiters – just good trail shoes for the mix of slippery chalk, mud and well packed paths. Poles were allowed, and some runners were using them, but relatively few. Most runners rated their sock and shoe choices as the most important kit choices – and related past experiences of how they had found their optimum shoes and socks.

As always with ultra-running, the art is nutrition and hydration. I was marshal at the final checkpoint – 10km from the end, and runners were very much on top of both.

In the end there were 133 finishers, with the winning male time of 3:49:45 and a new female course record of 4:33:52. The middle of the field was around 6 hours and the final finishers were 8:16:43. Participants were predominantly relatively local, but some had travelled some distance – possibly as this was the first race for well over a year for almost all of them! So in spite of the weather, there was a party atmosphere with local Mad Squirrel Brewery beers and the pizza van at the end!

I would very much recommend this race, and there is the half on 11th July 2021: 21.4km with 542m of elevation change: check out the website for details: https://chilternridgehalf.com/