South Downs Way
Matthew Holt completed the South Downs Way race, which started at 6am on Saturday. The race is 100 miles taking in the entire South Downs Way National Trail with rolling hills, ancient forts, picturesque villages and expansive views across Southern England. The race had 400 entries, of which 305 finished. Matthew completed the race in an amazing 25 hours 25 minutes to finish 185th overall, 165th Male and 87th in his age category. Matt’s race report is below:
I was among 400 runners who competed at the South Downs 100 mile race at the weekend, the route starts in Winchester and finishes in Eastbourne. The race is one of a few worldwide that are selected as a qualifier race of the Western States 100, a race held every year in America and made famous in Scott Jurek’s book Eat & Run. Since reading that book, I’ve always fancied having a go, so hence the reason for travelling South. I also quite fancied seeing a different part of the country.
The course starts with a 3 mile lap of Matterley Bowl (a natural amphitheatre) and surrounding estate, and is where General Eisenhower addressed American troops before setting off for D-Day landings. The course then joined the official national trail of the South Downs Way. With 85% of the course on trails, the ground was quite soft and muddy for most of the first half due to rain from the previous few days. This was nice as the feet were protected from the hardness of a bone-dry path, plus we had a really heavy downpour around 12pm, which had most of us reaching for our waterproof jackets. After that, the course had dried out, and you could feel the impact on your feet in the last 20 miles.
I couldn’t have started or finished without Jill. She supported me and had to endure a 7 hour drive (accidents on A1 etc delayed our progress) on the Friday to get to Winchester, she was with me for most of Saturday while I ran, and then grabbed a few hours sleep before driving me back from Eastbourne on Sunday. As with most long distance runs, the support crew make all the difference. While on the course, Jill would run out to meet me, then would run back to prepare fresh clothing to change in to or prep food and drink. just knowing someone is waiting for you at the next station is a real lift. I was pleased with the overall race, I set out with just to finish within the 30 hour cutoff (as I always do over this distance as nothing can be taken for granted), but was really happy with a sub 26 hour finish (my time was 25 hours 25 minutes) which was a target time of mine.
In all the course had 12700 foot of ascent, not as hilly as a lot of 100 milers, but enough… especially the last two climbs which came in the last 15 miles. These started off quite steep but then just continued as a gentle incline for almost 1.5 to 2 miles each in total. When I did a recce of the last 36 miles in March, the majority of these inclines were runnable, but not for me on race day with 85 miles in my legs. If you want to experience similar terrain but more locally, I would recommend the Hardwolds 80 race which covers the Yorkshire Wolds Way.
The race is organised by Centurion Running, and the set up from registration to finish is excellent. They look after the runners really well, with quick check in for numbers to 13 aid stations along the way. Each station has a wide variety of drinks including water / orange juice / tailwind / coke and then tea and coffee from midway point. The food options are great too with sandwiches, wraps, melon, banana, orange, chocolate, crisps, etc. The thing I liked was the fresh fruit, which is not easy to keep in an edible state while carrying it in a race vest over a long time. I would recommend there races to anyone looking for a change of scenery and for an event that is professionally run.