Chris runs ultras

The North Downs Ridge is a 50 km trail race that consists of two out-and-back routes along the North downs and the nearby town of Dorking, Surrey.

This race was my first in 2024 and was intended as an easy, warm up, long run before I take on the Marathon des Sables in April. It was a significant part of my training and I was not in shape to run it hard or fast. For this reason the pressure was off, it was just a useful ‘time on feet’ training session. Or, it was supposed to be..

You see, I had turned up to the race with no shoelaces or soles in my shoes! How could I make such a mistake? Well, I had removed the insoles and shoelaces before I sent the shoes away to have a velcro lining sewn into them so that my desert gaiters could be attached to them via the velcro. When I got the shoes back I attached the gaiters to the shoes without replacing the insoles or shoelaces and forgot about them until I turned up to the race and took off the gaiters to put the shoes on.

So this was going to be the challenge of this race!

I managed to fashion some laces out of a couple of unused lanyards tied all the way around my shoes, so at least the shoes would stay on my feet, and so I ran the race. Slowly and carefully.

Upon leaving the Denbies vineyard the course immediately climbs up on to the ridge of the North Downs.

This morning was particularly foggy, though, and restricted the views significantly for the first couple of hours until the sun warmed the fog away for a few hours. 

The first 40 km was all on the North Downs – well-trodden, undulating trail, mostly through covered woodland and sand paths. This is a contrast to the South Downs which are almost entirely open country field paths with chalky hills and cliffs. 

The last 10km was on a mix of concrete paths and trail. This was the second of the two out-and-backs, which was not on the North Downs but was still out amongst woodland and fields. Most of the road running occurred during this last section which was when the pain in my feet was at it’s worst. 

Time tracking was performed using timing dibbers that i hung around my kneck. Every check point I would put the dibber into a machine to tag my arrival. 

I officially finished the race in 6 hours. My body felt relatively good, so I knew I paced the race well and would likely be able to continue training the following week. My feet, though, were shredded and I spent the next couple of days popping and re-popping blisters under most of my toe-nails. 

I would recommend this race to newcomers. The two relatively short out-and-backs and the numerous aid stations mean you are always close to support. The race also gives you a bit of everything that trail running has to offer: hard-packed trail, a bit of technical, uneven paths, flat long sections, roads, and steep hills.