Centurion Ultramarathon Blog

Runners will arrive at Washington via the alternative SDW route as explained in the course page, bringing them to the Village Hall which will be the major aid station/ half way point in the race. On exiting the Village Hall runners will run uphill on School Lane and be brought to a T Junction with a road called 'The Street' where you will turn left. 300 yards later you will come to a T Junction and turning right there brings you immediately to a sign post on the road side detailing 'SDW Alternative Route' and showing you a path through a field. Making your way over the stile and up a steep path through some woodland, you are brought out a short while later on to a chalk track, at which point you are back on the SDW proper. This route emerges just above Washington Car Park. The climb here is short but severe and running it wil leave you winded. After a few switch backs you are brought out onto a path leading up around Chantonbury Ring, a lovely smooth and open meadow at the top of the downs. Runners who have run the Three Forts Marathon will recognise this as a reverse of the route over that stretch. Continuing on through the other side of the meadow, another descent follows as you look down onto Steyning to the left and Steyning Bowl to the right - the scene for the Steyning Stinger Marathon held each March. 

Runners follow the path alongside the road here and having passed Steyning Bowl, make a left down the hill into the village of Botolphs. The track comes out on to a road at which point you turn right, heading down the hill. Through the village, the SDW becomes tarmac for a short stretch before cutting off left as you reach the end of the houses, heading up to a footbridge over the river Adur. Once across the bridge, you will be brought out to a public water tap adjacent to a layby off of the busy Shoreham Road. This is the site of Botophs Aid Station. Washington Aid Station to Botolphs Aid Station is 7.15 miles.

Leaving the layby runners must take EXTREME CARE in crossing the busy Shoreham Road. Directly opposite the end of the path on the left hand side of the carriageway, the South Downs Way continue uphill on the other side. The track is rutted and rocky here and a gradual climb here quicly becomes a steep ascent. Through a field at the top and you find yourself on the tarmac again on route to Tottington Barn and a Youth Hostel where there is another public tap. At the top continue straight ahead on the wide path, passing by Truleigh Hill and the Radio Station. The track then drops steeply downhill again the terrain is rocky here, and comes to a gate at the bottom. Turning right through the gate you make your way uphill and around the edge of a field to another gate at the far end. Turning right through that gate sends you up a steep short climb to Devils Dyke, some of the most fantastic views the downs afford. 

Devils Dyke is 4.25 miles from Botolphs and there are public buses from there down to Brighton.

A common mistake at this point is to head through to Devils Dyke Car Park and visitor centre. The correct path stays well to the right of the buildings and heads up alongside the road. You cross over a small road once past the buildings and immediately downhill through some woodland and then more steeply down a more open track. You come out at the bottom into a gravel car park where the SDW crosses another busy road. Take EXTREME CARE here and make your way into the Farm opposite - the site of the Saddlescombe Farm aid station. If you follow the SDW exactly at this point you will miss the aid station, it is in fact nestled to the right against the barns and farm buildings but will be signed on race day. If you hit a gate the other side of Saddlescombe Farm and begin to climb, you have gone too far. Saddlescombe Farm Aid Station is 5.45 miles from Botolphs. 

On leaving the aid station, you proceed back up through said gate and climb up West Hill, another steep ascent. It does not last long however before you are descending with the busy A23 ahead - the road from London to Brighton and vice versa. There is a footbridge over the road, and you come out the other side up a short road (blocked as a dead end) into Poynings Village. Through the village brings you down to the Pyecombe Road where there is another public tap. At this point you run up with the road on your right but must then cross taking EXTREME CARE the busy road here, heading up the hill past the Golf Club. Between the various gof holes either side, the path is chalky and rocky and climbs slowly to bring you out at the top onto a left hand turn. Continuing slightly downhill, you are brough to a finger post indicating Jack and Jill (Clayton Windmills) left and SDW right. You must at this point and as per the course instructions, take the left turn down into the Windmills Car Park to the aid station. The distance from Saddlescombe to the Windmills aid station is just 3 miles - the shortest distance between two aid stations. 

Link to Garmin Read out here.

It's about this time of year that the racing season starts to really ramp up both at home and abroad. The bigger US and European races rely on the snow to clear over the mountain passes in order to safely hold their events ie. Western States, UTMB, Hardrock, Leadville etc but here in the UK it seems that the major races all cluster around the summer months too with a healthy spring build up which commences around now. It is almost impossible to keep track with the number or new races emerging on to the calender, but there certainly seems to be room for them all in what is undoubtedly a boom time for both UK and global ultrarunning. The international races enjoy a huge amount of coverage at present and hopefully it's just a matter of time before some of our UK races become a big draw for the international runners too. 

Our Thames Path 100 was designed to put a longer race a little earlier into the calender and to give UK runners a chance to try their hand at the 100 mile distance before some of the more arduous summer events which tend to have a lot of elevation gain/loss thrown into the mix just to make things harder, after all 100 miles isn't that far is it? Just this past weekend, however, we had what is surely to become another classic of the ultra-calender, the 147 mile Viking Way Ultra organised by Mark Cockbain. With only 7 finishers from a total of 28 starters under the 40 hour cut, clearly it's a race to be reckoned with. Only the 250 mile Thames Ring out shines it from a non-stop distance perspective here in the UK. I hope that both the TP and VW continue to enjoy enough incredible support to become permanent fixtures on the calender. 

Some of the UK's bigger sub 100 mile distance races are coming up. The Fellsman and the Highland Fling which boast enormous fields and are undoubtedly classics on the UK ultra circuit are both on the same weekend this year - April 28th. 

Come the beginning of June the longer distance stuff begins to kick in, Hardmoors 110 and the Grand Union Canal Race, two more classics both fall on the first weekend of June and two more clash just three weeks later, the new UTSW and much loved and well established West Highland Way Race. Our own South Downs Way 100 takes place a week later over the weekend of 30th June/ 1st July and we have another very high calibre field of 200 to watch.

Into July and the Lakeland 100 remains firmly rooted as a major fixture with a massive 850 runners headed up to the lakes for either 50 or 104 miles of beautiful lake district running. Into August and our North Downs Way 50/100 races are almost full with just 50 of 300 places remaining, then of course at the end of the month is UTMB/ CCC/ TDS clashing once again with the Ridgeway - another must do run on the UK circuit. 

It certainly feels like the old guard of established 'classics' is being joined each year by newer races which quickly gather a great reputation. That we have so much choice now is incredible and long may that continue. 

From my own perspective, I was hugely inspired by the performances of all of those who finished the VW147 last weekend, particularly by Mimi Anderson who won the ladies event following on from her victory at our TP100 and by Paddy Robbins of GUCR fame and Neil Bryant who ran in for joint overall win in under 30 hours. It certainly got me thinking about my own running schedule for the summer. Last year was very much the year of the 100 miler for me but this year I've entered a handful of races over different distances and terrains which I am incredibly excited about.

In a few days time I'll be racing my first road marathon in almost two years, in an attempt to get myself a berth in one of the front pens at Comrades on June 2nd. I have done very little road running in the last year or so but having tried to fit a little more in during the past 3 weeks or so I am fairly confident that my trail fitness will translate reasonably well into road speed. I needed a few sessions to get the leg turnover back up again but I have been pleasantly suprised at how quickly it came back. 

Two weeks later I'll be up at the 53 mile Highland Fling. I'm running the longer big brother of the event - the 95 mile West Highland Way Race - in late June and I am really looking forward to seeing for myself a trail which seems to captivate everybody who sets foot on it. 

On May 12th, Neil Bryant and I will be running the South Downs Way from East to West, starting in Eastbourne around lunchtime and hopefully making Winchester around the same time the following day. I'm finding as time goes on and having had the priviledge of running some of the bigger international races, that I am much more excited at the prospect of longer self supported journeys - something I didn't think I would get round to for a while longer. Neil has already completed non-stop efforts over the Cotswold Way and Offas Dyke Paths (the latter in winter) and recently had a crack at the SDW which ended at mile 88. I'm really looking forward to just getting out there with somebody as talented and easy going as Neil and running my favourite trail without the pressure of time or schedules and just enjoying the SDW for what it is. 

So 5 very different runs all 2 or 3 weeks apart leading up to July and hopefully bringing me out to peak fitness in time for  my two A races: UTMB and Spartathlon. Whether I run the latter depends on how I come through the first. I feel that Sparta deserves more respect that I am able to give it this year, certainly when I ran Badwater which by all accounts is similar on the difficulty scale, I built up all year to that one race. But there's a lot of running to do between now and then....

There are so many other races I haven't been able to mention but certainly my eye is still on the longer stuff this year and we'll be trying to ensure those of you that have put in for our races are left with great experiences that will last a lifetime. Certainly I know that's what I'm looking and usually find each time I toe the line.....

Happy trails. 

View across Sussex from Clayton Windmills on the SDW