An amazing, record breaking day on the South Downs Way for our 50 milers, taking on the fourteenth edition of this event and second race of 2026.
424 starters - an almost identical start rate to last year, but with 402 runners over the finish line (some as little as 3 seconds inside the cut off but more on that below!) instead of the 365 last year. Main difference, a mighty tailwind for most of the journey as opposed to a hefty wind against. Up on the exposed ridge it was near perfect running weather if a little gusty at times for some!
Listen to our post-race recap podcast here, also available via all good platforms
The womens race saw a toe to toe battle over the first couple of hours with 2024 Beachy Head Marathon Champ Amelie Karlsson and 2025 Wendover Woods 50 Champ Veronika Gill, almost together through CP1. As the day wore on Veronika called it a day 55km in with increasing shin pain, opting to save herself for the TP100 in three weeks time. But Amelie was already forging a sizeable gap by that stage over the rest of the field. Now in second place was Hayley Green in her first race with us and Katie Brazier, who amazingly ran the SDW1 13 years ago as a 9 year old and who looked like she might just close the 2 miles or so to Hayley in the final stages.
Amelie Karlsson
In the end Amelie motored over the line looking completely untroubled in a second fastest all time 7:02, missing out on Julia Davis's course record by just 8 minutes. Hayley hung on to second in 7:34 and Katie took third in 7:47.
Katie Brazier
The mens race shaped up differently, with 2025 second place finisher Matt Hammerton going out hard with David Green - 2025 Autumn 100 second place his last ultra outing. The two gradually shed the rest of the field and it became a real tactical battle with Matt filling flasks from SDW public taps to save seconds in one or two of the check points. He took a small lead out of Housedean Farm, the marathon mark, and stretched it to a maximum of four minutes going into the final third of the race. From there, David ran at least as strong and pushed Matt all the way. With the final miles coming into view, it was only then that the dream of breaking Tom Evans' 8 year old course record of 5:44 finally faded for the pair. Matt crossed the line first in 5:47 for the second fastest 50 mile trail performance we have seen in 14 years of racing. David came across four minutes later in 5:51 to put himself third on the same list. Third place went to Paul Grieve in 6:32, who dug deep to fend off a large group of guys all pressing home to finish in 7 hours or less.
Mens Podium Left to Right: David Green, Matt Hammerton, Paul Grieve
The most astonishing part of this race perhaps however, were the age group performances.
First FV40 went to fifth place overall Laura Watts - a now five time finisher of this race. The FV50 award went to Claire Howard - who actually bested all the FV40s too and came home in 7:54. That was an age cat record of 45 minutes! She was also fourth overall. First FV60 went to Elaine Battson in 10:50.
Claire Howard
In the mens, records also tumbled.
First MV40 went to Matt Hammerton also first overall. First MV50 went to Andy Day in 7:00:27. First MV60 in a huge new record went to David Justin Baird-Murray in 7:56, a 20 minute record which he took from a man who set a huge new MV70 best just an hour later. David Prince-Iles ran 8:58 as a new mark in his first outing in the MV70 category.
As the day wore on, it was PB central in the windy, overcast and fast conditions. One runner missed the final cut off at the 46 mile aid station at Jevington, leaving a group of four at the back of the pack, seemingly likely to miss out on an official finish under the 13 hour cut off, some of them by mere seconds. But with less than 45 seconds left in the race, first one, then two and three almost together came over the line, leaving just Tabitha Codd sprinting for the line. She crossed with 2 seconds to spare in 12:59:57, leaving us the perfect end to a brilliant day. Thank goodness for that!
A huge thanks as always to our team of over 80 volunteers, staff, course markers and sweepers who made all of this possible once again.
