The fifteenth edition of the Thames Path 100 took three hundred runners from Richmond Upon Thames, London to Oxford University in a maximum time limit of 30 hours. Our 2026 100 mile season opener.
The race has always been one of the landmark long races in the early part of the race season, with first time 100 milers, some of the most prolific ultrarunners in the land and lots of international competitors too.
All Pictures c/o Richard Gilly
The weather was set to be a real mixed bag, in the end a sunny and humid first day gave way to heavy showers in the early evening. Before turning dry and warm through the whole of Sunday, making for generally good going throughout.
The course itself is almost flat and with good underfoot conditions as we had this year - extremely fast, taking in the best of life along the river.
The day got off to its usual emotive start following on from a speech from the parents of Ed Catmur - a past champion of this event whom we remember fondly each year and in honour of whom special awards are given out to the fastest newcomer male and female athlete.
The four early front runners in the womens race
The womens race looked strong and deep in the preview and that turned out to be spot on. The racing was close, competitive and fast. Initially it was South African athlete Jana De Waal who led the way but Northern Ireland international 100km runner Karla Borland forged into the lead right through Cookham at mile 38 and never really looked back. But she was pursued hotly by Jana and behind of them, Zoe Smith in her first 100 miler was going well as expected. Once Jana dropped at Purley, it became seemingly a two horse race, but Karla ran an impressive second half, stopping with crew rather than at check points and executed a brilliant second half to finish in 17:21 for the win. That puts her seventh on the all time fastest womens times at this event.
Karla Borlan
Zoe held on for a really solid second place in 18:00:10 and in the process took home the Ed Catmur award for fastest first-time 100 miler. Third place went to Laura Ricci from the US in 20:33.
Zoe Smith
The mens race took on a very different shape with Will Collie and James Bennett heading out way off of the front and gapping the field by several miles. However Will stopped at Cookham with a shin issue and James dropped back into the pack, allowing the eventual strongest protagonists to forge to the front.
Matt Gallagher and Sergey Ionov were the fastest two through the 100km mark seemingly running together, but coming into the final drop bag point at Goring mile 70, Matt had pulled out a small lead. Having finished fourth here as well as in our other 100 milers several times, it was clear he was enjoying the opportunity and determined to take it. Smiling, he headed off onto the final 50km section and grew his lead out to come home with a winning margin of 30 minutes over Sergey, in 15:39. A fitting result for a man who has been as consistent as he has.
Matt Gallagher
Sergey ran a brilliant race and the past GUCR champion came home second in 16:09, but was missing an item of mandatory kit which cost him a one hour time penalty. Fortunately for him, he had run so well that he'd gapped third place, held equally by Guido Pastore and Francesco Sgarlata by a huge amount. The two Italian's crossed the line together in 17:40.
James Mcdonald took the Ed Catmur award for fastest newcomer in 18:41.
Ed Catmur award winner James Mcdonald together with Ed's parents, Richard and Ginny who presented the awards
In the age categories there were some fine performances, but the stand out result came from Jan Payne.
In the mens age cats, first MV40 was Matt Gallagher also the race winner of course. First MV50 went to Stefan Pracht in 20:17. First MV60 to Simon Best in 23:14. First MV70 to Iain Walker in 26:19, our only finisher in that category.
In the womens age cats, first FV40 went to Zoe Smith who was second overall. First FV50 to Louise Langmead in 21:21. First FV60 to Helen Sawyer in 25:21.
Jan Payne
Jan Payne came into the race one of the very few FV70 category athletes ever to take on a 100 mile race. We knew she had a great shot at finishing, she had previously had success here as an FV60 runner but she knew she had to focus throughout, remain efficient at check points and keep the pace as high as she could realistically sustain. Running with partner Rob Treadwell, she built a gap over the cut offs early on and held it there, putting a finish seemingly beyond doubt from relatively early in the race. As she closed in on the finish she had time to enjoy the final miles. It's her energy and enthusiasm that refelect in an amazing, strong attitude and allow her to compete at these longer events to such a high level into later years. Jan became the first FV70 finisher we have had in a Centurion 100 mile event - this was our 66th. Her time of 27:48 was not only well inside the new cut off of 30 hours but under the old one of 28 hours too of course. Hopefully a performance that will inspire many more to try.
Exactly 200 runners crossed the line in Oxford bringing to a close a fantastic weekend on the Thames.
117 volunteers made this event possible - our deepest thanks to every single one of them for their dedication, time and energy in making it the race it was. Huge thanks to our sponsors and partners too for getting our 100 mile season underway in such successful fashion. On to the next one!
