![]() That's the limit of your universe," says Max Newton, a fundraising manager from Sheffield who was among the seven finishers in 2020. "The only things you have to think about are moving, eating, drinking, sleeping and going to the toilet. So how exactly do you survive a race that is deliberately designed to break you physically, mentally and emotionally? "But I do want them to go through hell to get there." The Tunnel claims another victim "I don't want there to be no finishers," says Cockbain. Of the 31 runners who started the inaugural Tunnel, only two completed it, and 13 in total in the three years it has been in existence. If you're looking to be pampered, you've come to the wrong place."Īll of which adds up to a notoriously low finish rate. You run from one end to the other in a straight line, turn around a traffic cone, come back again, and just keep going. "The Tunnel is pure, unadulterated running. "It's nice that there isn't any nonsense," he says. ![]() I wanted to make it all about the running."įor Mike Raffan, a 43-year-old IT manager from Aberdeen who finished second in 2021, that's part of the appeal. "You can get through any of these races with a bit of water and food. "I cut back on delicacies," says Cockbain in the matter-of-fact style for which he has become famous in the ultra-running community. If you're lucky, they might not be out of date. Refreshments are limited to water and tea, while the most luxurious snacks are Pot Noodles. They must all share a portable toilet which, by the end of the weekend, would not look out of place at a music festival. There is no shelter or rest area to speak of unless runners have the foresight to bring a camping chair. A fold-up table outside one end of the tunnel serves as race HQ. "As soon as I got permission to use the tunnel, it was a no-brainer." "I like things that have got an X-factor," says Cockbain, a prolific former ultra-runner who set up the Tunnel in 2019 to add to his brilliant yet brutal portfolio of events as a race organiser. It is the UK's longest foot tunnel - and the obvious setting for an ultra-marathon if your name is Mark Cockbain. "You have to stand one behind another in a queue." Runners make the most of daylight during the race briefing before spending a weekend in darknessĬombe Down was restored as a cycle path in 2013 after 47 years under weeds. "Even the start line is weird," says Mauduit. No more than 40 runners make it that far, partly because of a strict - and deliberately opaque - qualification process and largely because the tunnel is not big enough to accommodate many more. The race takes place in Combe Down Tunnel, a mile south of Bath city centre, and starts at 4pm on a Friday in March. I'm still that little kid."īettinson describes every ultra-marathon start line as a "mid-life crisis anonymous meeting". It's like a little kid - they want to see how close they can come to the fire. "If you can push your mind further than you think is possible, it's quite empowering."Ĭhristian Mauduit, a French software engineer who won the 2021 edition, says: "I'm chasing that internal adventure - that meeting with myself. You're not getting from A to B, which makes it such a massive mental challenge," says Andy Persson, another finisher that year. "I'd rather waste my weekend putting myself through misery." ![]() Or do I want to be in a dripping tunnel, tired and miserable, knowing I've got work on Monday?" Guy Bettinson, a 45-year-old programme manager from Cumbria who won the Tunnel in 2020, wonders out loud. "I could be sat on the sofa watching Strictly with the wife and kids. It is more health warning than marketing slogan. The Tunnel website external-link describes it as "a mind-bending test of extreme endurance and sensory deprivation". Oh, and there is a strict time limit of 55 hours. No outside support is permitted, headphones are banned and runners are not allowed to run side by side. But nowhere else can you take part in a race so twisted that you spend more than two days in darkness doing a one-mile shuttle run 200 times, or so punishing that one runner went temporarily blind - then thanked the race organiser for the privilege. Some even involve repeating the same loop for days on end. The Tunnel Ultra is a race like no other. That doesn't quite cut it for some people, who choose to run a 200-mile ultra-marathon in a disused railway tunnel instead.
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