England’s First Underground Marathon: A Unique Race Experience

In Portsmouth, athletes are preparing for a historic UK first: a marathon conducted entirely underground. This race will lead participants deep beneath Portsdown Hill, into the former Royal Navy bunkers that were once utilized to track the movements of allied forces during D-Day. The concept originated from Sussex Trail Events, an organization recognized for its unconventional races, drawing inspiration from Germany’s Kristallmarathon, which takes place in a former salt mine. The group has previously organized events in various improbable settings, such as prisons, a pier, and a multi-storey car park. This prompts the question of whether the upcoming underground marathon represents their most unusual race to date. Jay McCardle, who co-founded Sussex Trail Events in 2012 with fellow running enthusiasts Danny Cunnett and Chris Ette, commented, “It’s up there.” He added, “But, because it was a one-off and it’s quite difficult to get a multi-storey car park, I think that’s actually the one people talk about the most.” This memorable 2017 event saw 60 participants complete laps within a disused car park located in their hometown of Worthing, West Sussex. Ultra runner Mark Johnston, with a total of 248 marathons completed, holds the distinction of being the sole individual to have participated in every one of Jay, Danny, and Chris’s unconventional races. He stated, “They could put on a race in a phone box and I’d turn up.” He further remarked, “You can run around the city centre every day but this is a privilege, being able to go around prisons and car parks and museums.” He concluded, “It’s exciting.” Mark, a resident of Brighton, identified the Night at the Museum in December 2023 as the most surreal event, where participants ran laps inside the Bovington Tank Museum in Dorset. He recounted, “One minute you’d be running through the trenches in the dark with all the banging and screaming, then in the next bit they were playing Christmas music.” Laura Watts, another ultra athlete, concurred, stating that “the Tank Museum was the craziest.” She added, “My Garmin didn’t work in there so I had no idea how far I’d gone but it was great.” She further commented, “There was so much to look at, I wanted to stop and look at all the tanks.” Laura, who hails from Bognor Regis, holds the distinction of being the only woman to have completed the renowned Badwater Ultra in Death Valley on three separate occasions. Despite participating in races globally, she asserts that none have matched the peculiarity or strangeness of running along Southend Pier or within a museum. She expressed, “I love that extreme bonkers side of things.” She continued, “I don’t know how they come up with some of these races – it’s just brilliant.” She concluded, “I think Southend Pier is one of my favourites – you can see people and there’s lots to look at – it went really quickly.” The Portsdown bunkers, identified as UGHQ, were constructed beneath Fort Southwick in 1942 and are currently utilized for military-themed combat games. Participants will complete 90 laps of the tunnel network, which includes several 20-meter sections where taller individuals may need to bend down. Jay stated, “The lights will be going different colours to add to the sensory deprivation.” He added, “One of the tunnels is unlit completely so they have to have cycle helmets and headtorches.” Mark commented, “You are going to be laughing all the way around.” He continued, “If I wasn’t 5ft 6in, it would be tricky – a couple of guys are 6ft 4in so it will be a bit different for them.” The most recent event, held at Dorchester Prison on 2 November, featured two 26.2-mile races within the disused Victorian jail, with the second race taking place in darkness. David Andrewartha, from Hayle, Cornwall, secured victory in the daytime race, completing it in approximately four hours and 24 minutes, notably while dressed in an orange mankini. The course comprised 55 laps, incorporating hundreds of steps on narrow metal staircases, which led David to reconsider his training approach. He explained, “I live on a plantation that’s got steps so I’d been hitting 200 reps of these steps for an hour-and-a-half solid every other day.” Mark, having completed both the daytime and nighttime races, acknowledged that it was “hard.” He added, “It got quite gutty by the end.” The organizers have also previously arranged a 5k race in flip-flops, a marathon conducted on treadmills, and another marathon on a school’s 400m grass track. Plans for the upcoming year are already underway, with a request for suggestions issued to enthusiasts of quirky races, providing illustrative examples such as “a roundabout, block of flats, football pitch, runway.” They maintain that any references to events at a Greggs or Tesco were made in jest, though determining their boundaries can be challenging. Chris Ette, currently residing in Dorset, stated, “We’re just looking for obscure areas and fun places to run in that would be totally different for runners, give them a whole new experience.” He continued, “We’ve got lots of other ideas. We are always looking for new venues and always asking runners for ideas and we try to make it happen.” When questioned about whether the trio organizes any conventional races, he laughed and responded, “No, we don’t, actually.” For further updates, BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight can be followed on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram. Copyright 2024 BBC. All rights reserved. The BBC bears no responsibility for the content of external websites. Information regarding their approach to external linking is available.